In the year 2001, the iPod was launched, followed by iTunes in 2003 and the ever popular iPhone in 2007. But it wasn’t until 2008 that “I” discovered that there was something known as Apple other than a piece of fruit (but then, I’m only 14). Since then, I’ve never stopped being amazed by the products this company has created, like the iPad that came out in 2010 and the super nifty iPhone 4G that my parents bought in 2011.
On 5th October 2011, tragedy struck the company when Steve Jobs passed away. When I heard the news, I wanted to find out more about this man who has changed the world. The first thing I learned was that he was not just the guy who created Apple, but also the person who created Pixar, the people who produced the Toy Story series and a lot of other favourite kids’ movies.
As impressed as I was by these accomplishments, I learned a very important lesson while reading about the life of Steve Jobs. He once said, “Don’t waste your time living someone else’s life.” This quote had a real impact on me because it means life is short and that you should use your time to do or create something wonderful and good.
Taking a closer look at Steve Jobs’ life, I found that every sentence of his history had something to do with time. The way he expressed his work was an art, and he made us all understand the difficulties of bringing up a small computer office to a multinational company.
His life shows that, however many obstacles there are, you can outwit them. Time is valuable and in the case of Steve Jobs, it was priceless. If he had wasted his time doing something useless, I don’t think there would be Apple. The way he used his time made our generation much more technologically developed.
Since learning about Steve Jobs, I have decided to focus on saving my time by doing something useful in my life, and I would encourage everyone to use your day wisely.
Will Apple develop more gadgets in the future? Maybe (probably, in fact) but as Steve Jobs said, “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.”
Mr Jobs, iSalute you.
John Surya, age 14
