1955

Apple.com homepage

 This image file from Apple was titled "t_hero.jpg'.

How apt.

My heart came to a standstill when I saw the headlines on the newspaper rack 

at Cold Storage, after Thursday's parcel posting.

56 is too young!

The Chinese papers refer to Steve Jobs as “ 蘋果教主”.
Apple fans in China affectionately nickname him as “乔幫主”, inspired by a story character in a novel from their country's most renowned martial arts fiction writer Jin Yong. 

Such endearing terms.

I have never own an Apple product.

No Iphone. No Ipod. No Ipad. No Mac.
And I don't really know what an Itouch is. 

Have been so looking forward to Iphone 5.

That will have been my first smartphone.

Waiting for my Fujistu laptop to die and get my hands on MacBook Air.

So much had been raved about it.

I am known to be difficult to work with. 

Ask my Postboy, shoot coordinator and packers.

They will tell you it's highly stressful to work with me. 

This is so putting an end to the emails from job-seekers.

I've obsessive high standards, spin cotton candy dreams for Tian Fen Lan

and get down to the nitty-gritty of things, much to their dismay sometimes. 

I live for perfection.

In the past, I get very upset with myself whenever I make mistakes.

I can't sleep, can't eat and my emotions go spiralling down. 

Years on, I'm better at managing myself. 

The same dear people who work with me will also let you know 

that my strict demands have pushed their limits & brought out great results from them, 

something they never know they can do.
Actually, neither did I.

“My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better.” - Steve Jobs

I love reading about male leaders & visionaries. 

Mr Lee Kwan Yew, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Lee Ka Shing, my Grandmaster Lian Sheng Living Buddha...

and now Steve Jobs.

Their dedication, their strategic foresight, their deeply-entrenched goals,

their positivity, their showmanship, their astonishing attention to detail,

their boundless charisma and energy and their sheer genius

never once losing sight of what they want to do with their entire lives.
Their passion infuse every part of their lives and inspire the people around them.

Another similarity?
Barely anyone believe in them right from the start.

How they cut through the frill-frou to achieve the unbelievable in life.

Totally wows me.

Yes, I know they must have compromised/sacrificed on many other things in life.

But I believe there's no such thing as a balanced life.

You can only live for one thing at any one time.

The rest just have to fade into minor roles.

Or achieve nothing.

It's like makeup.

If you decide to have bold red lips, you have to keep your eye make-up & blusher minimal.

Or risk looking like a painting class gone awry.

“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.” - Steve Jobs, Fortune

Economist.com

 

Maybe that's why men are so much more powerful in changing the world than women do.

It is mind-blowing and paradigm-shifting to learn from the great ones.

How their thinking are so different & much more powerful than mine

How incredulous their minds are is often beyond me.
Their minds drive them to soar high in the skies.
Mine drive me crazy.

Maybe I am never dedicated enough.

Maybe I have never thrown myself hard enough into what I really like.
Alright, go drown in TFL's work NOW!

If I'm born a man, I'm convinced I will be even more of a workaholic.
I love working with workaholics & perfectionists.
They shake me out of my comfort zone and are always shockingly inspiring.
Frustrating, yes.
Awesome, absolutely.
I probably start off hating them, throw a few tantrums here & there,
but hey, bring it on!

Go read about what John Sculley, the former CEO of Apple, says of
how Steve Jobs does things and his way of thinking here.
He calls it the 'Steve Jobs methodology'.

It's a long read. 

With amazing insights on the legend.

I love it. 

This first-hand account of Steve Jobs by Google's Vice-President of Engineering,
Vic Gundotra, made me feel slightly better about myself:

Icon Ambulance   25 Aug 2011

One Sunday morning, January 6th, 2008 I was attending religious services when my cell phone vibrated. As discreetly as possible, I checked the phone and noticed that my phone said "Caller ID unknown". I choose to ignore.

After services, as I was walking to my car with my family, I checked my cell phone messages. The message left was from Steve Jobs. "Vic, can you call me at home? I have something urgent to discuss" it said.

Before I even reached my car, I called Steve Jobs back. I was responsible for all mobile applications at Google, and in that role, had regular dealings with Steve. It was one of the perks of the job.

"Hey Steve - this is Vic", I said. "I'm sorry I didn't answer your call earlier. I was in religious services, and the caller ID said unknown, so I didn't pick up".

Steve laughed. He said, "Vic, unless the Caller ID said 'GOD', you should never pick up during services".

I laughed nervously. After all, while it was customary for Steve to call during the week upset about something, it was unusual for him to call me on Sunday and ask me to call his home. I wondered what was so important?

"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve.

"I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"

Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject "Icon Ambulance". The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon.

Since I was 11 years old and fell in love with an Apple II, I have dozens of stories to tell about Apple products. They have been a part of my life for decades. Even when I worked for 15 years for Bill Gates at Microsoft, I had a huge admiration for Steve and what Apple had produced.

But in the end, when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I'll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.

To one of the greatest leaders I've ever met, my prayers and hopes are with you Steve.

-Vic

A user by the nickname, “Xiaoyu-meow”, left this message on Weibo (China's version of Twitter):
“I miss you, Jobs. Please also make Heaven this cool since we are all going there one day.”

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I realise Mr Jobs is born in 1955.

The same year as my mum.

Mum talked about wanting to leave at 60 before.

Somehow, I couldn't sleep tonight.

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Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

“Almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly 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.” – Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Address

人生猶如一朵春天綻放的花，
在夏天爭妍斗麗，
在那有限的生命裏，把它畢生的光輝和燦爛貢獻了給世人。

你問我長壽好或短命好？
一個人命雖短，但他若將畢生的心血都奉獻了給世人。
就猶如那春天的花朵。
這樣的人生真的過得夠精彩！
相反的，長命的人若沒貢獻，而是製造了一大堆垃圾，
請問意義又何在呢？

Metta,
欣雨 Xinyu

Read that Mr Jobs is a Buddhist.
He had a spiritual retreat in India in his younger days.

His wedding was presided by a Zen Buddhist monk.
No wonder he always insist on keeping things simple & clean.
No wonder Apple's stuff have that Zen feel.
Pity his belief in philanthropy doesn't seem strong enough. 
Pity he isn't a practising Buddhist.

乔布斯先生,

願您超生脫苦，往生淨土，

南無阿彌陀佛，

南無阿彌陀佛，

南無阿彌陀佛。