Taking that Steve Jobs quotes and pondering over them

Ah! The drama! The outpouring of grief. The melodramatic postings on Facebook especially. Really beh tahan. I know Steve Jobs is or should I say was a great man? He made me my iPad, iPhone and iMac. And my soon to be Macbook Pro.

But do we really need to idol worship a man that way? Have we not live our own lives somewhat the same way he did? Albeit in our tiny way, minus all the iNvent? Don’t we leave our own legacy?

Maybe I am more cynical and pooh-pooh all these emo stuffs because I am much influenced by Stephen Covey 20 years back? One of the seven principle is ‘Begin with the end in mind’. And I do see death, my own, as something that will happen. And what more when I stare at death every single day when my fourth baby was around?

I see people dying everyday at the ICU. So, people, get a grip. We die all the time. Don’t lah act like Steve Jobs is the first man to die likedat.

That said, one profound thought from Steve Jobs that I really embrace. I didn’t embrace from Steve Jobs, doh. I have done it years ago. He said :

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]

And in May 2005 (hey, noticed that I was first before Steve?) I wrote something similar. I said we women shouldn’t live someone else life. We may be loving mothers but we cannot pour all our energy, resources and beauty into taking care of the kids only. By beauty, I mean those aunties outside the school gates with their capri pants and flowery loose blouse and slippers.

I said,

No matter how busy motherhood is, I like to place my own happiness first.
(from this May 24th 2005 blog post)

Today, six and a half years later, I think my choice of taking care of myself first is not such a bad choice after all. I never have to deal with disobedient children nor terrible teens. They are a wonderful bunch. But only because I was never the grouchy and discontent mom.

So, people, get over it already. Steve Jobs is dead. But you are not. So go on and live it. Stop calling yourself the “Mrs So&So”. Your mom and dad gave you a name, use it, fools.

2 thoughts on “Taking that Steve Jobs quotes and pondering over them

  1. i know what u mean! all these postings on FB, even by those non-geeks are juz too much. sai mm sai jek!

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