Steve was 20 when he and his friend Woz decided to build a computer together in his dad’s garage.
It’s not so unusual to build your own computer these days but this was back in the 1970’s and a year after they started on the 11th April 1976 the Apple 1 computer was invented. 10 years later Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniack’s Apple had turned into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees.
Steve’s advice to graduating students is famous http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html ‘You’ve got to find what you love to do’ he told them and if you watch the video on the link it’s pretty clear he did.
He said he read a quote ‘If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.’ From then on he looked in the mirror each morning and asked himself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?’ And if he kept answering no then he did something about it.
He was a strong believer in following your instinct / gut / heat. He believed that you can’t connect the dots of your life looking forward but onlylooking back.
I tried to write this in lots of different fonts because one of the things Steve Jobs did was give Apple computers lots of different fonts to choose from and the rest of the computer makers soon followed but unfortunately I couldn’t work out how to do it. He was inspired to do this because he’d taken a calligraphy course after he dropped out of college.
He ended his Stanford address with a description of an open road full of possibilities and the words: ‘Stay hungry. Stay foolish.’
To infinity and beyond!
Now should it be Golden Delicious, Russet or a Pink Lady?
What sort of computer do you use?
PS Not really related to the post but my book ‘The Victory Dogs’ has recently won Stockton Children’s Book of the Year 2014 and I just wanted to say a HUGE thanks to all the children who voted for it. 🙂
See you next month!