Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Steve Jobs

It was perhaps not unexpected that there would be an outpouring of tributes to Steve Jobs upon his death. However, I do find it surprising that in China he is literally a cult figure. Tributes to him are everywhere, including subway stations. People address him as "cult leader Jobs". Considering that he was not into discussing anything but products and technology and he was never a "China lover", I am intrigued that he would have a fanatic religious following in China.

Gradually it occurred to me that perhaps people in China viewed him as someone bigger than life, who could only happen once in a century. In a rapidly developing country where change makes people dizzy and it's hard to hang onto any belief, someone larger in life could naturally fill that spiritual void. While "most men live a life of quiet desperation" (and especially so in a country where many aspects of life are still state-controlled), Steve Jobs defiantly refused to do so. In a business world where the 80/20 rule absolutely rules, he remained true to perfectionism and succeeded.

George Bernard Shaw said, " The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Steve Jobs was an unreasonable man. He was a great man. In China where there is no reigning deity, he is considered too unreasonable and too great to have been a mere human being.