My Ode To Steve Jobs

Artwork by @Frank Lv Guo Hui

I wrote this on Facebook Notes yesterday, the day Steve Jobs passed, and thought I'd post it here as well:
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Until now my Facebook Wall and Twitter still have some commemorative messages of Steve Jobs. A pure testament of how much lives he has touched and changed throughout this earth.

It's not just the legacy that he has left behind, nor just how great an inventive mind he has; but it was the way he lived.

He has been battling pancreatic cancer for more than a decade now, he knows what it's like to be facing death everyday. But instead of calling it quits, he lived everyday like it was his last. And he only did things that he had passion for.

Those who know me know that I'm somewhat against Apple products (OK fine, I'm totally against). I don't own a single Apple item, and I refuse to instal i-Tunes even if I would need it to purchase songs off the internet or listen to pod casts. So naturally, I don't bother with any news of him or Apple. But seeing today how much the world loves him, it's clear that he's more than just an inventor, more than just a trend changer, more than just the Superman of Silicon Valley.

I found many of his quotes and his life stories all over the internet that showed why he is who he is. And I watched a fifteen-minute video of a speech he gave during a graduation ceremony in Stamford back in 2005, titled How To Live Before You Die.

His wisdom shone and he inspires because he walked the talk. He set his mind early on to do what he loved because he knew life is short. His vision is clear and he changed the world through and through because he was the embodiment of both courage and foolishness. Above all else, he had heart.

Even though Steve Jobs is not my hero in the world of technology (though I have to admit I am affected through the secondhand smoker syndrome), but he is my new hero in the way of life.

I know not all of us are lucky enough to be able to do what we love or what we have passion for. But perhaps this could be a wake-up call for you to reflect on your own life. Steve looked at himself everyday in the mirror and asked if he was doing what he wanted to do. If the answer was a "no" a few days in a row, he knew it was time for a change.

Don't be afraid if you need to change. Change, in this whole world, is the only constant. Be more afraid of stagnation. Be more afraid of your comfort zone. Be more afraid if you have stopped learning. For we are all moving to the same final destination - take it from Steve for he knew this intimately - we are all moving towards death.

But question is, how will you get there? That's most important. For Steve, he changed the movie industry, the music industry and the computer industry. He changed the lives of millions by adding colours into our world and made sure we had the best. What about you, what have you done today? Wake up!