Jobs' Legacy -- Embrace Innovation

Transformative figures within a single segment of society — a Walt Disney, for example — are rare. Rarer still are those who revolutionize the way billions of people from multiple cultures live their lives. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford fit that bill. So, too, did Steve Jobs.

As co-founder of Apple Computer, Jobs, who died Wednesday at the age of 56, wasn't just a top-line leader of the digital revolution. He wasn't only the creator or refiner of groundbreaking hardware and software — the graphical interface, the mouse, the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad. And he wasn't merely a visionary who dramatically altered disciplines once as unrelated as information technology, medicine, education, music, publishing and movies.

Jobs — either through extraordinary vision or dogged obsession, or perhaps a combination of both — also changed the way businesses and entrepreneurs view the marketplace.

Not that long ago, a company that developed a product as extraordinarily successful as the iPod would have been content to ride its profitability to the point of exhaustion.

But Apple, with Jobs in the lead, never stopped innovating, never stopped pushing for the next big thing.

So, while the iPod changed the way people take charge of their free time and entertainment, the iPhone and now the iPad have changed the way people interact, how they learn and how they understand the world around them. Those changes came about in remarkably short order. And it was Jobs, more than any other individual, who ensured that technological change, and with it societal change, will likely continue to accelerate in the future.

The rapidity of change can be alarming, especially in parts of the country that historically have been skeptical of the latest fads or trends. But learning not only to adapt but also to lead change is essential for the long-term health of this nation.

Steve Jobs, more than any other figure in the past half-century, understood that. His legacy isn't merely establishing one of the most respected and valuable companies in the world. It's also in shaping a culture that embraces innovation.

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