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Now that Steve steps off the mantle of Apple’s leadership, there are lots of memories and a few things we choose not to remember too well, that we can now safely share…

Because back in the day Steve was such a mean force in the world of computing innovation in both software/hardware and communications that any perceived slight was going to be revenged and thus most all, kept quiet even when Apple ravaged other people’s ideas, IP and outright stole patent rights all the while back to Xerox park lab days and the GUI front. And he could bring it on the market like nobody’s business so he did make a natural potential partner for the future too…

But now that he’s off the steering wheel and the world at large dispatches him with speedy eulogies, we are here to remind you that the man is still alive and well and all such drivel is premature. Epitaphs are uncalled for – just yet. So hold your horses and remember that humour and levity are the only weapons we have against time’s inevitable onslaught. Never mind Kurzweil and Aubrey who think they’ll live forever – chances are we’ll be walking behind their funerals chuckling about their folly too.

But that’s not the case for Steve Jobs – not just yet, so we can rejoice and wish him well – even though the stock took a 7% hit upon the news of his departure and CEO change in Apple’s helm to Tim Cook. His handpicked successor is a good man too and the stock will recover and move onwards soonest because the fundamental numbers are solid, the company remains the best innovation marketeer and the value scale is packed along with a vast treasury able to keep them in good stead for many years of iterative growth and mining of  current product stream. They have a cash cow now… so let them milk it.

And don’t let the Cassandras fool you either, because Steve Jobs has managed to perform the ultimate feat of leadership — not once but twice. Not only he built the world’s most valuable and innovative company but he has managed to reshuffle the company DNA and embed himself so deeply within the cultural fabric of Apple that the company no longer needs him in vivo.

Steve steps off the helm now because truly the company doesn’t need him anymore and not because he is at the end of his rope. After all he knows that this is the right time to let go because this is not the first time he has left Apple. And yes, because the last time it was such an unmitigated disaster, this time he knows best how it’s done. After Jobs’ last departure in a power struggle with soda water seller come Apple CEO John Sculley, the company went from an innovative powerhouse and the envy of the industry to a marginalized computer maker with 2% market share and worthless shares that even Steve himself divested fully. The company’s financial deterioration was so severe that Apple came within a week of filing for bankruptcy. The prospect of shutting down the company due to insolvency brought on by a succession of product flops and mismanagement was seemingly the only option.

And then Steve Jobs returned after leaving Pixar animation in the lark… He rallied, he cajoled and mainly he worked his innovative product marketing magic liberally around the company and the rest is now history. Apple is the most influential and successful company in the world today and by the way the most valuable one too with more cash in hand that even God or uncle Sam and the US government holds… Some $76 Billion sit in Apple’s treasure chest. Not bad loot for an old pirate.

The Cassandras and those who are concerned about Apple’s fate in a post-Jobs world fear that this history will repeat itself. They worry that Apple with Steve is successful; and that Apple without Steve is not. And they are selling short the stock to their disadvantage. Nonsense.

Because Steve Jobs that returned to Apple in 1998 was not the same Jobs that was forced out in 1985. The Jobs of 1985 believed that all he needed to do was shape the amazing products that Apple shipped. However, during his exile, he saw what happened to the company that he founded and loved. Apple had lost it’s way and it had lost the ability to ship great products. So when he returned, he was determined to ensure that this never happened again. After 1998, he wasn’t just interested in building great products himself. He was interested in making sure everyone else within Apple was able to build great products too and to be able to think like he did.

In short, he focused on building a robust Steve Jobs thinking culture within his company as the founding DNA for longevity and sustainable success, and in that he succeeded grandly.

So when I saw all the soapy remembrances, the epilogues, the epitaphs and the like  all over the news, I thought of the private moments we had, funny and serious at the same time and laughed out loud because the theatre of life is made up of such tragic comedy that can stop the heart laughing. And there is still life after a corsair career — even for committed pirates — no matter how hard it is to adapt to that. But memories is all that remains even from those  heading into the wide blue yonder…

A story that comes vivid to mind is when I met with Steve at the foyer of the San Francisco Museum of Fine Art and we talked about integrating wireless internet into Apple’s computers. That is after we had months of negotiations and I knew quite well that Apple liked the innovative technology and social network culture we had and wanted to integrate it with Apple products. But some people apparently didn’t want to pay the price of innovation, or partnering  with a small rival and acquisition for integration… And it was then at the museum marble in San Fran, that he stunned me when he said that Apple had already thought of that first. Ouch…

When this happens – You get a creepy feeling at first but then after running through your options and taking defensive action and even becoming defensive of thought – thus you become hardened. So you laugh when next faced with this sort of human folly. Having founded and led several companies and been around start ups and technology companies vying for IP and patents all my Life, I was an old shoe at this form of privateering and said to old Steve: ”Once a pirate always a pirate” then turned around and left him to ponder…

After all at that time in 1996, Apple didn’t have two cents to rub together and Steve’s pockets contained only lint and the company was on life support through a life line of bridge loans and convertible debt and even money the archrival Microsoft’s Gates provided. A hard up time for Steve but a great place to innovate out of difficulties. Well the world moved on and we had our successes as pioneers of Wi-Fi and Apple had it’s airport built in and installed in it’s machines but did so in a half ass, halfway measure of what the vision was that I had proposed to Steve and Apple. Because even back then, I could see the real bleeding edge of where people could become a sharing benevolent community as the global Commons of ether. Because social Wi-Fi is just that: An incredible opportunity to create the People’s telecommunication facility free of the stupid network pipes.  And sharing their internet connections and thus communicating through the million points of light each computer can serve as a node for each other and all. Apple fitted well in my vision back then but Steve didn’t want to play nice.

Well it’s all water under the bridge now and all that. Yet this is a great vision that hasn’t happened yet but one can only dream and someday it will come around.

Yet this vision was what we had pioneered at Seattle Wireless – a company I founded and led – and was eager to have integrated into every Apple computer turning it into an instant hotspot. Who knows maybe some day the future will arrive and we’ll all rejoice too.

Yet back then after weeks of many exhausting technical meetings and sharing technology details and long incursive and incisive discussions with Apple — I was finally served the real Steve Jobs lesson in the museum…

And I must say, I learned something from that too. Go it alone.  For if your vision exceeds the understanding of others, then You got to go it alone. That’s true leadership because otherwise, the bigger companies you partner with – don’t understand and don’t share – and they will steal what ever limited they can understand, and use bits and bobs while damaging the whole, but never fully embrace your vision to bring it to fruition for the benefit of the world. Because this is your job not Steve Jobs job or Apple’s or any other mind raider’s job either. Got it?

I also learned that Apple’s success is built on incremental change on technological innovation that the consumers expect and are ready for and not on great leaps of innovation or faith for a benevolent and idealistic humanity. In other words ”slow down cowboy” [his words]

Thanks for the learnings Steve…

Yours,

Pano

PS:

And by the way, I must return the lesson too.

So Steve the way to live longer is to cool it, chill out, smell the roses, meditate and generally slow down time’s passage.

So please remember that it doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks, because people are always judging each other and, the truth is, they’re not very kind about it nor any good at it. Example is that when you want to exit the stage and go live quietly, they pack you off for dead….

So I know that you like to be liked, but don’t put a lot of concern into what people think of you.

You weren’t created to please and entertain everyone. Not to be the centre of attention either. You were created to be you, so feel good about yourself, chill out a lot, meditate and live long.

Time to join that Ashram you longed for… redemption.

God Bless.