What were the last words of Tech guru Steve Jobs before his untimely death?
Steve Jobs was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc.
Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar.
He was a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with his early business partner and fellow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955 and adopted shortly afterwards. He attended Reed College in 1972 before withdrawing that same year.
In 1974, he travelled through India, seeking enlightenment before later studying Zen Buddhism.
He and Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976 to further develop and sell Wozniak’s Apple I personal computer.
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Together, the duo gained fame and wealth a year later with the production and sale of the Apple II, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputers.
By March 1976, Wozniak had completed the basic design of the Apple I computer and showed it to Jobs, who suggested that they sell it; Wozniak was at first sceptical of the idea but later agreed.
In April of that same year, Jobs, Wozniak, and administrative overseer Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer Company (now called “Apple Inc.”) as a business partnership in Jobs’s parents’ Crist Drive home on April 1, 1976.
The operation originally started in Jobs’s bedroom and later moved to the garage.
Wayne stayed briefly, leaving Jobs and Wozniak as the active primary founders of the company
The two decided on the name “Apple” after Jobs returned from the All One Farm commune in Oregon and told Wozniak about his time in the farm’s apple orchard.
Jobs originally planned to produce bare printed circuit boards of the Apple I and sell them to computer hobbyists for $50 (equivalent to about $280 in 2024) each. To fund the first batch, Wozniak sold his HP scientific calculator, and Jobs sold his Volkswagen van.
Later that year, computer retailer Paul Terrell purchased 50 fully assembled Apple I units for $500 each.
Eventually, about 200 Apple I computers were produced in total.
Health problems
In October 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with cancer. In mid-2004, he announced to his employees that he had a cancerous tumor in his pancreas.
The prognosis for pancreatic cancer is very poor; however, Jobs stated that he had a rare, less aggressive type, known as anislet cell neuroendocrine tumour .
Resignation
On January 17, 2011, a year and a half after Jobs returned to work following the liver transplant, Apple announced that he had been granted another leave of absence.
Jobs announced his leave in a letter to employees, stating his decision was made “so he could focus on his health”.
Death
Jobs died at his home in Palo Alto, California, around 3 p.m. (PDT) on October 5, 2011, due to complications from a relapse of his previously treated islet-cell pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, which resulted in respiratory arrest.
He had lost consciousness the day before and died with his wife, children, and sisters at his side.
Steve Jobs Last Words
At the age of 56, Steve Jobs died a billionaire. Close family members say that his dying words were “Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, wow.”
Whether he penned an essay during the days leading up to his death is probably unlikely, but it is still being debated.
What we do know is that Jobs often sacrificed his family to achieve success in business.
At one point he went so far as to deny that he was the legitimate father of his daughter, Lisa, surprising on many levels, especially given that Jobs was adopted as a child.
Steve Jobs’ Legacy
The following is thought to be the essay Jobs wrote in his last days. While its authenticity might be disputed, its profundity cannot be.
I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is the epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. In the end, my wealth is only a fact of life that I am accustomed to. At this moment, lying on my bed and recalling my life, I realize that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in have paled and become meaningless in the face of my death.
You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you, but you cannot have someone bear your sickness for you. Material things lost can be found or replaced. But there is one thing that can never be found when it’s
lost—Life. Whichever stage in life you’re in right now, with time, you will face the day when the curtain falls.
Treasure love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well and cherish others. As we grow older, and hopefully wiser, we realise that a $3000 or a $30 watch both tell the same time. You will realise that your true inner happiness does not come from the material things of this world. Whether you fly first class or economy, if the plane goes down—you go down with it.
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Therefore, I hope you realise, when you have mates, buddies and old friends, brothers and sisters, whom you chat with, laugh with, talk with, sing with, and talk about north-south-east-west or heaven and earth, that is true happiness. Don’t educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy. So when they grow up, they will know the value of things and not the price.
Eat your food as your medicine; otherwise, you have to eat medicine as your food.
The One who loves you will never leave you for another because, even if there are 100 reasons to give up, he or she will find a reason to hold on. There is a big difference between a human being and being human. Only a few really understand it. You are loved when you are born. You will be loved when you die. In between, you have to manage.
The six best doctors in the world are sunlight, rest, exercise, diet, self-confidence, and friends. Maintain them in all stages and enjoy a healthy life.”
