Adieu Steve Jobs

I don't know why, the news has affected me more than I expected.

I was talking to my Dad over the phone about this, and he said. "Pity, he won't be able to enjoy his retirement."

Thing is, I think he didn't have to have a retirement to enjoy his life. He was doing what he loved, he got excited every day and he enjoyed every moment of what he did, as it was evident to see.

Listening to his 2005 Stanford commencement speech, he followed his heart and his head (his parents couldn't afford his expensive college fees, so he dropped out and started a company out of their garage instead), office politics of the worst kind - maybe even betrayal (the CEO he brought in to lead Apple ousted him out of the company), and through it all, the love for what he did kept him going, reaching the heights greater and greater.

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

“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. 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 lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

“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.”