I had just returned to my home after an eventful day at work, when my wife broke the news of Steve Job’s demise. My first reaction was that it can’t be true, but as soon as I realized that it might be, my heart felt as if it skipped a beat. I sat on the couch, picked iPad, and clicked Washington Post app to verify whether it is really true or another one form the rumor mill. Sad, it was true! The world had lost a visionary and an inspiration to millions of us.
Deeply saddened, I spent next few hours reading about Steve Jobs on my beloved iPad. I read about his early years, how he was adopted, his struggles around education, sleeping on the floor in friend’s room, returning coke bottles for food money, getting free meals at the local Krishna temple, and how he was fired from the company he created. Listening to his iPhone and iPad launch keynotes (2007 and 2010) was a mesmerizing experience that makes one realize that Steve Jobs and his team were far ahead in understanding what customers want and deliver. During iPad keynote address, Steve mentioned that there existed a gap between laptops and mobiles that iPad is smartly going to fill. A tsunami of criticism followed but Steve’s team has proved everybody wrong. Today, there are multiple options available in the market, but the only tablet computer customers want is Apple’s iPad.
I listened to Steve Jobs’s commencement address to graduating students at Stanford University (2005) in which he mused on life, love and death. He told stories from his own life, and gave a message that was full of inspirations: Few excerpts from his speech:
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.
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.
This speech is close to my heart and holds much more significance today. Innovations such as iMac, iPhone, iPad and others are truly phenomenal but the inspiring and heartfelt words he said to a new generation of youths were worth more than all of those. Despite being diagnosed for pancreatic cancer, he lived what he preached about and gave evidence that it is possible to do so. It was the human defiance in the face of known certainty of an imminent death and the way he challenged the status-quo and lived the time before the death arrived made him truly great. The message is clear: “Your life is Your MESSAGE to the world, Make sure It's INSPIRING”
It was 4AM when I went to sleep, still tears in my eyes!
