Bicycles for our Minds - Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs once said: "Computers are like bicycles for our minds"



I never had an iMac, iPod, iPhone or an iPad, but I have the highest respect for the positive change that he has introduced to technology and how we communicate today.

His death came as a shock to me. I knew that he was battling cancer, but I never expected him to leave so soon. On Oct 5th 2011, the world saw a great man, a true visionary in every sense of the word, leave behind a legacy of innovative products, yield of the hard work of a driven great who could see things no one else could. He famously knew what consumers wanted even before the consumers themselves knew.

After his passing on, Steve Job's commencement speech at Stanford in 2005 went viral online and most of you would have probably seen or read it. If not, you have got to.

The 3 stories that he shared are truly inspiring or mind blowing to say the least. It was like fetching water from this great well of inspiration.



"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. 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. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Most of us can probably relate to this, myself included. Very often, we find ourselves trying to live another person's life, doing something we were not born or meant to do. Are we really loving what we do and doing what we love? Having said that, it takes courage to change, a lot of courage. It's always easier said than done, though this inspiring reminder from Steve Jobs just injected new shots of courage.

"Again, 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."

This reminded me of a similar quote by Paolo Coelho in The Alchemist. Something along the line of if it was meant to be, all the elements of the world will conspire to help you achieve your destiny. It's really part of human nature to sometimes over think matters. The many "what ifs" that we often ask ourselves before a challenge can sometimes hold us down more than we ask for. While it's good to be ruled by the brain, it is also good to always remind ourselves to listen to our heart.

And last but not least,

""If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something"

I always wondered what the i stands for in Apple products. Today, through the life story and ingenious work of Steve Jobs, it might just mean inspiration, at least to me.

Since our six year old desktop recently started flashing us the blue screens of death, both Gwyn and I have been on the look out for a new notebook. Today, we settled for the Macbook Air (my first Apple product), in memory of Steve Jobs. And now I understand why they say that once you go Mac, you never look back.

May we all work towards realizing our destinies and live life to our fullest.

RIP Steve Jobs, You'll be remembered.