I woke up to the news Steve Jobs passing away today. Kinda reminded me of that August Day last year when MJ pulled off a similar stunt. My mom woke me up with the news of his death then. She didn’t do much today and in fact I had to tell her about Steve Jobs. All I got was a puzzling expression mixed with a considerable notion of I don’t really care. Which was sad. Because Steve Jobs for me was a bigger rock star than the King of pop. And he deserved that someone like my mom knew him. That’s what we all strive for after all in someway.
But then, it dawned, Steve wouldn’t have cared too much. It wasn’t his dream to be loved and accepted by all. It didn’t bother him. That he changed lives through his art isn’t his legacy really.
Nor are the game changing products that were born out of his singular vision that people will (or perhaps should remember him by). That was just an output, and that isn’t of much of value. For if that was the case his genius would have stopped with the iMac or the iPod. His vision was what made him unique and what made him Steve Jobs. And that can’t be left behind, it just remains for people to see, not take.
And a legacy left behind is worth nothing until it is taken.
And that legacy that he left behind is his outlook to work.
We, guys like me, we owe Steve, for instilling a belief of what work ought to be. To inspire us to make things better, perfect. To believe in the extra ordinary and the will to create it.
It doesn’t matter if I am not an Apple fan. If I don’t understand why people act like little children every October over the things they bring out. It won’t matter what they do ahead without his bespectacled vision. It won’t matter if his products changed the world or not. It needn’t. For what Steve has done is to show young kids, far beyond the realms of Cupertino, a way. He has shown us what to do with our time in this world.
