The passing of Apple founder and genius Steve Jobs leaves a cavernous hole in the unrelenting technological race to be the First and the Best. Pundits question whether Apple will be able to keep cranking out cutting edge creations that others seem only capable of feeble imitation. Time will tell.
Well-deserved accolades honoring Steve Jobs will go on and on.
The rest of us are not Steve Jobs. So how can we leave our own small mark on our world?
Each time I hike from Santa Monica to Venice Beach, I pass the very first Hot Dog on a Stick stand. In 1946, Dave Barham bought the concession stand for $400, money he borrowed from his older brother. He named his new enterprise Party Puffs. Having discovered there were no chain store distributors for corn dogs, he developed the now-famous corn dog, which could easily be eaten while walking the beach. He renamed his enterprise Hot Dog on a Stick around 1960. The unmistakable waitress costumes were designed to invoke familiarity; customers perceived a familiar person each time they were waited on. Their tall caps were meant to suggest Las Vegas showgirls. To push the scale further, his servers stood behind the counter on platforms to appear even taller. Barham died in 1991, at the age of 77, and Fredrica Thode succeeded him as the corporation’s president. Barham had hired her as a receptionist in 1980. Today, the company is an employee-owned corporation with more than 100 locations.
Barham’s governing principle was keeping things simple and making it all entertaining.
A corn dog is no Apple computer. And Dave Barham is no Steve Jobs. But keeping it simple and entertaining are values they both promoted.
When our world seems to become more complex and less fun, there’s probably a lesson there for each of us.