Steve Jobs & The Legacy of Innovation

You remember the playground tease, “when they look up _______ in the dictionary, there’s a picture of you.” What an inspiration for a legacy.

Wikipedia of Steve Jobs and Innovation

Steve Jobs means many things to the world. Loved and sometimes hated, at the helm of Apple he has innovated, he has shipped on time, and he has brought amazing vision while maintaining focus to a talented company.

Yesterday’s announcement that he will be stepping aside as CEO has been a lingering “when” not “if” announcement, but it still rattled the interwebs.

I wish Steve the best of luck. Having walked the path of liver disease with my father, I know the difficulty of the journey. I deeply understand the disbelief of the helplessness that we have of such a debilitating yet seemingly incurable disease. And, yet I still have a hope that he can bring innovation to healthcare as he has to technology in the next step in his journey.

I am, however, left wondering: what is the psuedo-wiki page that someone might throw up in the wake of my own life? What legacy am I building?

Did Steve Jobs build the legacy as an innovator by answering every “urgent” email about customer complaints? As CEO did he get down into the weeds of personnel issues? Probably not. The danger that we all face is paying the right attention to the wrong problems, and that is not legacy building activity.

So, how do you fill in the blank to the statement: “when they look up _______ in the dictionary, there’s a picture of you”?

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Jeremy Floyd

Jeremy Floyd is the President at FUNYL Commerce. Formerly, he was the CEO and President of Lirio, Bluegill Creative, a marketing and communications firm in Knoxville, Tennessee. In addition to managing the digital strategies, Floyd was an adjunct professor for the University of Tennessee Chattanooga MBA program teaching digital strategies and social media. Floyd blogs at jeremyfloyd.com and tweets under the name @jfloyd. Jeremy is licensed to practice law in the State of Tennessee and holds a law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from MTSU in English and Philosophy.

  • Thank you for this post Jeremy.  Do you always ask such tough questions of yourself?  If so, good for you.  Many of us tend to cruise through life sleepwalking.  Thanks for nudging me a little.  I would put “true friend” in the blank.  However, it is easy to put something in the blank.  Living out the reality? That is going to be a bitch.

  • Man, Jeff that is a great answer. In fact, I think that may be the best answer to the question.

    It seems to me that living out the legacy of being a “true friend” will take you to many places you don’t want to be at many times that you’d rather be doing other things. It may ask you to sacrifice your money, your time, and in some cases even your life. Yikes.

    At the same time, it may give more genuine meaning to life than any other investment.

    Here’s to friends, Cheers!