Today, just one day after announcing a slew of new gadgets and showing off yet more amazing software that seems futuristic, Apple replaced their homepage with an image none of us wanted to see. At the age of 58, Steve Jobs lost his battle with cancer and passed away. I've never cried for a celebrity before, but then again I've never had such a high-profile figure so deeply impact my life like Steve Jobs' work has done with mine. I'm truly at a loss for words right now as I try to articulate what a loss I feel from this. Steve Jobs was the Thomas Edison of my generation, an innovator and thinker that I had the incredible privilege to experience in my lifetime. The products I use every day exist because of the passion and vision of this one man. He changed the level of the game every other marketer was playing by changing the way we see and use computers, phones, movies, and more. In 2005 Jobs gave a notable commencement speech at Stanford and almost every line of it resonates in my life right 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.
Thank you Steve. Thank you for having the courage to stand by your convictions. Thank you for refusing to settle for "good enough". Thank you raising the bar. Thank you.