Thursday 13 October 2011

Steve Jobs:His I-Way to heaven


Steve Jobs-role model,fighter,enterpreneur,genius.... These are just some of the adjectives that can be used to describe this i-conic man!!!!! Ya ya the 'i' was meant to be that way. Born on February 24th 1955 to a syrian father and an american mother, Jobs was slated to be adopted right after his birth to a couple who were lawyers. But a change in decision of the lawyers saw Jobs being adopted by a middle class couple-Paul and Clara Jobs.

Steve Jobs childhood was like a normal child. He grew up and later joined Reed college. Its Tuition fees ate most of his parents savings and after a few months Jobs felt that college was doing no good. So he decided to drop out of college. This proved to be his best decision in life. But life wasnt easy at first. Since he dropped out he had nowhere to stay. He slept on the floor of his friends dorm room, sold coke bottles for five cents and ate a fulfilling meal every sunday at the Hari-Krishna temple near-by. But one thing that worked in his favour was he could take up courses of his choice. He was not obliged to stick to a curriculum. At that time Reed college provided one of the best calligraphy classes in the country. Jobs took it up. Noone would ever imagine a harmless calligraphy class would revolutionise computers so much. That class which he took proved instrumental in Mcintosh(first computer by apple) having beautiful typo-graphies. As Jobs himself said-"you can never connect the dots looking forwards.... you can only connect it looing backwards!!!!" He implied we should learn to have faith in something,it could be anything-God,Karma!!!! At first things may look haphazard but in the end it will all make sense!!!

Steve Jobs started Apple along with Steve Wozniak at his garage. They designed their first computer-Mcintosh and it was a big hit!!!! In two years Apple went out to be a 2 billion company with more than 2000 employers. A new kid had arrived in the silicon valley. He revolutionized personal computers. But then he took a decision which he would regret forever in his life. He lured John Sculled from Pepsi to become Apple's CEO. At first they worked well in sync but then as Steve turned 30, he and Sculley had a fall-out regarding the future of Apple. The board of Directors sided with Sculley and Jobs was thrown out of the Company which he had started.

Steve Jobs was completely devastated by this. He felt he had let himself down. He even thought of running away. But one fine day a thought struck him, a thought which would change the rest of his life. He still loved what he did. According to him its quintessential that we must find that one thing which we love the most. He still loved wat he was doing so there was no use of running away!!!! After that he started a company named NeXT and Pixar. Pixar went on to make the first computer animation film-Toy Story!!! And both the companes made progress leaps and bounds!!!! And as fate would have it Apple went onto buy NeXT and Steve was back to wat he had found. Later on Pixar was bought by Disney and Jobs went out to become the biggest individual shareholder in Disney with a 7% share.
He went on to release the I-Pod,I-Phone and I-Pad while being the CEO of Apple all of which were pure work of genius.

But in 2004 Steve Jobs announced that he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. At first the cancer looked incurable but after a close inspection it turned to be be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer which could be removed by surgery. All seemed well and Jobs was fine again. But it wasnt meant to be a fairy-tale. Jobs continously battled against cancer for seven years. He resigned as the CEO of Apple and went on a permnent leave. On October 5th,2011 he lost the battle against cancer. He died in his home. But his thoughts about dead were for all to admire. He never feared death. In fact according to him death was the single most beautiful creation by God. It cleared the old and made way for new. He said and i quote-"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." 

His speech at the 2005 Stanford commencement is nothing short of a masterpiece. Whenever i feel the need to be inspired i hear it. I would advice you the same. He will always be remembered for the person he was- a good human being!!!!

                                                              R.I.P STEVE JOBS








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