Name a guy that has introduced a hit new product to the world, and helped create an entire industry, like, say, personal computers. Then name another guy who joins a computer company in shambles, after a string of professional CEOs had left it on the verge of irrelevance, and recasts its entire product line, transforming losses into profits, using a business model nobody else in the industry would ever consider. And then name a guy who enters an existing market for relatively inexpensive hardware products (I don't know, maybe music players), and within a year or so, has a 75% market share, which he maintains for years, in spite of the fact that his formula is copyable, and is in fact, copied. And he comes out with new models, every year, even killing the most successful model in the product lineup at its height, to offer a newer, more expensive version. And ultimately, has a broad line of music players, where the most popular one is th emost expensive one (don't you wish you could run a car company like that?).
And then find a guy who can do all this, but enters the phone market, which is almost a half billion units a year world wide, and creates a new standard for smartphones. One that EVERY other high end phone company (and knockoff mfr in China) tries to emulate. And creates, with basically one model, a $20 billion business.
And then give me that guy who takes a failed product idea, one that every spewer of conventional wisdom has rejected, and spins it as he thinks people will want to use it, catching the rest of the tehc industry asleep at the wheel, on pace to sell $6 billion worth the first year, and maybe $30 billion in the second year (I know you can appreciate how hard that is, Michael).
And give me another guy who has introduced the concept of cheap apps for mobile devices that every phone mfr has copied. And what about the retail stores, you know, the ones analysts (don't ever pay any attention to those wannabes) said would be a failure, but instead gross more per square foot than Tiffanys?
All those guys are one person. And this is all in the hardware business, an incredibly cut-throat, slim margin business. OK, his competitors are notoriously incompetent, but still, do you really believe the creation of Facebook, which still has hundreds of millions of dollars in cumulative losses, is in the same league with this guy?
And I haven't even mentioned Gates, who created one of the most successful companies ever, and enabled the growth of one of the most catalytic industries ever (and I don't even like Microsoft).
Sorry, I know the last president the nation had has lowered the bar for everyone, but Zuckerberg is still in the minor leagues, if Jobs and Gates define the majors.
