The Legacy of Steve Jobs is without question. But the comeback from failure – lost in all of the discussion of product development success – is a book we can all take a page from.
When Steve Jobs passed away yesterday, the world mourned a titan of industry – and, when the San Francisco Chronicle’s article on Jobs’ life mentioned his name in the same sentence as “Ford, Edison and Disney,” well, you have no argument here.
Read the article from the Chronicle Here: SF Gate Link.
His successes were much ballyhooed, and rightly so; when people like President Obama and Mark Zuckerberg are mourning your loss, your legacy is safe.
NeXT
The NeXT Computer was a high-end workstation that, frankly, didn’t catch fire. At a cost of $6500, it was too expensive for a world that, in the late 80s and early 90s, didn’t have the concept of the office computer fully ingrained into the culture.
(You can read more about the computer itself on this Wikipedia entry, which is quite light on content.)
As a consumer product, it failed.
We’re all going to fail. It’s what comes next that’s important.
Jobs once said that “getting fired from Apple was the best thing that happened to me.” The firing led to the launch of NeXT, which, while not a commercial success, did have a good chunk of infrastructure that was trailblazing. In fact, the intellectual property at NeXT was valuable enough to get the company bought by Apple Computers in 1996. (Another Wikipedia entry here.)
Turns out there wasn’t much of a market for the computer itself – 50,000 units were sold. But the operating system served as the precursor to Apple’s OS.
Failure Is an Option.
Failure to Learn From Failure Is NOT an Option.
We’re all going to get dealt cards in life. Businesses rise and fall. Promotions come and then the new boss comes in and they’re meaningless. Your startup will be groundbreaking but it won’t make you money.
You may not be as gifted and brilliant as Steve Jobs, you may not give a rip about computers or tech or iPhones or what have you.
Whether you sing on stage or sweep up after the performance, you’re going to screw up – and you’re going to get the chance to learn from the screwups.
Fail miserably then ask…