1. Steve Jobs
Amazon
I briefly considered bumping Steve Jobs to No. 2 in recognition of Tim Cook’s achievements, and even more briefly thought it would be funny to name him as zero in honor of his old Apple badge number. But in the end, it was always going to be Steve Jobs at No. 1.
Of the 49 entries above, 28 contain at least one mention of Apple’s charismatic founder. In researching this article, I found him almost unavoidable: Jobs bestrides Apple’s history like a colossus. Even when he was offstage, such as the wilderness years from 1985 to 1997, Apple fans kept wondering what he was up to, if he would return, what he must think of his usurpers’ feeble efforts. He was, in this sense, Apple’s Poochie.
As we’ve seen, Jobs had many flaws. He was aggressive, domineering, manipulative, and often cruel; Andy Hertzfeld (No. 19) describes him as “anti-loyal.” Bizarrely, two fellow tech journalists have separately told me anecdotes in which he physically knocked them over. It is, in short, almost incredible that such a difficult and unreasonable man should have inspired adoration around the world. Yet he did, because his flaws were offset by a rich array of gifts.
As a manager, he could drive employees to feats of brilliance they never would have believed were possible. (That is, when he wasn’t driving them to despair.) Shown a product, he could instantly and ruthlessly pick out what needed to change in order to make it great. From anyone else, Jobs’ belief that he knew what customers wanted better than they did would seem arrogant; in his case, it was just factual. He was, somehow, a master of both the details and the big picture. He was a visionary: the unreasonable man who refuses to adapt himself to the world, and instead adapts the world to him. As he always wanted, he left a dent in the universe.
Jobs was there at the start of Apple’s story, and through the people he employed and the values he instilled, he continues to influence it today. As I hope I’ve shown, Apple is and always has been a collaboration, and thousands of talented people have made contributions over the past 50 years. No single person can take sole responsibility for Apple’s achievements. But if I *had* to choose… it would have to be Steve.
