Remembering Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Steve Jobs, who revolutionized the worlds of personal computing, music and mobile phones, with his genius for spotting curve breaking products much ahead of rivals, died on Wednesday at the age of 56 after a years-long battle with pancreatic cancer. The co-founder of Apple Inc, one of the world's great entrepreneurs, was surrounded by his wife and immediate family when he died in Palo Alto, California.

The news of his death, announced by Apple -- a company which Jobs founded and later revived to make it become the world’s most valuable company, sparked an immediate outpouring of sadness and sympathy from world leaders, competitors including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg; and most importantly the Apple loyalists – the ordinary people who just loved Apple Products.

Seen both as an eccentric (pricky, overbearing) AND an unmatched genius as many, the world appears deeply saddened by Jobs demise; with the pouring in their grief in different forms.

Apple is paying homage to their visionary leader by putting on Apple website homepage, a big black-and-white photograph of him with the caption "Steve Jobs: 1955-2011". In addition, the flags outside the company's headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop flew at half mast.

This is what Apple said on Steve’s demise:

"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."

Even during his life time, whenever admirers of Steve Jobs, talked about him, they would talk about how he never able to graduate from College (left the college degree programme, in less than three months of taking admission), even when the couple who adopted Steve as infant were made to promise his biological parents that the baby boy will surely get a college degree. This very aspect of him, and other ups and downs of his life, are again being remembered by many after his departure. Steve talks about his life, even before his birth to the revival of Apple, in his celebrated 2005 Stanford Commencement Address (People are remembering Steve for his "Connecting the Dots" philosophy. The speech describes Steve's 'Connecting the Dots' philosophy. Do Listen to it, it can be game changer for you).

How Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates paid Homage to Jobs:

"The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come,".

Inspiration Behind Apple:

A follower of Hare Rama Hare Krishna or ISKCON (once a Hare Rama Hare Rama temple Sunday Meal hungry college dropout), and hence a believer in Destiny and Karma, Steve jobs was deeply influenced by the Indian spiritualism in 70s. He even visited India in 1974 as a hippie (the same hippie connection which makes many connect Steve with untidiness even now) for what he later called “spiritual retreat” and a philosophical quest. To fund his journey, he even took a job at Atari, saved money and headed for India. While in India as a hippie in quest of eternal knowledge, Jobs experimented with psychedelics, calling his “acid” or Lysergic acid diethylamide experiences ". He returned from India in the same year as a “Buddhist”; if not in practice but at least in appearance.

Jobs founded Apple in 1976 along with his college friend Steve Woznaik; with whom he used to attend after school Hewlett-Packard Company classes as well. According to Steve, he got the inspiration to found Apple, during his stay in India. In India, Steve visited Kainchi Ashram, in Nainital, in the state of Uttarakhand (the Ashram of Baba Neem Karoli or Baba Neeb Karori, considered a reincarnation of Lord Hanuman, a monkey God in Hinduism); and it’s where he is believed to have got the vision to create Apple. After his demise, many are talking about the Indian connection behind Apple. --------

Remembering Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Share This:

No comments