“there is no reason not to follow your heart.” - steve jobs

It’s 2011. In 2003, I bought my first Apple product – an iPod Classic (even though back then it was just an iPod). In 2006, I bought my second Apple product – a first generation MacBook Pro.  In 2007, I bought my third Apple product – a first generation iPhone. In 2009, I bought my fourth and fifth Apple products – an iPhone 3GS and an iPod Shuffle (side note: I wish I could find that iPod). In 2011, I bought my sixth Apple product – a first generation iPad. I’m now contemplating my seventh and eighth Apple product purchase. Since the age of 14, if there was an electronic device that I was going to purchase and Apple made it, I would without a doubt by the Apple product over any other brand without a doubt.

Today is a day I will not forget.  It will rank up there with those days where you remember where you were when something significant happened – April 19, 1995, the death of Osama Bin Laden, September 11, 2001, the day you became a Christian, the day you graduated from college, and the day the greatest entrepreneur of the 21^st century died – Steve Jobs.

Earlier this year, Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs, stepped down as CEO of the company.  After the announcement was made, bloggers, journalists and the like released their thoughts on his resignation, most of them sounded more like obituaries.  The thoughts of earlier in the year sound very similar to the words being said tonight.  Words that describe the legacy of entrepreneurialism that Jobs lived. In the August 26, 2011 issue of the Wall Street Journal, in the Opinion section, had an article entitled “The Importance of Jobs”, said these words of wisdom for each of us who want to learn to be entrepreneurs like Jobs.

“… One lesson here is that the most successful business leaders often have many failures, large and small, along the way. The difference is that they learn as much from failure as they do from success. Another lesson is that the future belongs to risk-takers, who sense opportunities when others see only folly or danger… America has always managed to escape its economic difficulties, and to create new industries, because it has provided the likes of Mr. Jobs with the freedom to pursue their dreams and the rewards for doing so. Their invention and drive can’t be discovered by a loan committee at the Department of Energy or planners at the Pentagon. They are the result of human ingenuity and passion, which are too often stultified by government rules and controls… But the real sources of prosperity are breakthroughs that create products or services for which there is no current demand. Americans didn’t know they needed, much less wanted, an iPod until Apple invented it. Many people said there was no need for a digital tablet, since most Americans already had a cellphone or BlackBerry and PC. Mr. Jobs thought that if he built it, people would come. He was right… The current economic malaise has made Americans doubt our ability to grow and prosper as the country always has. As long as we remember that the source of that prosperity comes not from government managers but from restless, relentless individuals like Steve Jobs, we will.”

A 21 year old started a business in his garage, a man and business that has changed the world – what are you doing with your life to change the world?

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I may not have owned every Apply product that has come out since I started buying electronics – but I have been to the mother ship – 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California.

[Apple Headquarters - August 2011]

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.” - Steve Jobs