I'm not an Apple man. Never have been. Oh sure I have an iPod Shuffle and use iTunes to listen to my music, but that's the extent of my Apple devotion. I've always used Windows. I have a Palm Pre instead of an iPhone. My laptop is a Sony. I don't even have a tablet computer. Yet, it's hard to deny the impact the man had on the world of technology.
May I also remind you that Steve Jobs was rich - very, very rich - thanks to people like you (and me) who have purchased Apple products. As we speak, there are hundreds of thousands of protesters out in New York, Boston, and other cities demanding that the rich "pay their fair share." I cannot help but wonder how many protesters have Tweeted this on their iPhones.
Steve would not have wanted you to demand sympathy from others. He would have wanted you to go out and do something great, to come up with something fantastic and new that can change the world. Sympathy is earned. I am sympathetic toward Steve's family. I am not sympathetic toward people who demand money for doing nothing, especially when they are trust fund babies. Steve was not a man who did nothing. He made more of his life in his short 56 years than most of us do in twice that time, from inventing and reinventing Apple; to Pixar and NeXT; to defining the PC, digital music, and smartphone worlds.
Everyone has potential. Even those of you out there now, in the cold October night, hold up in tents, protesting whatever it is you read on Facebook, could be at home instead with your friends and loved ones, enjoying their company, and thinking about how you can change the world like Steve Jobs did. It's not about the money; it's about what you leave behind when you're gone.
RIP Steve Jobs, 1955-2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment