appearance on Ed Sullivan just months after the Kennedy
assassination: it was a bright light in the darkness that signaled hope
and optimism. Then, Jobs used his Hollywood muscle to force an
overreaction (that, of course, rewarded Apple) on the audio download
piracy, started by Napster, that threatened to destroy the music
industry. That set the stage for the masterpiece—the iPhone—that had
Apple fanatics all over the world camping out in front of electronics
stores. And finally, the sublime iPad. The unsung hero of Apple’s
success is Napster founder Shawn Fanning, who scared the music
industry into the arms of Apple, and who set about partnering with
them similar to the way a vampire partners with a blood bag.
Could Apple have maintained this pace into the current decade
had Steve Jobs survived his illness? Probably. Because for all of his
less than savory traits, he accomplished one important thing: he
turned Apple, after the risk-averse years under John Sculley, into a
company—arguably the biggest company ever—that made taking risks
its first option. Unlike every other Fortune 500 CEO, Steve Jobs
punished careful thinking, and history recorded the results. Steve Jobs
—not Bob Noyce at Intel or David Packard at HP—became the first
person to found a company and then make it the most valuable
company in the world. Stores, touch screens, and a reheated MP3
player all, at the time, made no sense.
For all the good that Jobs did for Apple, he was also a destructive
force inside the company. He bullied employees; his attitudes around
philanthropy and inclusiveness were small; his mercurial personality
and megalomania kept Apple perpetually in borderline chaos. His
death ended the company’s historic run of innovation, but it also let
Apple, under Tim Cook, focus on predictability, profitability, and
scale. You can see the results on the balance sheet: if profits are a sign
of success, in fiscal year 2015 Apple was the most successful firm in
history, registering $53.4 billion in net profit.^9
If Apple were anything but a Fortune 500 tech darling, Congress
would have implemented tax reforms.^10 But most politicians, like
other privileged classes around the world, feel a tiny rush when they
pull out their iPhones. It’s no contest: Apple—versus, say, Exxon—is
likable. C’mon, Think different.