What do Frijid Pink, Marc Cohn and Norman Greenbaum all have in common? They were all One Hit Wonders. I remember hearing “Come On Eileen” for the first time and thinking Dexys Midnight Runners might be the next Beatles, a prediction that proved to be a bit off.
Producing even one hit should be celebrated though. Think of all the No Hit Wonders (quick – name a song by Jessica Simpson or Mandy Moore). One hit is an amazing accomplishment, although the person or group behind the one hit may be forgotten more easily than the song itself.
One major accomplishment in business is also something to celebrate, even if the person behind it is someone we don’t remember. The list of one hit wonders in business is too large to print. And that’s why I believe Steve Jobs will go down as the most remembered innovator in our time. As it stands today, he is a three hit wonder. First, he brought the power of computing into our homes when he created the Apple Macintosh during the 1970s and 1980s. Then, he took over Pixar and built a new metaphor for animation during the 1990s. And now, iTunes and the other iStuff has not only redefined how we buy music and other forms of entertainment, but also the entire economic and distribution model for entertainment.
Certainly Bill Gates and Jack Welch are deserved legends in their fields. My admiration goes more towards Jobs than the others, perhaps because he has done three times something that is so hard to do even once. He built from nothing three different businesses that affect most of us in the morning (riding to work with iPods), afternoon (many people are on their Macs throughout the day), and evening (“Up” was one of the best summer movies and iTV is growing in popularity).
It was wonderful to see Steve Jobs return to work last week. A fourth hit would not surprise me.
