It takes an emperor

Listen to Dave’s commentary: It takes an emperor

Today we pay homage to Steve Jobs, and his philosophy:

Find what you love to do. Don’t settle. Remember that we’re all going to die. Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter; what matters is doing something wonderful.

But Steve Jobs didn’t become a success just because of his wisdom.

He was a success because he had the self-confidence to make himself Emperor.

A lot of people have a consistent philosophy and a driving vision — but Steve Jobs made sure he would have the power to execute it.

He re-joined his failing company in 1997 as an uncompromising billionaire who could surround himself with loyalists who shared his vision.

And that allowed him to do outrageous things — like basing his design philosophy on the medieval calligraphy course he took. Like refusing to join the Microsoft universe. Like telling the music industry “we’re going to sell your songs on the Internet for 99 cents and you’ll love it.” Like telling AT&T “you’ll provide iPhone service, but with an Apple logo, Apple software, and an Apple pricetag.”

And he could dictate strict rules on illegal app migration so that no app makes it onto an i-anything unless it’s naturalized by Apple. All insanely profitable and all because of a system that made Steve Jobs a corporate Napoleon; the very thing now being protested by a lot of young people carrying iPods.

And that’s the dilemma, isn’t it?

Everyone seems to admire what Steve Jobs created even though it’s a direct result of the immense corporate power he embodied.

In fact, I believe that when the anti-corporate revolution finally does come, we’ll probably find out about it on our iPhones.

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