The last couple of days have been sort of surreal with Steve Jobs’ passing and all. Already there have been reports of memorials appearing at Apple stores around the globe, fellow innovators spanning everyone from Bill Gates (Microsoft) to Larry Page (Google), John Lasseter and Ed Catmull (Pixar), and even President Obama have released statements expressing their sympathies and sharing their appreciation for the profound effect that Steve’s work has had on their lives.
One thing I can’t help but take away from all of this is an unexpected sense of inspiration to go out and do amazing things in the wake of this incredible man’s footsteps…
(you can also find a tribute version of the above Apple commercial from 1997 that replaces the imagery with clips of Steve himself over the years…)
It’s kind of funny that earlier today I saw a random comment on Facebook where an older woman was encouraging people to “power down all of their Apple devices tonight in honor of the man who had created them,” and all I could do was snicker at that thought because my best guess is that this would be the last thing that a guy like Steve Jobs would want people to do. This is a man who loved technology and had an intense passion for making our computers personal once again, and so instead of temporarily stepping away from all of that in memory, I’d like to think that his best tribute would be from those who can’t put their devices down in spite of this loss, and of course, those who will be working into the wee hours of the night all weekend and in the months to come in search of the next next big thing.
A couple more quotes to close on – first, I particularly liked how President Obama closed his remarks:
“There may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.”
And finally, from Steve himself:
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking and don’t settle.”
“Stay hungry, stay foolish.”
Time to get to work…