At Conversatio Morum, we look at a lot of things, a little different. The reason for this is that we’re always tying technology to missiology. How does technology and what you’re doing with it affect your mission? How does your theology allow you to use your technology to better fulfill your mission? With that in mind, just like everyone else, there needs to be at least one post about Steve Jobs recent passing. So this is it. There may be more, there may not be, but at least there’s this one.
My wife and I went to the apple store last week to return a product. Not because it was bad, we just realized we didn’t actually need it to make something work after we thought we did. While we were walking back to the car we began talking about what apple would do now that Jobs was gone. That seems to be the question lately. What will Apple do now? There isn’t anyone else like Jobs. David Pogue is one of the most well-known, influential, tech journalists currently in the world (you can read his blog here http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/). During his CBS Sunday Morning he honored Jobs, and started his statement with this, “This week, Steve Jobs passed away. And we lost four of this country’s greatest minds. That’s not a joke. Steve Jobs was one of the greatest designers to come along in decades-and one of the greatest marketers, and businessmen, and visionaries. All of those things. In one person. One in a million.”
Here is the problem with the Apple/Jobs situation; due to my theology, I believe that we are meant to reproduce ourselves into the lives of those around us. This has become part of my missiology; part of the way I can fulfill my mission in life. Rather at work, home, in the community, or my own church, I ought to be investing in those around me and training them with what I have to offer.
Now, for all we know Steve Jobs did that, and for all we know he didn’t. We don’t know and only time will tell. We do know that he was a major micromanager. That usually means that people hadn’t learned how to make decisions the way he would, which would point to that he didn’t know how to reproduce himself in the lives of others. This may or may not be true and is only an observation from the outside. I’m not denying that Steve Jobs was what Pogue claimed that he was. He was those things, but I do believe the true test of greatness is if you can leave behind something reproducible that others can do. Otherwise in seventy years what you’ve done won’t leave a lasting impression. If you can cause what you’re doing, your vision, to be reproduced into the lives of a few others who can then do the same thing, then you’re going to change the world with something that will keep going.
How do you think Apple will move forward with Steve Jobs gone? Is part of your vision for your life to multiply yourself by investing in the lives of others? What will you leave behind?