So now it is Tim Cook.
The first great appearance of the new Apple boss:
Agonizingly long.
Faces fell.
The new iPhone is an improvement, but not the jackpot.
Under Steve Jobs, it was different. Three jackpots in a row: iPod. iPhone. iPad.
“The most important tool I ever had for realizing that I had to come up with decisions was the knowledge that I had not long left to live.“
That is what Steve Jobs said a few years ago, when he was already marked by cancer, answering the question about his main drive.
And he continued by saying:
“The awareness of one’s own mortality
is the best way to avoid getting trapped
with the thought one might have something to loose. You are in the nude already.“
Is Carpe Mortem the better Carpe Diem?
Is the radical idea as you face death better than an industrious day’s work?
Looking at the Apple balance sheets up until Steve Jobs resigned this August, you might be tempted to answer with a clear Yes. Yet the side-effects of his success are also considerable. A castrated management, total depenency on his sales genius – and above all on his method.
Does that mean only mortally ill persons should be our future top managers? Or can you simulate the Carpe Mortem? Is the radical idea, its all-or-nothing characteristic at all compatible with society if said society is based on levelling and compromises?
It not a huge step from a great idea to an ideology.
There is something tyrannical and submissive to great ideas.
They want to control your brains, can neutralize
scepticism. Its context turns critical persons
into fanatical followers. If the worst happens
we pay for it with our lives:
in political systems. At Apple
we just pay a few hundred Euros extra.
Steve Jobs is a radical busines leader who probably met our secret longing for leaders. He must not become standard.
SIX
(Translated by EG)
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