On Steve Jobs

A little off topic this morning?  Maybe.  And I certainly don't want to jump on any bandwagons - I'm far too busy trying to drive a small one.  But as a guy who has never bought a mac or anything with an "i" in front of it, I'm oddly moved by the passing of a guy who is described as a "visionary" and "innovator".  This is a guy who made a real difference doing what he loved, and I've always been inspired by people like him.  And Steve himself was very quick to often point out - it wasn't about the money.  In his own words, “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

Now I'm sure a few regular readers have just realized my connection to all of this - Hornet.  There are a few quotes of his that I think are also pretty pertinent:

"you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

"It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."

"Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?"

So I'm taking some time today to think about Steve and his vision - between everything else that is tugging at me from every angle and all the things I'm pulling my own hair out over.  The chance to take a moment out and dig deep into an idea is a tremendous luxury we can all afford.

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