Remembering Steve, again.


I remember sitting down to write a blog post about the passing of Steve jobs roughly a week after it happened .
For one week I couldn't gather my thoughts . I couldn't get my head around that news . I tried but I couldn't convince myself . Eventually when I got myself to write something , it was a paragraph . I was all teared up and there was no way I could write anymore . 
Couple of months later, my friends happened to gift me a copy of his biography by Walter issacson . He describes, towards the end of the book , how jobs had become frail and weak because of his illness .
That description , and I keep saying this to everyone , is one of the best I have ever read or heard . But It disturbed me . I was upset . 
And now , some time ago , I came across what is claimed to be the last photo of Steve jobs . 
Dressed in loose fitting black clothes and wearing his, now iconic, round rimmed glasses, a thin , frail looking , weak Steve jobs , unable to walk by himself , being supported by someone else . 

I recollect his speech to a batch of Stanford graduates at their graduation. There hasn't been a single occasion  when that video hasn't raised my spirits and given me renewed energy to get out there and start working on everything I've ever wanted to do.
Among the many other parts of that speech that I keep reading to myself over and over , this one stands out .
"If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
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"

As I read that passage once more , I glance down at that last photo of his.
Suddenly , I can't think of what to say anymore . 

That picture only reiterates what he said . One day he is the leader of the world's most valuable company . The next , he needs someone else's support to move around. And it could happen to anyone. So if you have something to do , to do it now, do it well and do it only if you love it.

That picture is going to stay in my head forever. I'm not going to put it up here because that's not how the world should remember him. 
I've never met the man. Or even spoken to him. I live roughly 12,000kms from where he spent most of his time. But I've never felt closer to a person. 

Don't be trapped by dogma, he said. Something that has become increasingly difficult in today's world. But you look at his life and you know he followed that sincerely. And that gives me hope. 

His address at the Stanford convocation is something everybody should watch. He finishes by wishing, all of us, what he wished for himself. To be able to " stay hungry . Stay foolish".

The timing of this post has no significance. But this post does. It gutted me to see the man I loved and adored so much in that sad condition. 
But it shook me. And I needed to get those thoughts out of me. 
I needed to remind myself of everything he represented throughout his life. And so I went back and read all those old articles and quotes and speeches. 

Steven paul jobs changed my life . I don't know when . Or even how . Just that he did. I've been asked to think rationally . Judge logically . I can't . But that , I guess is the magic of Steve jobs. A harsh , sometimes even rude ignorance to other people's idea of rationality.

I remember how I ended that post I wrote about his passing. And I still find it apt.
Thank you Steve , for being an inspiration , a mentor . This post is for you , wherever you are . And as a tribute , I make this post from my iPod touch . Yes I am making a blogpost from my portable music player . Need I say more ?

( P.S : I made this post on my phone , but this note has automatically saved on that iPod as well so I'm going to go post it from there. I love apple )

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