Apple every day.....

Apple everyday……..

      “Truth… be told… I never graduated from the college, this is the closest I ever got to the college graduation……” the stunning speech moves on, looking back, connecting the dots, telling the three stories of his life, Steve captures the audience, tries to explain to the young graduates at Stanford University, his story, his philosophy of life, beginning from his birth which nobody would love to have the way it was to the rendezvous with death that was aborted, inspiring it was in 2005 and still is, things told as they were and life shown as it was, it now is part of the legend that Steve is.

      Born to an unwed mother, a college dropout explains to the graduating students in the modest possible but in the subtlest way that the college education and the success don’t always converge. What one loves to do and what the system wants him to follow don’t often make an inspiring story. Those who follow heart, do what they love to do, work hard and don’t lose faith, ultimately stand to deliver the address to the students in spite of not being a college graduate. This is the message Steve conveyed by his own example.

    A college student who realized he was spending everything on what he didn’t like and had no idea what he wanted to do, decades on nothing seems to have changed. “The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.” He would sleep on floor, return coke bottles to save money for food and walk seven miles on Sunday to get a nice meal at Krishna temple. From such a hardship to making the Apple computer, the story has everything from dating to hacking, all the youthful fun and lot of innovations, application of mind. It was Apple that put Steve in the limelight.

   From Apple to Macintosh, he was relentless in his efforts to give breakthrough in computing that would universalize use of computers. His success at apple, unceremonious exit from it, NeXT, Pixar and back to Apple through another door and a huge turnaround in favour of Apple under his leadership as interim CEO when world saw ‘i’ revolution from iPod to iphone with many other ‘i’s in between, enough to inspire a movie, a story of success, of triumph of self belief, excellent teamwork and many more attributes of leadership.

   The success gives the limelight whose shadow is always enough to hide the failures. The motivating story has many hidden dark spots, many failures, huge losses, broken dreams, disappointments, no hope, no direction, everything that comes with the failure to destroy, above all, self belief. Here Steve is different. He never surrendered to the loss of self belief, never allowed to diminish faith in what he did but what makes him exceptional, qualifying him to a legendary personality is he converted those moments of despair to the voyage to new horizon. He was unstoppable in his crusade to do things monumental, pursue it differently, remarkable in picking the talents to team up for him, selling them the big dream of changing the world and was phenomenal in his ability to capture the imagination of the world.

    Who was he? An outstanding leader, exemplary entrepreneur, biggest showmen, legendary inventor, a visionary, incorrigible optimist or an explorer whose insatiable appetite to succeed in big way made him what he was. Behind his achievements hidden are his financial losses, failed projects but connecting the dots, they proved crucial in his future ventures that changed the rules. After making Apple, Macintosh he explored other possibilities in NeXT, Pixar. Who would have imagined the success of animation film Toy Story from Pixar? From computer to animation film to ipods he wished his creation would be rated as technological marvel. He was brilliant in catching the breakthroughs in technological research and simply great in visualizing and incorporating it in the innovations he was best at. He was never above the humane limitations, accused often of being eccentric, intemperate in his approach but they stemmed from his obdurate faith in his vision. He did fail in his pursuit on number of occasions but never say die attitude showed him the way.

   When the world wanted a computing machine he came with the idea of personal computer, nobody ever thought of an animation movie as a blockbuster he gave Toy Story, when the world was relishing the digital music he sold the unbelievable concept of iPod, 1000 songs in the pocket, when we were talking on mobile phones he unleashed iPhone which revolutionized the way we handled phone. Every time it was like the dream product that the world wanted, may be the world never imagined something of kind that would grab its hidden aspiration, it always came as a shock and we watched and coveted it with awe.

    ”……….. Because almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in face of death, leaving only truly what is important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart……………”, the Stanford speech touches his encounter with death. He was graceful, intensely private in accepting his departure. He was like a butterfly, you cannot dictate terms to it, sit here, go there…. And yes, its beauty lies there only. He lived the life the way he wanted, did what he loved, failed on occasions but still loved what he did, he dreamed big, and wanted the world to associate and participate in it, he entered our imagination, took us to his innovative world, we all followed him. He took us to Apple, showed us Macintosh, then to NeXT, to Pixar, introduced animation movie and then to the ultimate destination, back to Apple, filled our space with iPods, iPhones……, now we have Apple everyday but …....................Steve is away.