Steve Jobs – A Consummate Entrepreneur

April 17, 2012

The death of Steve Jobs at such a young age leaves a lot of life unfulfilled.  He was one of the people in modern history that has left an indelible mark not only on the universe of communications but as an entrepreneur extraordinaire.  The ability to begin a business in your parents’ garage and make it arguably the most influential business on the planet is mind boggling.  The airways are flooded with stories about Steve Jobs, anecdotes and quotations.  These are merely a scent of what he leaves behind.

There is one quotation I noted that stuck with me.  It was exactly the way I felt when developing our intraoral viewer, DrQuickLook™  .  The quotation is “Simple can be harder than complex.  You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.”  In the dental profession we see a lot of complexity and I wonder if it really has to be that way.  In working through the design and production with DrQuickLook™, there were many points at which an idea came up, usually proffered by an engineer, to make this device different – more complicated.  We resisted that urge and resolved to end up with a product that was clean, simple and reasonably priced.  When something makes sense, you just have to stick with it.  Complete the task but keep things simple.  If there is one overall thing that I am most proud of with this device, it’s the simplicity.

A toast to Steve Jobs and all those who have the bug to create products that make some difference in the life of those around them.  May that spirit never lose its flame.