Steve Jobs 1955-2011
This was how I felt when John Lennon died: Grateful for growing up with the music that changed the world yet, needlessly stripped from the creativity that helped me to better know myself and my own potential.
Steve Jobs shared such an ability to create from nothingness–technology that we had never seen before but which was instantly familiar. There is a luminous quality about such innovation. I am deeply grateful to him for this, and at the same time I am deeply sad. Cancer. Yuck.
We will never know what other gems Mr. Jobs may have plucked from our collective unconscious and made real. I hurt. Only the early and senseless death of a true artist can stir this particular type of loss and grief.
The commencement speech Steve Jobs gave at Standford is re-circulating tonight. Below I share some of my favorite words from this speech and here is the link to the entire piece–just in case you have yet to watch it.
“I look in the mirror every morning and ask myself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” Whenever the answer has been, “No” for too many days in a row I know I need to change something. Remembering that I will be dead soon is the most important tool I have ever encountered to help 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 loose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. Death is the destination we all share. Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old and makes 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 other’s 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 want to become. Everything else is secondary.“
May you rest in peace, Mr. Jobs, and may your family and friends find comfort in their many memories of you.
