Let Steve Jobs Inspire You

A week or so ago, I asked hydrotion's Facebook friends who they admired most: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Linus Torvalds. The unanimous answer (mine excluded) was Bill Gates. Of course, why wouldn't we admire Bill Gates? Not only has he been consistently one of the world's wealthiest people, by philanthropy through the Bill and Melinda Foundation he can be considered one of the most compassionate wealthy individuals in the world. Not to mention, similar to some 80% of US computer users, I am typing this blog on a computer with a Windows OS (but this is not a "are you a Mac or PC" question.)

While I admire Gates, I admire Jobs even more. There is no doubt that both men had what it takes to lead and revolutionize the world, but it seems Jobs had more obstacles on his way to overcome. I'm not just rooting for the underdog (which I tend to do) but I think watching him overcome these obstacles has taught us a lot about being successful and picking ourselves up after a fall. Much of these obstacles came to Jobs quite publicly and by surprise. After all, he was fired from his own company, Apple, a fall that would be nearly impossible to recover from. I can only imagine the ridicule he must have endured. I can imagine the laughter of the crowd: "Did you hear about Steve Jobs? He messed up being CEO of Apple, got fired and is now making cartoons! ha!" But it was Jobs who came back, first winning the hearts of many adults and children with Pixar's "Toy Story", and again taking his place again as CEO of Apple to put it back on track. I guess despite his insanity and genius, Jobs just seems more human.

So what inspires me about this man? Despite his mistakes, he has never been afraid to take chances, to think outside the box, and to do things his way. Perhaps even more importantly, he never gives up! That is what inspires me. If Jobs had quit trying, he would be known as the guy who dropped out of college to make Apple, only to get fired from it (or he wouldn't be known much at all). Not to mention, we wouldn't have ipods, iphones, ipads, ietc...
Not convinced? Let Jobs inspire you himself with the short video below.

Happy Birthday Mr. Jobs. Thanks for the inspiration, and of course, thanks for my ipod!