It was a lazy Thursday morning here in India. Allot was going for me, I had just seen the keynote from the iPhone 4S launch, the day before, about which I was very excited. On a personal note, I was looking forward to a promising weekend.
So when I woke up to a text from a fellow tech enthusiast, stating - Steve Jobs had passed away, my morning literally stood still.
We all have people in our childhood and adolescence, who influence who we become when we grow up. These people shape who we are, how we think, what we chose to do.
Its not that we are copying these people, they just show us the various possibilities that we have in front of us and we chose to be inspired by the people who strike a chord with who we are innately.
In a generation, that was inspired by Sylvester Stallone, Sachin Tendulkar, Tom Cruise, Tyson, Sampras, Schumacher and all other big achievers, I always chose the underdogs as my heroes.
One of my earliest influences was Andre Agassi. This was in the mid 90's. I was not even 10 and I had just started playing Tennis. I was captivated by Agassi, who personified the words "Think Different". In a sport, that had the greatest players adhere, to white attire. Agassi wore torn cut out jean shorts, sporting long blonde streaked hair, bright colors, and an "I don't care" attitude. For Agassi - Image was everything. And although all my friends were huge Sampras fans and hence rarely ever disappointed. I couldn't help but be drawn to Agassi.
Although he never saw regular success quite like Sampras, I saw Agassi struggle, falling out of the tour almost, only to carve the most incredible comebacks in recent tennis history. Coming back from the ruins to become the most versatile player in the history of modern tennis. He won all the 4 grand slams along with the gold medal in the olympics.
By the time Agassi's career was approaching an end, I had a new Idol. I was 15, I had heard and read allot of Apple Computers. Since I was learning Guitar. I was told by the people who were teaching me, that for an Artist a Mac, is the best computer. I used some of their Macs and I was smitten. I wanted a Mac... I wanted it BAD. But obviously a teen doesn't really have enough dough to make such purchases. So I would make my PC look and feel like a Mac. I consequently bought an iPod, in 2004. And then installed Mac OS on my P.C, by hacking it.
For my love of Macs, I started reading about it. I Found out about the formidable duo of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Read how they started their company out of a garage. I Read Steve's entire unofficial biography - iCon, from his days at Atari, to him and Wozniak pranking people with the Blue Box, the Apple 1, the launch of Macintosh in 1984, to him being thrown out of his own company. To his remarkable comeback, quite like Agassi, at a similar time too.
And it was clear I had a new Hero, I was 17. My Dad Bought me my first Mac. I Had dropped out of college, Just like Jobs, Branson, Tagore and some other people who I considered as inspirations.
I had a special inclination to Steve Jobs though. My undying belief and support towards underdogs led me to admire him and cheer him and Apple on. During this time, neither Steve Jobs or Apple had the fan following they do now. It was hard to think that My Hero would one day be a Hero to Millions more, that he would change everything again and again. I was captivated with all that I can do with my Mac, and how It can be done with such beauty and the people who made this possible.
I completely related to him apposing IBM's suit clad attire, as I was often judged for my long hair and hippyish outlook. It reinforced a value that, "The worth of a man, is not in how he appears or presents himself, it is in what a man can offer". So while people would diss me, for my lack of a haircut, I'd laugh in my mind, knowing that what they were focusing on is so trivial.
It also reinforced my very strong belief that education really takes place, away from School. I wasn't interested in education, because it did not thrill me, I couldn't understand why what I was learning was of any importance, and I realized that is a colossal waste of my time. So it was comforting to know someone else thought along the same lines, and could form an Empire without any education beyond high school.
I saw his Stanford Commencement speech, that is making its round these days. I realized that I must follow my heart, and not care about all these people who have nothing better to do than to tell others how to live their life, as they live a lie of a life themselves.
I also realized that if I am ever gonna study again, I want to study something that excites me, that thrills me, that I love.
So I stopped this charade of living a life others wanted me to live, doing what others expect you to do and started living how I want to. Something very few people even think about let alone live. I spent my days playing and making music, meditating, reading amazing poetry and philosophical books, doing drugs, meeting amazing people who introduced me to the most fascinating things that life has to offer, that I would never learn on my School bench, all these things I did, helped me see the world, without any noise, that everyone was feeding me.
In 2007, My Dad, allowed me to buy the iPhone. Something that changed the way I used my phone and what I could do with it. I have been part of the journey of the iPhone. From people ridiculing it, to it being the #1 smart-phone. I still remember watching the keynote in Jan 2007, seeing how we zoomed in and out in the new iPhone, seeing how we listened to music, swiping through the album covers, seeing how we make calls, use the internet and I was excited beyond limits, I started jumping and my heartbeat increased, cause I knew I had seen the future, and it was pure Genius. I am glad I was one of the early adopters, cause it helped me live my life with added value, right from the first iPhone. I have bought each iPhone since then, and hopefully I will continue this ritual.
I am really proud of the person I have become, and I am really comfortable with how my life played out, and allot of it was influenced by Steve Jobs, Cause if it wasn't for him, I would be like the millions of others, who lived their life as society expected them to, and didn't see all these beautiful things until they were much older.
I would be like all these others Who went to school just because everyone else did, took courses everyone else did, hung out with the popular kids, at the popular spots, not knowing or ever asking themselves what they really wanted. Listened to Music everyone else did, had hobbies that everyone else did and finally used P.C's just because everyone else did.
This is the biggest gift Steve Jobs has given me, not to do things just because everyone else did them.
I learned from people like Steve Jobs, Andre Agassi, Tagore, Branson and many others. That we must live a life, that we feel thrilled to wake up to each morning. And most often than not, especially for my generation, this was not possible for us to do, because of the expectations society, bestowed upon us.
I look at all my friends and colleagues, and see how their life turned out. I see a life that lacks individuality, that lacks any thing that sets em apart, I see no passions in their lives, I see no art, no beauty, no meaning, just an endless struggle to live a life they have been told to live, always falling short while trying to make some sense out of it and I sigh to myself, thinking, I am so glad, that I lived my life, I wanted to live, something people can't do, until they experience a life changing epiphany in their midlife yet I did so right from when I was 15.
So here's to Steve Jobs, for enriching my life at an early and formidable age, with life lessons and values, that have made me so content with where I am today, and will surely guide me for the rest of my life.
I can't possibly write about each and every way Steve changed my life and made me who I am, As words can't describe such remarkable and glorious events with justice, and memory always tends to give up on you. But I tried to point out the crucial ways in which he did, change who I am.
I wanna conclude by saying something Steve would say often " The reward is in the journey, not the destination".
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