Steve Jobs 1955-2011 (apple.com)
I did not know Steve Jobs. I was not lucky enough to be able to say that I met him. Or even saw him in person, for that matter. So I cannot sit here and pretend to write that I lost a friend, or a mentor. I cannot pretend to know all about Steve Jobs’ life and contributions.
But at the same time, I do know about Steve’s contributions to life. I have used his company’s products for years. In fact, Steve Jobs and Apple have affected nearly every day of my life for the past 7 years…
In 2004 I made the switch from PC to Mac when I got my first MacBook Pro laptop and I haven’t looked back. The interface just makes sense to me. It works, and it works well. It’s reliable. It looks nice.
I was a bit late to the iPod scene, not getting one until 2006, but you know what? I still have it and use it. Every day. Talk about value… Even though iPods have advanced many generations over, my 5-year-old iPod is still doing its job. It can’t connect to the internet or run apps, but it still stores, organizes, and plays my music like it was designed to do.
And the iPhone? Well, that’s a whole different story. The iPhone came out and I wanted it. Badly. Too bad I was locked into a contract with Sprint. More generations of iPhones were released, each with more and more features. My contract was painstakingly renewed against my will. So I waited. (Im)Patiently. By the time I was free of contract, we were on the iPhone 4. But I knew another one was just around the corner so I figured I’d wait, just a little bit longer. The iPhone 4S was announced on October 4th, 2011, and I was finally going to get one.
The very next day, Steve Jobs passed away on October 5th, 2011. As selfish or as stupid as this might sound, I almost feel cheated. I will finally get an iPhone, but Steve Jobs was taken from us. At least I will know that I will be in possession of the last device that Steve had a direct impact on. So whenever I use my iPhone 4S, I will think of Steve Jobs. Whenever I listen to music on my iPod, I will think of Steve Jobs. Whenever I use my computer, I will think of Steve Jobs.
Because if you think about it, the world would have never been the same if Steve Jobs didn’t think, “I can change the world.”
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs
For more on the reflection of Steve Jobs and his incredible impact on our world, The Next Web has a wonderful collection of thoughts, tweets, videos, and quotes in honor of Apple’s legendary leader.
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