Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011

One of the most remarkable innovators of our time, Steve Jobs has been called a Henry Ford, a Walt Disney, a Thomas Edison. “We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today,” Apple said. “Steve’s brilliance, passion, and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.”

Jobs died at the age of 56 after a long battle with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. He had struggled with health issues but said very little about his battle with cancer since an operation in 2004. He stepped down from the position of CEO in August, handing the responsibility to Tim Cook.

Steve Jobs’ charisma can’t be described in words. He was given up for adoption soon after his birth in San Francisco to an American mother, Joanne Carole Schieble, and a Syrian-born father, Abdulfattah “John” Jandali.

A college dropout, Jobs started Apple Computer with friend Steve Wozniak in his parents’ garage in 1976.

Steve Jobs, in pain and too weak to climb stairs a few weeks before his death, wanted his children to understand why he wasn’t always there for them, according to the author of his highly anticipated biography

Here are a some of his thoughts on life:

I want to put a ding in the universe.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because 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.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

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. Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.

And he lived up to all his quotes. Here is a small piece of footage from the Macworld San Francisco 2007 Keynote Address Steve Jobs Prank Called Starbucks with the iPhone he was introducing.