The saga of Steve Jobs is the Silicon Valley creation myth writ large: launching a startup in his parents,garage and building it into the world's most valuable company. He didn't invent many things outright, but he was a master at putting together ideas, art, and technology in ways that invented the future. He designed the Mac after appreciating the power of graphical interfaces in a way that Xerox was unable to do, and he created the iPod after grasping the joy of having a thousand songs in your pocket in a way that Sony, which had all the assets and heritage, never could accomplish. Some leaders push innovations by being good at the big picture. Others do so by mastering details. Jobs did both, relentlessly. As a result he launched a series of products over three decades that transformed whole industries:
史蒂夫·喬布斯的傳奇壯大了硅谷的創(chuàng)新神話,他在父母的車庫里開始創(chuàng)業(yè),建立了蘋果公司,繼而將之發(fā)展成世界上最有價值的公司。他沒有發(fā)明很多東西,但他是一個將概念、藝術(shù)和技術(shù)融為一體,開創(chuàng)未來的大師。意識到圖形界面具有的強大力量,他設(shè)計了麥金塔電腦,而這是施樂公司無法做到的。能將一千首歌曲置入囊中的欣喜又使他創(chuàng)造了MP3播放器iPod,即使是擁有雄厚資產(chǎn)和悠久傳統(tǒng)的索尼公司也絕不可能實現(xiàn)。為了推動創(chuàng)新,一些領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者從大處著眼,一些則著重落實細節(jié),而喬布斯堅持不懈地要兩者兼顧。結(jié)果,在30年的時間里,他推出了一系列產(chǎn)品,改變了整個產(chǎn)業(yè):
The Apple II,which took Wozniak's circuit board and turned it into the first personal computer that was not just for hobbyists.
蘋果Ⅱ,這是借助沃茲尼亞克的電路板創(chuàng)造而成的首款不是僅面向電腦愛好者的個人電腦。
The Macintosh, which begat the home computer revolution and popularized graphical use rinter faces.
麥金塔電腦,帶來了家庭電腦的革命,使圖形用戶界面普及化。
Toy Story and other Pixar blockbusters, which opened up the miracle of digital imagination.
《玩具總動員》和其他皮克斯動畫電影,開啟了數(shù)碼想象的奇跡。
Apple stores, which reinvented the role of a store in defining a brand.
蘋果商店,創(chuàng)新地確立了商店對建立品牌的作用。
The iPod, which changed the way we consume music.
MP3播放器iPod,改變了我們消費音樂的方式。
The iTunes Store, which saved the music industry. iTunes.
音樂商店,挽救了音樂產(chǎn)業(yè)。
The iPhone, which turned mobile phones into music, photography, video, email, and web devices. iPhone,
使手機集音樂、攝影、視頻、電子郵件和網(wǎng)絡(luò)設(shè)備為一體。
The App Store, which spawned a new content-creation industry.
App應(yīng)用商店,催生了一個新的內(nèi)容創(chuàng)作產(chǎn)業(yè)。
The iPad, which launched tablet computing and offered a platform for digital newspapers, magazines, books, and videos.
Pad平板電腦,提供了一個數(shù)字報紙、雜志、書籍和視頻的平臺。
iCloud, which demoted the computer from its central role in managing our content and let all of our devices sync seamlessly.
iCloud云端服務(wù),計算機不再是管理內(nèi)容的核心設(shè)備,而是讓我們的所有設(shè)備實現(xiàn)同步無縫對接。
And Apple itself, which Jobs considered his greatest creation, a place where imagination was nurtured,applied, and executed in ways so creative that it became the most valuable company on earth.
以及蘋果公司本身,喬布斯認(rèn)為這是他最偉大的創(chuàng)造,這是一個培育、應(yīng)用和施展想象力的場所,瑰麗的想象和奇特的創(chuàng)意使它成為世界上最具價值的公司。
Was he smart? No, not exceptionally. Instead, he was a genius. His imaginative leaps were instinctive, unexpected, and at times magical. He was, indeed, an example of what the mathematician Mark Kac called a magician genius, someone whose insights come out of the blue and require intuition more than mere mental processing power. Like a pathfinder, he could absorb information, sniff the winds, and sense what lay ahead.
他聰明嗎?不,不是格外聰明。然而,他卻是個天才。他富于想象力的跳躍都是本能的、不可預(yù)見的,有時是充滿魔力的。他真是數(shù)學(xué)家馬克·卡克所說的那種魔術(shù)師天才,他的洞見會不期而至,更多地依靠直覺而非大腦的處理能力。他像個探路者一樣,可以吸收信息,嗅到風(fēng)中的氣味,對未來先知先覺。
Steve Jobs thus became the greatest business executive of our era, the one most certain to be remembered a century from now. History will place him in the pantheon right next to Edison and Ford. More than anyone else of his time, he made products that were completely innovative, combining the power of poetry and processors. With a ferocity that could make working with him as unsettling as it was inspiring, he also built the world's most creative company. And he was able to infuse into its DNA the design sensibilities,perfectionism, and imagination that make it likely to be, even decades from now, the company that thrives best at the intersection of artistry and technology.
史蒂夫·喬布斯就這樣成為我們這個時代最偉大的商業(yè)決策者,一個世紀(jì)以后他也一定能被世人記得。在歷史的萬神殿里,他的位置就在愛迪生和福特的身旁。在他的時代,他超越眾人,創(chuàng)造了極具創(chuàng)新性的產(chǎn)品,把詩歌和處理器的力量完美結(jié)合。他的粗暴使得和他共事既讓人不安又令人振奮,而他借此打造了世界上最具創(chuàng)造力的公司。他能夠在蘋果的DNA中融入設(shè)計的敏感、完美主義和想象力,使之很可能,甚至此后幾十年,都是在藝術(shù)與科技的交匯處成長得最茁壯的公司。