By Pini Jason
To know that you are going to die is the best way to avoid falling into the trap of thinking that you have something to lose.
Steve Jobs, at Stanford University, 2005
THE world was thrown into mourning last week Wednesday October 5, 2011 by the death of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc at the youthful age of 56. Even at that youthful age, it seemed as if Jobs had always been with us since the beginning of time. His contributions at that age gave him the timelessness that wealth or political power does not confer on ordinary mortals.
With Apple Jobs gave us seductively tempting products that put us one touch away from our neighbours, changed our world and created millions of jobs in the process! No wonder then that from Hong Kong to China to United Kingdom to Japan, people made shrines of flowers in memory of one man who revolutionised how we lived.
Presidents, Prime Ministers, kings and renowned entrepreneurs all over the world mourned one man who gave so much to the world, in spite of his own personal challenges and took away very little. According to President Barack Obama, “Steve was among the greatest American innovators-brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it”.
Sub-optimal achievers
If you have an iPod, iPhone, iPad or ever had an iMac computer, you must have been touched by Steve Jobs bravery, boldness and talent.
The story of Jobs is one that not only enchants but also challenges all of us who make excuses why we are sub-optimal achievers. Steve puts to shame all those who think that taking, indeed stealing, from society is an achievement and all those who flaunt their loot with impunity.
Steve knew all along that he was going to die any time, but he did not whine or slow down, instead he raced against time to give the world the best of his ingenuity. Steve Jobs shows us that there is never a convenient time to give than when the need arises.
Steve Jobs was born out of wedlock on February 24, 1955 to Abdulfattah John Jandali, a Syrian Muslim immigrant to the United States who later became a professor of Political Science, and an American graduate student, Joanne Schieble, who went on to become a speech language pathologist.
His mother gave him away for adoption, to an American family of Paul and Clara Jobs. Steve started training in a computer school and later went to college but dropped out. In Nigeria he would have been nothing if he cannot produce paper qualification.
He would have been frustrated in the process of satisfying the Nigerian obsession with university degree. Today we are foolishly converting every polytechnic to university so that everybody can carry university certificate! Yet we have no jobs for everybody!
In 1970 Steve and his friend, Steve Wozniak, an electronic hacker, founded Apple Computers in Jobs’ garage with just US$700 in their pocket. In ten years Apple Computers became a multi-billion dollar company. As usual, power struggle ensued and Jobs was forced to resign in 1985. Never to be daunted, he went on to found Next Computers, a computer platform development company. In 1996 Apple bought over Next and Jobs returned to Apple. At Apple Steve Jobs reputedly earned one United States dollar a year! But he owned shares in Apple and Disney that put his net worth in 2010 as US$8.3 billion and the 42nd wealthiest American, according to Forbes. That is a man born out of wedlock and who battled with pancreatic cancer for years and had liver transplant in April 2009.
For sure, Steve Jobs did not invent computer technology. He invented methods, business models and new ways to do things using the technology. That is the kind of innovation that Obama talked about in his state of the nation address last year that makes America competitive. Today, Nigeria needs not invent the wheel in any way. What we need is one man who can think out new ways we can meet our various challenges utilizing available technology. That is what should be expected of an economy that wants to be among the 20 biggest in the year 2020.
Jobs and Barack Obama, sons of immigrants, are the true story of America dream. From being born an orphan, a college dropout and ravaged by cancer but with an indefatigable can do spirit, Steve Jobs became an America icon ranked among John D Rockefella (Standard Oil), Henry Ford (Model T car) and Sam Walton (Wal-Mart). Although some disagree with ranking Jobs among these greats, we cannot dispute Jobs place as an innovator, entrepreneur and marketer. Jobs certainly earned his place as an icon. Nigerian “icons” are people who neither earned nor deserve their places in public reckoning. Our “business tycoons” are no more than rent racketeers who cornered our commonweal by knowing people in government or who are fronts for our treasury looters and who have the rankling audacity to flaunt their ill-gotten wealth.
Contributions to education
What the world remembers Jobs for is not his wealth; he was legitimately wealthy. He is not remembered by the number of houses he owned in different parts of the world; he probably did not own more than one. He is not remembered for the model, size or number of his cars; he probably owned no more than one. But the world remembers him for his innovations and contributions to education and health.
