Steve Jobs, the co-founder and face of Apple, has died at the young age of just 56. Truly a visionary, this incredibly saddening news has been felt across the globe, with politicians and CEOs in Jobs’ rival technology companies sending out heartfelt statements lamenting the tragic loss of such a brilliant man at such a young age.
Decades ago, when he was just twenty years old, Jobs and two of his friends, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, started what would come to be one of the most profitable and market-leading companies in the world, Apple, Inc.
Starting something not just life-changing but world-changing too at the age of just twenty is truly a remarkable feat. His hard work over the thirty-six years since has led to the creation of the Macintosh, the iMac, the iPod, the iPad, the iPhone, and a company with an estimated market value of 1bn, the most valuable and visible technology company in the world.
But Apple was not the only thing that we have to thank him for. In 1986, having recently been removed from Apple after an internal power struggle that Jobs has since stated was the best thing to ever happen to him, Jobs went on to become one of the co-founders of another of the world’s most recognisable companies in the entertainment industry, Pixar. Less than a decade later, Pixar brought us the world’s first feature film entirely created by computer animation, Toy Story, a film that Jobs was producer on, and which went on to be nominated for three Academy Awards at a time when the Oscars didn’t even have a category for Best Animated Feature Film.
A year after Toy Story’s release saw Jobs’ return to Apple in 1996 that would see him take the leading role of Chief Executive Officer, making him top man of two major companies, Pixar and Apple.
Sadly, in 2004 came the tragic news that Jobs had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Five years later, he had a successful liver transplant, but in January back at the start of this year, Jobs announced that he would be taking more medical leave, leaving Tim Cook, who had taken the role of CEO previously during Jobs’ earlier medical leave, in charge of the running of Apple. In August, we then got the news that Jobs was resigning from his role as Apple’s CEO, and it is with great sadness that news has now come today that Jobs has died.
Various statements have been released from prominent people across the globe, and they are all a testament to the impact that Jobs has had not just in America, but throughout the world. The Washington Post has reprinted US President Barack Obama’s statement in reaction to this saddening news,
“Steve was among the greatest of American innovators — brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world and talented enough to do it.
By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the Internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grown-ups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: He changed the way each of us sees the world.
The world has lost a visionary. And 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.”
Wired have done a brilliant job dedicating their home page to Jobs today, printing more tributes to the great man from people as various as Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City, film critic Roger Ebert, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer, and Ed Catmull, President, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, too, have spoken out on the death of a good friend:
“Steve Jobs was an extraordinary visionary, our very dear friend and the guiding light of the Pixar family. He saw the potential of what Pixar could be before the rest of us, and beyond what anyone ever imagined. Steve took a chance on us and believed in our crazy dream of making computer animated films; the one thing he always said was to simply ‘make it great.’ He is why Pixar turned out the way we did and his strength, integrity and love of life has made us all better people. He will forever be a part of Pixar’s DNA. Our hearts go out to his wife Laurene and their children during this incredibly difficult time.”
At a graduation ceremony at Stanford University back in 2005, Jobs gave a speech that has since become well known, and though this extract from his speech from Stanford’s own website may well sound familiar to you, and may well surface many times in the coming days and weeks, there is a lot of truth and inspiration to be found in his words and it feels appropriate to reprint them now:
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
He will truly be missed.
