An I-dea can change everything

People die everyday. Its one those inevitable phenomenons we all experience coupled with taxes. Some of those deaths happen to be high profile enough for the whole world to hear about... whether its on television, the newspaper or more significantly in this case, your portable tablet device.

I don’t usually get this emotionally distraught after hearing about some celebrity’s death. You really can’t blame me. When Micheal Jackson died I was sad because the whole world was sad. They aired this 9 hour long show as a tribute to MJ on MTV’s VH1 and my parents and I spent the whole day watching it. We saw Jackson do his famous moonwalk over and over again and groove to his biggest hits like “Beat it” and “Black or White”. It was supposed to be a day of mourning but the media made it seem like a colourful festival. There’s nothing wrong with that ofcourse. I’m sure the last thing MJ would’ve wanted was for us to shed crocodile tears while his disco jamming tracks rocked our music systems. No. MJ left this world the same way he came in.... with a bang!

Its not the same with Steve Jobs though. While many might find this overly dramatic, I swear to you, I felt a lump in my throat when I first heard about his death. As an engineer myself, I feel somewhat connected to him. No wait... that came out wrong. Let me rephrase that. As a FAILING engineer myself, I feel somewhat connected to him. Ahh yes, that’s more like it.

I first heard the name, “Steve Jobs” sometime in the year 2003. My family and I were returning from a vacation in Australia and they just happened to air the famous “Pirates of the Silicon Valley”, movie on the flight. Ofcourse, none of it made sense to a 12 year old version of yours truly. In fact, to tell you the truth, I didn’t even watch it. My dad watched it the whole way. The funny thing was, it was playing again on Star Movies the very minute we reached home. My dad insisted I watch it. That pissed me off cuz I had purchased this awesome looking boomerang and was dying to test it. But sigh... he was my dad after all.

So I watched it... and boy did I love it. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs! Oh what corporate drama. It was wonderful. Never in my wildest dreams did I think people with white collar jobs had to struggle so much. I mean come on, what could be so stressful about sitting in an air conditioned room and working on slick computerised machines? After watching the movie, I realised what a huge part the 2 of them played in ensuring that we actually had those funky machines in the 21st century.


Going back to the future, or should I say the present, here I am as a 20 year old budding/failing (your call) engineer with racing hormones and a burning desire to make a difference in the world. I heard about his death at around 10 in the morning thanks to a text message from my friend. I assume she learned about it through the internet. As US president, Barack Obama said, the irony is that a lot of people learnt of his death through a device he himself invented. While most derive inspiration from the fact that he was one of the greatest inventors of all time, mine comes from something a little different.

In a speech delivered at Stanford University sometime in 2005, Steve spoke about his life, his struggles along the way and the things that inspired him to become the person that he was until his last breath. I’ll share a few bits of his speech that really hit me hard.

He first spoke about joining the dots. According to him, we as individuals go through a whole bunch of fascinating or otherwise frightening experiences in life. Yes we’ve all heard that expression that says it is these very experiences that mould one’s personality. However, what’s most fruitful is if we can somehow connect these unrelated incidents like dots on a paper and join them to form a complete picture. Steve Jobs dropped out of college. He hated it! Academic knowledge meant nothing to the 20 year old Steve. “Screw studies. Let’s take up typography classes and make a living outta that”, is what he said to himself. And so he did... but trust me, at that point of time the last thing he ever thought about was becoming a multi-millionaire and global icon.

Later on in life, those very typography lessons helped him invent the different fonts that we use on our computers today. For what its worth, I’m using Calibri on MS Word. Coming back to Steve, that was what kick-started his career. He then went on to found Apple Inc., an American multinational corporation... (blah blah ... basically the dudes who invented the Ipod)... then get kicked out of his own company, and re-join it years later. During that time, he nearly died from cancer – a near death experience that he claims changed his way of thinking forever.

He spoke about all of this and more in his speech. So how do I relate to this? Well nothing really... unless ofcourse ... if you count considering dropping out of college which he did but I don’t have the balls to ever do. I don’t relate to his struggles and hardship. I definitely do not suffer from cancer... well not just yet. He’s just another guy we hear about who “overcame all odds to become the person he is” – clichéd expression. My dad always tells me about having that “fire in the belly”. I used to think about that from time to time wondering how to acquire it. What Steve jobs helped me realise is this – It is easy to keep that fire burning. What’s hard is figuring out a way to light it. Steve Jobs taught me that you only need to carry one thing with you while going out to chase a dream – an idea. An idea is the key to every success, every invention, every milestone and every revolution. An idea is what ignites that fire in the belly. What we must always remember is to never give up while searching for that idea. It’s there in all of us, somewhere beneath all that petty day-to-day muck that sticks to the soles of our feet while we tread across the dreary sands of life.


We all have different things/people that inspire us, make the hair on the backs of our necks stand up and give us the strength to go that extra mile... people that give us the fuel we need to pursue the chase for that one idea that can change our lives forever. For me that man was Steve Jobs.

RIP Steve. You will always be remembered. Whether it’s in our computers, our ipods or in our hearts, a bit of you will always remain in all of us.