Tonight, October 5th, 2011, the world lost one of it's greatest minds and imaginations.
Steve Jobs, creator of Apple inc, one of the most successful companies in recent history, has passed away, losing a battle to cancer. Last month, jobs retired the CEO position, but planned to stay in a position on the board.
The death of Steve Jobs casts a dark shadow for many reasons, the largest of which may be because with him, goes one of the greatest imaginations the world has ever seen. The power of imagination is often underestimated, and is something that is lost on the current generation, due in large part to the imagination of the century before us with the invention of the internet and television etc..
Steve Jobs is comparable to that kid in elementary school that everyone wanted to be like. When the iPod came out, other technological companies drew a blank. The Walkman went obsolete in what seemed like minutes. We saw a copy cat of the iPod in the Zune, but it came nowhere close to ever competing. Especially when a Zune stayed a Zune, and the iPod branched out into what seemed like endless versions of itself, that all included new features, that left other companies in a state of shock, only being able to install these themselves once they had seen the model from Jobs and the boys.
Jobs was one of the most intelligent men ever to walk the earth, not only tech wise, but business wise as well, and here's why: Most people would agree that technology is ever changing, and it seems as though as instantly as a new piece of technology is released, it becomes obsolete, which reigned true through Steve Job's entire career at Apple. Jobs knew what the people wanted, and he gave it to them. It's really that simple. People in this day and age are always looking for the next best thing, and Jobs was, without fail, always there to give it to them.
Of all these things, the imagination, the smarts, the business brilliance; one thing stands out above them; Humility. Jobs was quoted as saying “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” This is an incredibly inspirational quote. Jobs was a millionaire, a hundred times over, and it didn’t matter to him one bit. Like I said before, imagination is nearly a dead concept, and humility may be well on its way as well, and Jobs had both of these, in copious amounts. The world not only lost a man today, the world lost a true inspiration. RIP, Steve.
