An Icon of Our Time

When Steve Jobs died on Wednesday, he left behind a legacy that few, if any of us will be able to match. I am not a very tech savvy individual, nor am I a huge Steve Jobs fan but I do believe that the Rennaisance man of our age has been lost to us. While some of us may not agree with the way he lived his life or his business ethics, we must stand back and admire the visionary abilities he had. Being alive during the same era as Mr. Jobs is a little bit like having lived at the same time as DaVinci or Michaelangelo.

Above all, I admire the way he lived his death. None of us will know the dreadful toll that pancreatic cancer took on him because he kept his illness quiet. Although he was as rich as Croessus, he didn't spend his last days flying around the planet looking for miracle cures. By all resports, he spent his final weeks with his wife and kids, and with the family members he remained in contact with. He gathered a few close friends around him, and almost no business associates. He said that he regretted not being able to spend more time with his children, but in the end, he was able to do just that. He once said that having children was "10,000 times better than anything I've done". For a man of his accomplishments, that's saying a lot.

My favorite quote from him came from his now-classic 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, "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.” If we can live by that thought, he will have left a far greater legacy than he ever dreamed of.