What is the one business characteristic that you would like to mimic of Steve Jobs?

His ability to do inspiring presentations. Watching one of his presentations/keynotes is like attending a clinic on how to inspire a crowd. I read somewhere that he does 10 hours of preparation for a 30 minute speech. It shows. His presentations are flawless while looking effortless and he has the crowd in the palm of his hand. He's everything Steve Ballmer isn't. He's poised, clear, and focused. He's passionate without being theatrical (In Ballmer's case, theatrical to the point of ludicrousness), there are no filler words (um's, uh's, well's, etc.) and no repeated mantras (Developers, developers, developers, developers...) and he's inspiring and encouraging without being patronizing.

Jobs has a great deal of passion and perserverance. When he first conceived of where we wanted to take Apple and the world they weren't ready- he stumbled and lost control of the company. He perservered and as a result played a significant role in how the world looks at and applies technology today.
He didn't have to be "right", but he believed in his vision and played for all the marbles. I greatly admire that, it requires a good deal of personal integrity and fortitude.

A strong conviction in yourself and what you are capable of coupled with the strength to follow it through.

Given the right set of circumstances and a lot of personal perserverance and persistance, there is a potentiality to be like Steve in all of us. Cheers, Val.

First, his ability to bet (and win) that his product intuitions were exactly what consumers wanted - even if consumers themselves didn't know what they wanted! Second, is ability to inspire loyalty among his employees (despite having a reputation of being somewhat harsh).

Perseverance.

This video inspired the answer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zqrR93eO-8

Make your life your passion

He earned your trust - and consequently, you trusted Apple. He did this through constant pursuit of excellence, knowing what you wanted before you knew yourself, persuasively telling you want you wanted, and never letting the last best thing be enough.

Steve Jobs had the ability, as he called it, to Stay Hungry and Stay Foolish simultaneously. It might sound simplistic but this is a tremendous business trait that I try to practice myself.

Ironically, this was the quote on the back cover of the final edition of the Whole Earth catalog - how many of you remember that publication?

Steve created innovative products that changed the way people receive, process and interact with information, entertainment and social interactions and did so with a keen sense of design and detail. He created mass market demand for products that people did not want to wait for and thereby left the competition fighting for second place with products that sell for less because they are less.

His leadership!

He lived Shakespreare's line - To Thyne Own Self Be True.

He was WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) always. He had the courage to be genuinely himself in the face of both praise and condemnation and in doing so, gave us the courage to be as well.

Courage when it was difficult and unproven, and Confidence. (yes, that's two, but really does anyone have just one?)

A characteristic I'd love to mimic from the great Steve Jobs would be persistency. Jobs has had many competition over the past years, Windows' very own Bill Gates and the founders of HTC are the main ones but Jobs still kept persistent in his work. His items are great. I love using the new iPhone 4S!

I most admire his ability to turn a vision into reality.

He said "Create Without Constraint". That is something that very few actually do. It's extremely hard to think completely out of the box. I give Steve a lot of credit for having done that.

Commitment to Innovation

Love what you do an do what you love. He gives/gave new meaning to 'think outside the box," In fact, he created one that never even existed before!

People like Jobs (and Einstein and Edison and the Wrights and Carlson of Xerox fame, etc.) and a host of other true visionairies are unique because they are bundles of often dissonant and, just as often, negative elements. Jobs, an often vicious taskmaster, was no exception. Nor was he always right in his decisions: for example early in Apple's growth, Bill Gates reportedly offered to share the code for DOS with Apple to which Jobs replied that he didn't need the help but would develop his own OS. At that time, the burden of creating a unique OS competitive with DOS and Windows was not what Apple needed.

But Jobs was right when it really counted: when technology had caught up with his vision.

So in short, one does not emulate people like Jobs. Instead, one tries hard and does what he or she can do, leaving the genius that was Jobs to posterity.

Such a great question, Sonya. I would have to say it was visionary leadership.

DIFFERENTIATION from all competitors. That's the bottom bottom line of what has made Steve Jobs' Apple the overwhelming success it is.

Al Shultz
www.alshultz.com

The abilities to inspire each and everyone to internalise his values and beliefs.

Love this question Sonya!

I think it's about "Transforming your self and your business until you get to where you want to be."

Wrote a blog post on this:
http://www.businesstransformationcoach.com/2011/10/steve-jobs-transforming-in...

@SandraBaptist

Oh Yes! I was living and playing there. My first job in California was at Sailboats Sausalito. Do you remember the Sausalito Rowing Club? Did you ever run/walk the DIPSEA Trail? When I arrived in Marin you could walk across the highway, at Marin City, without paying much attention to the traffic either way. Do you remember when the rainbow tiles over the tunnel were going for $1? A VERY Magical time.

Commitment to Innovation

Vision, design sensibility, and skill and tenacity to realize both.

In his style of keeping it simple and using 'just 3 things'...
1. Using Intuition,
2. Keeping the vision
3. Tuning out the critics as the journey unfolds

Oh, and just one more thing...
His presentation style--love seeing the Master!

His singular vision, and the clarity of and his commitment to that vision.