Steve Jobs passed away today and I was surprised by how much it affected me. I was saddened when I read the news, knowing that someone I was so used to seeing and reading about was no more. He was a visionary who built groundbreaking products, but I was most inspired by the speech he gave at a Stanford graduation in 2005 where he implored the graduating class to “stay hungry, stay foolish.” In the speech, he spoke so candidly and passionately about how our time is finite; that we’ll all die and because of this inevitability, we should follow our dreams with vigor and passion.
I was just reading a CNN article about his life and realized that Jobs was a minimalist. The article stated:
Jobs famously lured John Sculley, the PepsiCo president, to run Apple by saying: “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?” (They had a permanent falling out when Jobs was booted from Apple.)
“What makes Steve’s methodology different from everyone else’s is that he always believed the most important decisions you make are not the things you do, but the things you decide not to do,” Sculley said in a 2010 interview with Businessweek. “He’s a minimalist. I remember going into Steve’s house, and he had almost no furniture in it. He just had a picture of Einstein, whom he admired greatly, and he had a Tiffany lamp and a chair and a bed. He just didn’t believe in having lots of things around, but he was incredibly careful in what he selected.”
Restraint, at least in gadget design and interior decorating, was a primary principle for Jobs. Shortly after his return to Apple, he shuttered several divisions and turned his attention to a few key initiatives. Even today, Apple’s product lines and revenue are zeroed in on just a few industries in which the company can dominate.”
Jobs saw the power of minimalism, and it drove him in his product design and strategy at Apple, focusing on a few key products and making sure that there was no clutter in the user interfaces of the products he so passionately pitched. I’m truly inspired by this, and hope that I can also dedicate my life to being a minimalist and focusing on what truly matters. Rest in peace, Steve. I hope you left the world in peace and solace, knowing that you made an indelible mark on this world.
