Final Thoughts on Steve Jobs
In his commencement address to Stanford University graduates in 2005, Jobs said, in part:
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. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. 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.
WC admires the spiritualism, and especially the courage, in those words. If you season them with true genius – and WC believes Jobs was a genius at many levels – you have the complete recipe for changing the world.
It may be that that kind of unblinking spiritualism, that kind of unflinching self-courage, is even rarer than genius.
RIP, Steve Jobs. WC’s thoughts are with your family. You changed the world for the better.
Well said, WC.
Suchanut
October 6, 2011 at 3:52 pm
i never met jobs but i did meet Woz a couple of times. the work, creativity, luck, passion and insanity impacted me in significant ways. i worked for an apple retailer up in fairbanks for many years. i started selling apple ][, ][+, //, //e, //c, //c+, ///, ///+, Macintosh, Macintosh XL, //GS...and all the cool bits & bobs that helped make cool computers insanely cool Apples. supporting Apple products all over alaska gave me trips to almost every community in the state. if there was a school i've probably been there, installing, configuring, teaching and learning every single hour of every single day. those trips rapidly built my skills, taking me forward into bigger digital environments and more complex systems. and i've worked hard to hone those skills and work in projects all over the world. again, learning more about myself and the big, big world than a kid from fairbanks could dream. along the way i've met hundreds of people, many that have become close and dear friends. The Steve's couldn't have known their work would lead me here. but i know they did.
Thanks, Steve. I couldn't have done it without you.
Dan Garrett
October 7, 2011 at 12:03 am