“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.”
– Stanford commencement speech 2005
So, I’ve went back and forth in my mind how I wanted to write a blog post to honor the passing of Steve Jobs. Did I want to take the path of you never know how long you have on this planet or what. That would be easy, especially with the quote from Steve above. And after seeing the movie Courageous, it would be even easier. But, I think that would be taking the easy way out.
I think I will take a different road. Fitting don’t you think? I mean the success of Apple is due to Steve taking a different road. Going places no one has ever been. Jobs and Steve Wozniak made personal computing a reality. I mean how many companies including IBM said no to personal computers? Sometimes if you want to make a mark on this world you have to take a different path. You have to be willing to take the road, not less traveled, but never traveled. You have to blaze a new trail and then have the leadership to take people down that road.
Now keep in mind that I don’t own any Apple products and probably never will. I am a Google/Android fan and will probably stay that way. But I have to honor what Steve Jobs has done for the PC and smartphone/table industry. He has pushed the envelope so far out that everyone has struggled to keep up. He has singled handily pushed RIM almost out of business. Google is being pushed by Apple and Apple is being pushed by Google. Both companies only get better with this which with Steve’s passing is the problem facing the world today.
Who’s next?
Who is now willing to step up and be the next great visionary? The federal government has already shut NASA out. Children these days don’t want to be astronauts. Why? We are taking the road always traveled. No more shuttle missions and nothing to replace it. Schools these days allow kids to take the easy way out.
If our children continue to take the easy road then we won’t have any more new innovations. We won’t have the wow factor anymore when it comes to new hardware or software. We must start pushing our children to be the next Steve Jobs.
Apple once ran an ad campaign title Think Different. Our kids must start thinking differently than we did. We must push them in that direction.
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