Tonight, I was laughing with friends at happy hour when my
husband texted me – Steve Jobs is dead.
Steve Jobs, for as long as I can remember, has been a
legend. The man dressed in jeans and a basic black lturtleneck, had
something that I envy, vision. He could see how the personal computer would
change the world. And digital music players. And tablet computers. And smart phones.
He was the icon of the computer revolution - not that I’d
know. I’m not a geek. I’m a geek’s wife.
I have no business lamenting Mr. Jobs. I haven’t owned an
Apple product since I was 12 years old – over 20 years. And yet, his leadership
drove forward the world in which I live. He pushed forward personal computing,
graphic design, computer animation, digital music and personal technology
devices.
It wasn’t always his own ideas the pushed forward. He admits
that Woz (Steve Wozniak, a high school friend) actually invented the Apple I.
But it was he who could see where it would take the world.
He could see that a mouse would make computing something
that non-geeks (like me) could grasp.
One of the comments that I’ll never forget was one Jobs made
to the CEO of Pepsi, in an attempt to hire him away. “Do you want to stay here
and push sugar water, or do you want to work for me and change the world?” He decided to change the world.
I have no idea if that is an accurate quote. I have no
intention of checking to see if it is.The point is, he was confident. And he had an amazing faith
in himself.
He wasn’t without fault. But death is not a time to count
faults. It is a time to celebrate achievements.
I envied him. And always will.
"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," he said in the 2005 Stanford speech. "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."
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