Steve Jobs has been dead for over a decade. And yet, his name still flares across feeds, newsletters, podcasts, and startup panels with the glow of a living legend. For someone who’s been gone since 2011, his afterlife feels unusually busy.
It’s not hate that drives skepticism toward this enduring adulation. It’s curiosity. Why does his image remain so tightly wrapped around the idea of genius, vision, and success? Why are people still writing about him, quoting him, aspiring to be him? More provocatively, who benefits from keeping his myth alive?
This isn’t about Jobs the man. It’s about Jobs the construct.
In death, Steve Jobs has become a perfect symbol. The college dropout who made history. The fired CEO who returned a hero. The uncompromising visionary who built Apple and made us all believe in “thinking different.” His story is a clean arc, and that’s what makes it odd.
Jobs in life was flawed. Sometimes cruel. Secretive. Obsessive. But these parts are often reframed as charming quirks or necessary scars of genius. That’s how myths work. They are flattened, selected, and refined to serve a purpose. In this case, the purpose is aspirational utility.
Since this eminent man has lived and passed on, he poses certainly no PR risk. He won’t make a mistake in the future. He won’t say anything wrong anymore that could disappoint his fans. He is a fixed name in history that has left the world before there was enough time to villianize him. He will always be a frozen hero.
Silicon Valley still sees him as the patron saint of the founder myth, the belief that one man with enough vision can bend reality. It’s a useful narrative for venture capitalists, accelerators, and startup culture. It justifies risk-taking, singular authority, and sometimes bad behavior under the banner of changing the world.
Business media, influencers, and self-help gurus love quoting Jobs. From YouTubers to LinkedIn motivational posters, everyone’s got a Jobs line in their back pocket. It lends borrowed brilliance. Stay hungry. Stay foolish. Real artists ship. Sometimes, you wonder if not one is even made up.
Apple itself continues to draw power from his memory. Even Tim Cook invokes him during product launches. The minimalist design, the mystique, the loyalty, they’re all linked to Jobs’ legacy. Keeping him alive keeps Apple more than a company. It keeps it a belief system.
But the most concerning effect of the Jobs myth is what happens when people copy his attitude but not his ability. Harshness, secrecy, and chaos are mistaken for genius. Companies like Theranos and WeWork are cautionary tales of this pattern. Founders mimicking the aesthetic and ego of Jobs without his taste, restraint, or technical clarity.
The myth of Steve Jobs doesn’t just inspire. It’s often used to silence criticism. If a CEO is cruel, they’re intense. If they ignore customers, they’re visionaries. If they’re unstable, they’re just obsessed with excellence. This is how myths become excuses.
Worse still, this mythology compresses the idea of success into one narrow personality type. You stop imagining other ways to lead, to build, to create. Everything funnels toward the same model. Genius. Male. Visionary. Difficult. Triumphant.
It’s not far-fetched to wonder if someone actually wants it this way. Myths help maintain structures. The Jobs narrative keeps power concentrated in lone founders. It justifies eccentric leadership without accountability. It sells products, books, courses, and speaking gigs. It drives predictable clicks for platforms and publishers. In a world where identity is increasingly shaped by algorithms, the ideal human keeps being served back to us. Jobs fits that mold too well to retire.
If we are to move past the myth, we need to imagine new models of power and creativity. Collaborative genius. Emotional intelligence as a form of insight. Builders who don’t burn their teams down. Visionaries who can be kind.
Steve Jobs was undoubtedly brilliant. But the real question isn’t whether to admire him. It’s this. Who decides which legacies we inherit, and what parts of them we’re allowed to see?
Of course, no matter what I say, you will still see an article idealizing Steve Jobs later. It’s up to you to think for yourself.
Author: Michael Abioye
Lagos, Nigeria
Senior Writer
