Friday 7 October 2011

Steve Jobs (1955-2011) - focused and reflective on what is truly important in life, with no shortcuts!

In some very touching remarks Steven Jobs made during his memorable commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005, he considered his own death and envisioned how his last years at Apple could become his finest (which they were!)

"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."

One can listen to some more or read the whole thing here - a very powerful word to us all.

Though they never met in person, Steve even mentored a physician and changed health care!

Steve Jobs ran counter to the shallowness of what many of leaders in business have been about in recent times.  For him there was no seeking of subsidies, no sweetheart deals, no courting friends in Washington, no bailouts.  Just a hard working, gutsy guy with tremendous vision, very high standards, and a solid commitment to his family who kept focused on what would make life better for a huge percentage of the world's population.

So sad he's gone - but long live the spirit of Steve Jobs!

-Clair in Canberra

1 comment:

  1. Clair - I think that Jobs did a lot of things that not too many folks knew about - he was a very private person. So much has been written about Jobs that I felt that I could not add much, although I did post a video of his Stanford address on my blog - http://dougandrhonda.blogspot.com/2011/10/jobs-tebow-apples-oranges.html

    I am going to join your site and invite you to join mine :-)

    paz

    doug

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