When I first heard that Steve Jobs had Pancreatic cancer in 2004, my chin hit the floor. Not too many people dodge the Pancreatic cancer bullet. My cousin was dead in six months after diagnosis. It is lethal to 95% of those who contract this deadly disease. If anyone could beat the odds, I thought that Steve Jobs could. He is like a cat with nine lives that always lands on his feet.
First life: 1955 - 1974. Adopted by loving parents who gave him room to grow into a man. Later finding his purpose in life on a farm commune in India.
2nd Life: 1975 - 1985. Jobs hooks up with Steve Wozniak and convinces him to sell his creation to the world. The Apple I. Steve Jobs is no Einstein but has been gifted with the ability to know what people want before they even know that they want it. Apple Computer is born and Steve becomes chairman in 1981. At 25, he worth $239 million! The Macintosh is released in 1984 and it changed how we used a computer by clicking on little pictures with a mouse. Steve Jobs was fired from Apple Computer the following year in 1985.
3rd Life: 1986 - 1995. Steve Jobs buys Pixar Animation Studios from George Lucas, hires an amazing team and becomes a billionaire when Pixar goes public after being almost completely broke. Jobs gets back into the computer business and launches NeXT computer while still owning Pixar.
4th Life: 1996 - 2004. Apple Computer buys NeXT and Steve for $400 million. NeXT becomes the building block for OS X. First came the iMac. Then the iPod and iTunes. We got iLife which included iMovie, iPhoto and Garage Band. Life was good! This set the recording industry on it's ear and changed how we listen to and make music.
5th Life: 2004 - 2009. Steve is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and has surgery to remove the tumor. He sells Pixar to Disney for 7.4 billion and sits on their board as the largest shareholder. Then he introduced the iPhone and the App Store which has changed how we communicate with one another forever!
6th Life: 2009 - 2010. Steve Jobs has a liver transplant and takes a six month leave of absence. When he comes back to Apple Inc., the iPad is introduced and changes how we compute once again, by touch. The iPad has set the world on fire!
7th Life: 2010 to Present. Steve Jobs announces a permanent medical leave in January then resigns as CEO on August 24th, 2011.
All the wonderful things that we love have been given to us by Steve Jobs and company. It's not that he invented them, he just took existing technology and made it better. He gave us what we wanted even before we knew we wanted it. He saw the diamond in the ruff and was able to transform it into something of intense beauty. He also could inspire people to create things that they thought were impossible, to go the extra mile to make it right.
8th Life: 2011 - 2012? I wish Steve Jobs had another life left. He is only at 8! I have been supporting Apple Inc. since 1985 and know both Apple and Steve Jobs pretty well. Steve Jobs is not the type to step down. He would have to fall down to quit! I think he is at that point and he is not coming back. I hope he makes it through Christmas for the sake of his family. He doesn't have long.
I am sad that Steve Jobs will no longer be physically with us very soon. He has been fighting to stay here for the past seven years and must be very tired. What a legacy he will leave. The Thomas Edison of our generation and we have lived it with him every step of the way. It will be hard to say good-by, but we must as Steve Jobs said himself in his 2005 Stanford commencement speech. View it here: Commencement Speech
"No one want's to die. Even people who want to go to heaven, don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it and that is as it should be. Because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new." Steve Jobs
The New Apple
Will Apple Inc. be the same without Steve Jobs? It can't, and he wouldn't want it any other way. Apple will continue on Steve's course for about two more years after he is gone. After that, it will be someone else's turn to lead the way and follow their heart. If that person is at Apple, they will continue to do great things. If not, some other company will do great things and we will remember how Apple was in the good old days with Steve Jobs at the helm.
As for me, I have been Apple’s biggest cheer leader for the past 26 years and I’m not going to stop now. Keep thinking different and we’ll all be OK.
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