Steve Jobs passed away yesterday. I was working at Seattle Boulder Project when a man who had been climbing with his kids wandered up to me and said, "My brother in law just wrote me that Steve Jobs died." His tone was flat, slightly shell shocked in the something big just happened I need to go tell the nearest person so I'm not alone in this kind of way. Today I read a gorgeous quote by Steve Jobs that I found on Mindy Kaling's site, and I knew immediately that I wanted to repost it.
One of my role models is Bob Dylan. As I grew up, I learned the lyrics to all his songs and watched him never stand still. If you look at the artists, if they get really good, it always occurs to them at some point that they can do this one thing for the rest of their lives, and they can be really successful to the outside world but not really be successful to themselves. That’s the moment that an artist really decides who he or she is. If they keep on risking failure, they’re still artists. Dylan and Picasso were always risking failure. This Apple thing is that way for me. I don’t want to fail, of course. But even though I didn’t know how bad things really were, I still had a lot to think about before I said yes. I had to consider the implications for Pixar, for my family, for my reputation. I decided that I didn’t really care, because this is what I want to do. If I try my best and fail, well, I’ve tried my best.Thank you Steve Jobs, and rest in peace.
—CNNMoney/Fortune, November 9, 1998