Steve Jobs

As arguably the most influential device of the 21st century, the iPhone holds symbolic significance not only in Steve Jobs’s life but for virtually every person in the modern, technology-driven world. For Jobs, the iPhone represents the culmination of his professional and personal achievements, a piece of technology that cemented his status into the pantheon of the world’s great innovators for all time. After the exorbitant success of the iPod, the iPhone was the next step towards hegemony for Apple, which is in itself an extension of Steve Jobs himself.

The Macintosh computer represents Jobs’s solidified ascent into the tech world. By bringing his vision, creativity, and business savvy to bolster Steve Wozniak’s technological prowess, Jobs was able to elevate Apple as a company by means of the Macintosh line of computers, which have been sold since 1984. Without the Macintosh—named after one of the developer’s favorite apples—Jobs may never have seen the success that Apple would eventually experience.

As a symbol, Silicon Valley represents the promised land, a ground zero for technological accomplishments and advancements both on a national and global scale. For Jobs, being the absolute best he could be within the setting of Silicon Valley became his mission. Jobs lived and breathed the region, calling Palo Alto and the Apple campus in Cupertino his home.

Within the narrative of Jobs’s life, his company NeXT represents his attempt at a resurgence, as he tried to fight his way back to prominence after he was ousted at Apple in 1985. NeXT allowed him to pursue his ambitions in a way that suited his temperament and business acumen. However, as many leaders learn, the road to success is seldom accomplished alone. NeXT was by no means a successful company, but Jobs’s experience with NeXT was crucial to his maturation as a leader and thinker. In this sense, NeXT also acts as a symbolic reminder that Jobs was not solely responsible for Apple’s innovations or eventual success.

While the “Think Different” ad campaign is considered to be one of the most successful campaigns in modern American advertising, the notion and broader implications of “Think Different” are essential in understanding Jobs’s own personal journey as it relates to Apple’s parallel trajectory. Steve Jobs became enamored with the campaign, involved in every word and comma that went into the copy, because this idea, that Apple represented those who dare to “Think Different,” was quintessential to his own vision of the kind of technology company that Apple could be.