Rest In Peace Steve

Maybe you're one of those people who is waking up this morning and thinking, "Hmmm, Steve Jobs.. I really don't know what the fuss is all about." Then, try this little experiment. Think of the different products Apple has come out with and then try to guess the year when they came out. For instance, the iPhone. What year did the first iPhone come out? Take a guess if you don't already know. And then Google the answer. I bet you'll be amazed at how recently it actually was.

And that serves to show just how transformational the products from Steve Jobs and Apple have been in the past decade. Today it is hard to remember what life was like without them.

By the way, here's one example. The iPhone. It first came out on June 29, 2007.

Steve Jobs Steps Down

I am exceedingly sad about the news thats Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple. It's almost like saying goodbye to a parent or good friend. I spent a big part of my childhood as a mild computer geek, breathlessly following the next personal computer innovations.

I won't go into all the details, but there is a very long, wonderful history about Steve Jobs versus Bill Gates and how their rivalry helped shape personal computing today. One of my earliest computers was an Apple, a Mac Plus. And I remember the day when Windows (I think it was 3.0) came out for the PC. I was in the CompUSA at Roosevelt Field on Long Island and saw all the boxes of Windows piled up to the ceiling. And I remember thinking to myself, "What is all the fuss about? Windows just copies what my Mac has been able to do for years!" 

It left me realizing that in this world things can end up quite backwards sometimes. The good guy doesn't always win. The real innovator - Steve Jobs - saw his share of the computing market vastly overtaken by laughably inferior Windows-based computers.

But what was really amazing is that the story didn't end there. Jobs returned to Apple and made it the amazing success that it is today. 

But I guess what I most think of when I think of Jobs is optimism. So many people in this world seem to go through their lives so negative about just about everything. All they do is complain, constantly complain, about what is wrong with this or that. Jobs is one of those rare individuals -- thank you God for them!! -- who never complained. He envisioned. He created. He did. And he gave all of our lives a whole new dimension as a result of it.