"Life is short. Therefore, you must not waste time living the life others demand of you. Even if you don't gain money or fame, persist on your own path to the end." (p.84)
From 'The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs - 7 Special Principles That Move Steve Jobs' by Carmine Gallo, translated by Park Seyeon (Business Books)
<This is my article published in the April issue of 'Luxmen', the economic monthly of Maeil Business Newspaper.>
Steve Jobs appeared to a standing ovation at the iPad 2 press conference in early March. Though he looked somewhat gaunt from his illness, he was still passionate. That day, Jobs particularly emphasized the "convergence of technology and liberal arts."
This is an important clue to understanding him.
"Technology alone is not enough in Apple's DNA. We must combine technology with the liberal arts."
The liberal arts were something he always emphasized. Before founding Apple, while working at Atari, he left on a business trip abroad and didn't return, instead wandering to India where he exchanged ideas with yoga practitioners and monks in the Himalayas.
Perhaps that's why Jobs' design - expressible through simplicity, elegance, and the beauty of empty space - carries a strong scent of the liberal arts and Zen Buddhism.
In the book introduced today, Jobs said something similar: "The biggest reason Macintosh succeeded was because musicians, painters, poets, zoologists, and historians who had become world-class computer experts participated together." (p.150)
Jobs opened the personal computer era by releasing the Apple II in 1977, when he was in his early twenties. It was the signal flare announcing the beginning of his ongoing 'innovation.'
