“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
I’m not an iFanboy. If anything, it’s probably fairer to say that I’m against much of how Apple runs its business. The only Apple product I have ever owned in my life is an iPod nano and I’m not even the one who bought it. But that’s not the point.
You may not agree with some of the business practices and business decisions that Apple has made over the years, but it is absolutely undeniable that Steve Jobs and Apple have had a profound impact on consumer electronics. The mouse was popularized on a Mac. The iPod dominated the MP3 player market with its click wheel. The iPhone wasn’t the first touchscreen smartphone, but it sure made that form factor the kind of smartphone to get. And you can owe much of that innovation to one Steve Jobs. And let’s not forget about his contributions to Pixar and Disney.
The quote above comes from the “Think Different” campaign a little over a decade ago. It reminds us that being normal isn’t how you advance society. It isn’t how you push onward and upward. It’s only when you’re one of the “crazy ones” that you believe you can change the world… and it really is only those people who do change the world.
Think Different. That’s what Jack Layton did. That’s what Bill Gates did. They didn’t accept the status quo. And we can all learn to do the same. If you’re not happy with how things are, then do something about it. If you want the world to change, you have to be the one who instigates that change.
Steve, you and I may not have always seen eye to eye, but I have a profound respect for what you’ve done and you will be dearly missed.
You may not have owned or bought an Apple product, but whatever you are using, i.e. smartphone, computer, music player, tablet has been influenced by Steve Jobs and his vision of what it should be. He was the leader, the Thomas Edison, the Henry Ford of our time in regards to the digital age.
I have seen many people people say thing like this, I never owned a Mac or an apple product but that doesn’t mean they weren’t affected by Jobs. He did take the digital age to new heights.
I do not know the man, and have never met him in my life.
But I felt a great sense of loss when I received news on my iPhone 3GS of his death.
I never knew I could feel this way for someone I’ve never met.
He had truly inspired and the legacy he left behind will continue to inspire!
Never settle!
While I am afraid to say I am one of those people who try to be normal, that just makes me have all the more respect for people like Jobs who dare to stray from the straight and narrow path and tread his own path through jungles no one dares to venture into. They are the ones who push our human race forward into greater things.
-Jean
I loved that apple advert. I have never been the one to be normal. And I strive to work hard and take pride in what i do. I am proud to have lived in an era where I have seen true visionaries like Jobs grow and expand into something no one thought possible when we were young.
Hey Michael,
Steve Jobs was extraordinary and visionary. I wouldn’t compare him in any way with Jack Layton. Business man and inventor and tech visionary can’t be compared with a politician.
I don’t see anything that is worse in Apple’s business practices when compared with any other leading company. Is MS, for example, more ethical and less greedy?
I’m sad that Steve Jobs went so soon at 56.
I just dislike(d) how Apple claims it invented the wheel, when it may be more appropriate to say that it refined or re-invented the wheel. The current patent lawsuits around the world are troublesome too.
But, they really did invent the wheel in the digital age. They had the Newton first, they went to Xerox to learn about it’s private OS that became the OS on the Lisa and Mac. They did the iPod, which is digital, not a Walkman that was not even close. To top that off, they invented iTunes and the digital music stores we see everyone else imitating today. They developed a true smartphone that the Droid copied.
In fact they own most of the patents on that and have every right to sue over them. The law states if you don’t protect your trademark or patent you lose it over time. The perfect example: “Band Aid” that was a trademarked name that the owners did not fight to keep as their trademark. McDonald’s is the bad guy trademark company because they sue anyone they find using the McDonald’s name on a business. Even if it the persons name.
I don’t think they are at all a bad company. They don’t come close to some others.
Not really.
The iPod was far from the first MP3 player on the market. It was the best (and still is), but it was not the first. It refined the wheel. Digital music players already existed.
The first iPhone wasn’t technically a smartphone, since it could not accept third-party software (“apps”). The first “true” smartphones were probably the Nokia communicators, followed by devices that ran on Palm OS, Windows Mobile, and so on. Those all predate by the iPhone by several years. Did the iPhone and iOS shape the modern smartphone market? Absolutely, but it certainly didn’t invent it.
I’m not as familiar with the history of Newton, Lisa, etc., so I won’t comment on that.
While not the first MP3 player, it’s main function wasn’t to Rip your songs from your computer that you got from CD’s. It was made with iTunes and the full range of digital music in mind without having to buy a CD for $15. They invented the digital music age, not a walkman clone that all the other MP3 players were. Apple did what you should do, they looked past being in the game after someone else, they wanted to lead. They didn’t make a clone, they made an original.
As for smartphones, the definition of smartphone is not being able to run “third party apps”. It’s being able to run your life from a phone. The IBM Simon was a mobile phone with a touchscreen that you could do rudimentary things with, cal, calc, address book. Along with that you did have phones from Symbian, Palm and the Blackberry, but none of those could you really run your life from. The Blackberry is the closest to a real smartphone, but it lacks any real computing power other than IM’s, SMS. email. The Internet experience sucks on a Blackberry as I well know from having my own before getting an iPhone and the one I use for work.
The iPhone was the first real smartphone that you could call smart. It did everything you needed faster and easier than anyone else on the market.
The Mac and Lisa computers ran the OS that Jobs learned how to write from getting access to the Xerox private network PARC computers. Xerox got stock options for the three days that Jobs and his people looked at the GUI and OS. They then went back and wrote the OS for the Mac and Lisa. So, it wasn’t like they invented the GUI, but they developed it from a private GUI into something the general public could and would use.
The Newton was given up on way too soon. It was the first to use the term PDA and was more tablet than PDA. It could be considered the first kick start on the way to the iPad. Jobs once made reference to a new Apple PDA just a few years before releasing the iPhone. I believe that the iPhone was inspired by the Newton and the iPad is what Jobs really was pointing toward.
We lost another hero .So sad..
Hey Michael,
The actual wheel may not even have been invented by people. As for other products, Steve Jobs himself holds about 300 patents. Apple didn’t invent everything like the substances things are made of. They improved on things drastically if they didn’t invent them totally.
I tend to agree with what Ray wrote above.
I don’t mind giving credit where credit is due. As far as lawsuits go one would have to know all the details. Everyone knows that there is a lot of spying and copying going on in the world and also a lot of litigation that may be baseless.
Suing and countersuing seems to be the tactics that I find pathetic.
Steve jobs is definitely a inspiration . i just cant stop thinking about his saying “the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”