Leaving aside Steve Jobs's extraordinary achievements as the founder and leader of Apple, I think it is fair to say that, on this side of the Atlantic at any rate, few of us have much idea of what sort of person he was. Insofar as we gave the matter much thought, we probably saw him as a brash, "in your face" member of the post-hippie generation, but the following statements made by him serve to cast him in a different light:
- “When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
- “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.”
- “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
Wonderful advice, but how difficult to follow!
Hello Papa! These comments are, in my opinion, also to be interpreted as ones made by a rather ruthless man, rather than "words of wisdom". Here is what a friend of mine wrote on FB after Jobs' death and sums up pretty well my own general feeling about the guy:
ReplyDelete"A tip of the hat to the man who changed the landscape of not one but four entirely different industries - Lord Jobs is truly unprecedented. I use Apple & love it, but it's always intrigued me that Jobs is a cult character & people choose to put the Apple logo on their car bumper sticker, laptop, bag, bike etc...what was a challenger brand is now actually omnipresent as a lifestyle must-have rather than the actual commodity it is. All respect but Jobs was a pharaoh-like freak...fiddled Wozniak out of $5,000 cash in the 1st ever paying job with Atari, killed all corporate philanthropy when he returned to Apple, refused to review sweat shop suppliers & not cent to charity, social, environmental, or design initiatives on his death. Microsoft, McDonald's & Nike gets all the shit but Apple does not. Amazing."
In other words, yes the guy was a genius and it is sad he died so young, but NO he didn't "change the world". I have way more admiration for Bill Gates as a human being; now HE is certainly trying to change the world --in a good way!
Dubai Anon
Everything you say about Steve Jobs is probably true. What is more, Jobs was, by his own admission, a bully at school and if there is one thing I cannot stand it is a bully. I am sure that if by some freak of fate I had ever met Jobs I would have cordially detested him.
ReplyDeleteBut just because one doesn't like or approve of someone, it doesn't follow that everything he or she says should be rejected out of hand. When Steve Jobs said: "Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart”, I think he put his finger on something very important and true.
Completely agree about the truth of the words, Papa. I was only trying to say that this line of thought ("there is no reason not to follow your heart" --so if your heart tells you to bully others, that's fine?) comes a little blurry in light of who the man was: somebody who felt, apparently, very little respect and empathy for others. Again, I am only talking about the human aspect of the guy, not at all about his amazing creative (opportunistic?) talent.
ReplyDeleteGreetings Barnaby
ReplyDeleteYour son/daughter's (I assume that is who' anonymous' is) comment is thought provoking - please thank him or her.
On the more positive side I believe Steve Jobs also spent millions on trying to find a cure for the scourge of malaria at a time when all the media/celeb-type publicity was focused on cures for HIV AIDs. More sadly for me anyway was his reported agnosticism if not aestheism.
However on the latter there is good pun doing the rounds; upon his arriving at the pearly gates of his gaining entry to the kingdom of heaven by offering to update Moses' Tablets.