Steve Jobs passed away today. When I booted up my Macbook this morning and opened my Safari, there was his image, with his thumb and index finger gently drubbing his chin, looking intently on screen. That was the image Apple had as they posted his obituary all over their website. Something about that picture stood out (note, it’s now my profile picture). It had a bit of age, one that showed that Steve has now aged, white beard accompanying him all over with a round-shaped glasses to go along with it. His receding hair gave him away. It was actually a far cry from the looker he was when he was still in his 20s. But something still stood out- one of elegance, a calmness that tells you this man’s always thinking, always finding a way to reinvent himself.

Then I went to Facebook and I scanned through several posts. The news of Steve’s death was spreading like wildfire. There were all kind of obituaries written for him, from a simple, unadalturated RIP to a lengthy description about how he was an inspiration. And then there were the slew of those who said Jobs’ inspiration to them was the fact that he taught them how to make ‘easy money’. I was startled.

Steve Jobs did not make ‘easy money’. Apple was not one of those easy-puny marketing schemes that a guy would be narrating to you while buying you a fattening KFC lunch. No, this was innovation. He drove a Mercedes because he innovated. And that story was not made of a bed of roses. At only 30, he was kicked out of the company, only to come back and save when it was floundering 12 years later. It perplexes me how much this generation has taken into this ‘easy money’ mumbo jumbo. For me, that term should cease to exist. I frown at every person who tries to persuade me into signing up for any such marketing schemes. No, this was not easy money. Please do not insult the value of innovation and creativity. I bet every other guy who sits and sets the motion rolling about ‘easy money’ never bothered to think about how to make this world a better place. Steve, in his own i-this and i-that way, managed to contribute, however petty it may sound. There’s no calculator to judge how much you’ve changed the world. But at least he did what he did with purpose. That’s what made him whom he was.

This is a guy who always wore a black sleeve T-shirt and a Levi’s jeans wherever you saw him, even when he is busy launching various products. This is a guy who didn’t bother to delcare how rich he is. For all those easy money schemers, keep arsers like Donald Trump as your idols. I’ll not argue one bit.

Because if your idea of making it big is all about walking out from a limousine and then spitting wisdom in a packed conference room, pointing fingers to the crowd and saying ‘you too can make it, you too can make it’, then don’t call Steve Jobs an idol.

Steve Jobs isn’t about the money. And he would tell you. Not everyone ‘can make it’. Yes, that’s a bummer, but that’s the truth. The ones who ‘make it’, and later leave an impact and legacy like he did, are the ones who can fall onto a bottomless pit and later come back up stronger than ever. Steve spent 12 years outside of Apple, never losing his vision for the company. That one ‘can be you’. But you need to be strong, resourceful, and above all always have a purpose for what you are doing. And if your definition of ‘making it’ is about how big a millionaire you’ve become, then don’t read further.

For me, you can have 400 million and still ‘not make it’.

A few days ago I received an e-mail from a pen pal of mine from India. I hardly knew him, and he added me only after reading several of my posts and stories on my website. After I announced my forthcoming novel last month, he surprised me recently by sending me few cover designs for my novel, though me and my publishing team have already finalized them.

When I asked him why he had sent me those, he told it was his ‘gift’ to me, because I have inspired him through the little work I have done so far.

It was no big deal if seen in a matter-of-fact manner. I am not going to use his designs to replace my existing covers, and I conveyed the same to him. But somewhere beneath all this, there is this silver lining, that tells that one keystroke for a word here can affect or inspire one person in India, whom I have never met or spoken to before.

And slowly it dawned on me, in my small little world, I’m already ‘making it’.

As vague as it may sound, every time you believe that you can change the world, you tend to connect the dots with something superficially higher than you. Perhaps, just perhaps, that’s all you need in life.

Steve, you path may have ended, but the chain of dots you helped initiate has now become the tool of my journey. However small, even through a particle, we all live on via these connected dots.

« »