There’s no denying Steve Jobs’ impact on Apple and the way in which his visions have shaped the company.
Apple now has a trillion-dollar valuation and has been awarded the most valuable in the world. Steve’s way of thinking is, indeed, now ingrained in Apple’s ethos, from marketing to management, to pushing technology and innovation to new heights. Without his passion and bravery for innovation, the iPhone and Macintosh may never have seen the light of day, and today’s leaders would never have had the courage to create the Apple Watch or HomePod.
October 5, 2011, will go down in history as the day one of the world’s most innovative and influential figures in technology and business passed away. Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, died aged 56 after battling pancreatic cancer for nearly a decade. In the weeks following his death, tributes poured in for one of “the greatest of American innovators”.
In some ways, it’s hard to believe that ten years have passed since Jobs’ death. For many, Steve Jobs was Apple, and his name continues to be mentioned after every major Apple event. One of the greatest leaders of our time, his death was met with worldwide mourning. Jobs was headline news around the world for a different reason, and the Apple website became an obituary, where fans and colleagues shared experiences of Jobs, and the impact he had had on them. This obituary is maintained every year.
After battling with illness for years, Jobs decided to step down as CEO of Apple on August 24, 2011, saying that he believed “Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it” and that he had “made some of the best friends of [his] life at Apple”. Sadly, just weeks later, Jobs died as a result of a ‘respiratory arrest’ and had been suffering from a rare form of pancreatic cancer for seven years. It wasn’t until years later that we learned Tim Cook, Jobs’ successor, had offered to give Steve his liver, but that he had refused.
Following the news of Jobs’ death, world figures lead tributes, with Microsoft’s Bill Gates saying “the world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, thanked Steve for being a “mentor and a friend” and for “showing that what you build can change the world”, while Barak Obama added Steve was “brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.”
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