What Set Steve Jobs Apart

What are you looking at right now?

Is it perhaps an iPhone? Or maybe an iPad? Or what about an iMac? Well, there’s one thing all three of those devices have in common, and it’s not hard to guess: they’re all Apple products. (Plus they all start with the letter ‘i’.)

And each and every one of these inventions can be traced back to one man: Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs revolutionized technology.

And now, nearly 70 years since his birth, and over a decade since he died in 2011, I’d like to talk about this man’s greatest strength. And it’s not what you think.

For a bit of context: Steve Jobs was a hippie kid. He was brilliant, talented, and a hard worker, but he was also disrespectful. Plus, he never showered. This was because, as a vegan, he believed that it was due to meat that people smelled.

As you would probably guess, Jobs was smart. During college, he helped invent a device known as the Blue Box. I’m not here to endorse the invention itself, because it was made to cheat phone companies out of long-distance fees. What I am commending is Jobs’ dedication and persistence.

To get the parts for the Blue Box, Steve Jobs literally had to call a company every day for a week straight. He had laser focus and an undeniable get-it-done attitude, which is something that we Christians could all take note of.

Steve Jobs did incredible things.

As many of us know, Steve Jobs founded Apple on April 1, 1976 (no joke). Over the next decade, he pushed his team to incredible lengths to design the Macintosh (the first ever all-in-one desktop personal computer).

There are many traits that Steve Jobs embodied, some of them good, some not so much. But without a doubt, both as people and as Christ followers, there is a lot we can learn from him.

His leadership ability, focus, dedication, and ability to spur others to incredible lengths are many of the traits that the great Christians of history have possessed. Without these abilities, Steve Jobs would never have done what he did.

Steve Jobs was not perfect.

While there are many, many good virtues Steve Jobs possessed, by no means was he flawless. In fact, it’s his biggest mistake that I wanted to highlight in this post, because there’s something very important that we can all learn from it.

While Steve Jobs was a great leader, he also tended to yell at his employees, disregard rules, and do what he thought to be best no matter what. It was because of this that several of his products failed, which ultimately led to him being fired from Apple in 1985.

Please hear me clearly: I’m not endorsing this attitude. By no means should you be cocky and go around screaming at those who work for you. I for one wholeheartedly believe that if Steve Jobs hadn’t done these things, he would’ve been even more successful. What I am saying is this:

Steve Jobs succeeded in spite of his flaws.

Steve Jobs wasn’t successful because he wasn’t polite to his employees, or because he disobeyed rules and did what he wanted. No, Steve Jobs succeeded in spite of his flaws.

This gives me a great sense of hope. I often struggle with the question “How can I do anything for God when I’m so messed up?” Hearing this about Steve Jobs let me see that it isn’t my flaws that define me. It’s my ability to overcome these flaws.

Our flaws don’t define us.

Sure, our mistakes hurt – that’s part of being human. They hurt Steve Jobs, and they’ll hurt us too. But I know that, no matter what mistakes we’ve made, we can still succeed. It was only after Steve Jobs came back to Apple that he created his most renowned piece of tech: the iPhone.

It isn’t our flaws that define us. Steve Jobs didn’t let that happen. It’s whether or not we can overcome our flaws that matters.

Think of David, from the Bible. Was he perfect? Not at all. He had a lot of struggles and made loads of mistakes. Yet he was called “a man after God’s own heart”. David didn’t succeed because of his mistakes, he succeeded in spite of them. All thanks to God.

Your flaws don’t define you; what you do about them does.

• If you’d like to learn more about the pioneer of Apple, I’d highly encourage you to listen to an incredible two-part series on him, which can be found on the How To Take Over The World podcast. (It’s where I got many of the facts for this post.)