What Steve Jobs taught us about living and dying
Sad to wake up this morning to the news that Apple co-founder of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, Steve Jobs has died. A statement from his family reads:
“Steve died peacefully today surrounded by his family. In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he cherished his family. We are thankful to the many people who have shared their wishes and prayers during the last year of Steve’s illness; a website will be provided for those who wish to offer tributes and memories.”
In 2005, Jobs gave a commencement speech at Stanford University, in which he shared his insights into mortality after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the previous year:
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. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
No one wants 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. Right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it’s quite true. 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.
In all the talk we will hear this week of Jobs’ legacy, these words, from a visionary, an innovator, a man who didn’t waste his life living someone else’s life is the one that will stay longest with me.
RIP Steve Jobs.
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The world has lost a creative genius.
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Remarkable man who changed the face of technology for us
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inspirational human being – sad that he is gone.
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“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish” _ Steve Jobs RIP
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Steve Jobs was a visionary, a pioneer who helped usher in tech revolutions that altered so many of our lives.
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And once more cancer robs the world of genuis, of light, of creativity….
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I will try to never forget those wonderful words “have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”
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This man was a true genius and the world will miss him.
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Just proves that in the end all of the money in the world can’t halt the inevitable, inexorable touch of cancer
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End of an era…
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I am not a techie geek, so I am not sure why this news has saddened me so much – I think perhaps I am tired of how much cancer takes from the world
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Steve Job’s death is a momentous loss from cancer – to his family and to the world. His death reminds me of how much cancer has taken and how at risk we all are. It’s just so very sad.
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Wonderfully put Debbie
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Tragic. Such a huge loss, for his family and for the world. Sigh. I’m so sick of cancer.
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Me too Nancy 😦
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Thank you for sharing his words with us…I’ve never read it before…what an eloquent reminder of how to truly live.
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Thanks Julie – it is a very eloquent reminder indeed.
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Beautiful, thanks for posting this Marie.
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Thanks x
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“And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”
Those last lines are incredibly insightful, and help stoke the (my) fire. I appreciate how he takes the fear of death and turns it into a super power – just one example of his out-of-the-box thinking. Thanks for this post and place to talk about the loss.
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And thank you for your wonderful comment Catherine x
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Marie, thanks for finding this. I heard the first paragraph on the radio and wanted a copy. I’m going to print this off and hang it on a wall, so I’m reminded. It’s truly inspiring. Thanks again for sharing it. Was wondering how I’d locate it. Marian
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Marian, you cannot know how much this means to me – that you were searching for this and found it here – thanks for letting me know 😉
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I love this excerpt, Marie. Thanks for sharing it. It has strengthened my resolve to follow the path I must choose for myself in my new life. I’ve been ruled too long by others’ opinions and their well-meaning or not-so-well-meaning advice. He was a great man and will truly be missed.
XOXO,
Jan
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I have been moved too by Steve’s passing, and by the overwhelming respect and sadness which has poured forth worldwide. And I have to confess that I had hardly heard of him before his announcement to stand down in August.
Cancer continues to steal. Thanks for your moving and respectful tribute.
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May I add a second tribute here to the world’s first posthumous Nobel Prize winner, Canadian Ralph Steinman. Like Jobs he also died from pancreatic cancer and did things his way.
He was a cell biologist who worked to fight off his own cancer with the help of his own scientific discoveries.
He completed a biochemistry degree in 1963 at McGill and earned a scholarship to Harvard University’s medical school, graduating from Harvard in 1968.He discovered dendritic cells in the early 1970s.Dendritic cells help regulate adaptive immunity, an immune system response that purges invading micro-organisms from the body.
Steinman was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer four-and-a-half years ago.
He and his colleagues developed a therapy which he used on himself.The “ultimate experiment” it could be termed.
His cancer returned late this summer. He died Friday at the age of 68. His family believe his personalised dendritic cell therapy prolonged his life and as it unfolds in future years, has the potential to assist more sick people.
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Thank you so much Coco for this tribute – and how amazing that he should be awarded the prize for the very thing that perhaps prolonged his life in the end. A remarkable story!
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i am so thankful for his enabling the birth of Pixar, for teasing out and bringing to life a part of me I thought was gone with my childhood. For someone to enable that feeling in others is one of the greatest gifts to mankind..
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