In a commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005, Jobs spoke about living and dying. That is a subject we hardly want to discuss in our lives. We think it is morbid to discuss death instead of the billions in the bank! We live in denial, as if we will live forever, or that death will come with advance notice. Our behaviour is conditioned by this seeming arrogance that we will die when we want. I believe that if we woke up everyday knowing that it could be the last we would act differently; we would have no inclination to postpone what today could achieve; we would be less arrogant; we would be less preoccupied with mundane living; we would place premium on being compassionate to fellow beings. When we die everything comes to nothing except the legacy we leave behind. And Jobs put it poignantly: “To know that you are going to die is the best way to avoid falling into the trap of thinking that you have something to lose”.
Jobs will be buried with nothing, not even an iPhone! He will take nothing with him. But his name will live forever because of the innovations he left behind. A Job well done, Steve!
Chief Enechukwu and the creation of Anambra State
EVER so often, Nigerians make claims about an issue forgetting that there are many others who know probably more about that issue. I read the story: “How We Fought Nwobodo and Got Anambra State” credited to Chief Ifeanyichukwu Enechukwu, one time Speaker of old Anambra State House of Assembly in Daily Sun of October 6, 2011 with astonishment at the inaccuracy of his recollection of the history of creation of additional states in Igbo land.
In the body of the story, there was not an iota of evidence that the struggle Chief Enechukwu talked about, albeit against Chief Jim Nwobodo, Governor of old Anambra State, is what gave rise to splitting the state into present Anambra and Enugu states by President Ibrahim Babangida.
It is true that today every Igbo is talking, meeting and “struggling” for the creation of an equalization state for the South East. But that cannot give rise to anybody claiming that his group or meeting gave rise to the creation of the state, especially if such meetings did not take any concrete step to actualize the desire for the additional state!
I do not wish to say more for now because those who signed the only memorandum to President Babangida articulating the reasons that compelled him to create additional states for Ndigbo, those who toiled day and night within the system in Nigeria and outside the country and those Igbo groups who worked in different ways to support the project foreswore grandstanding for strategic reasons.
But the true account will one day be told. So let those who think that there is a historical vacuum to fill stop making embarrassing claims. There are yet many more battles to be fought for the Igbo nation. Flippancy and irreverent outbursts as some Igbo politicians are prone to may not help such causes!
To know that you are going to die is the best way to avoid falling into the trap of thinking that you have something to lose.
Steve Jobs, at Stanford University, 2005
THE world was thrown into mourning last week Wednesday October 5, 2011 by the death of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc at the youthful age of 56. Even at that youthful age, it seemed as if Jobs had always been with us since the beginning of time. His contributions at that age gave him the timelessness that wealth or political power does not confer on ordinary mortals.
With Apple Jobs gave us seductively tempting products that put us one touch away from our neighbours, changed our world and created millions of jobs in the process! No wonder then that from Hong Kong to China to United Kingdom to Japan, people made shrines of flowers in memory of one man who revolutionised how we lived.
Presidents, Prime Ministers, kings and renowned entrepreneurs all over the world mourned one man who gave so much to the world, in spite of his own personal challenges and took away very little. According to President Barack Obama, “Steve was among the greatest American innovators-brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it”.
Sub-optimal achievers
If you have an iPod, iPhone, iPad or ever had an iMac computer, you must have been touched by Steve Jobs bravery, boldness and talent.
The story of Jobs is one that not only enchants but also challenges all of us who make excuses why we are sub-optimal achievers. Steve puts to shame all those who think that taking, indeed stealing, from society is an achievement and all those who flaunt their loot with impunity.
Steve knew all along that he was going to die any time, but he did not whine or slow down, instead he raced against time to give the world the best of his ingenuity. Steve Jobs shows us that there is never a convenient time to give than when the need arises.
Steve Jobs was born out of wedlock on February 24, 1955 to Abdulfattah John Jandali, a Syrian Muslim immigrant to the United States who later became a professor of Political Science, and an American graduate student, Joanne Schieble, who went on to become a speech language pathologist.
His mother gave him away for adoption, to an American family of Paul and Clara Jobs. Steve started training in a computer school and later went to college but dropped out. In Nigeria he would have been nothing if he cannot produce paper qualification.
He would have been frustrated in the process of satisfying the Nigerian obsession with university degree. Today we are foolishly converting every polytechnic to university so that everybody can carry university certificate! Yet we have no jobs for everybody!
In 1970 Steve and his friend, Steve Wozniak, an electronic hacker, founded Apple Computers in Jobs’ garage with just US$700 in their pocket. In ten years Apple Computers became a multi-billion dollar company. As usual, power struggle ensued and Jobs was forced to resign in 1985. Never to be daunted, he went on to found Next Computers, a computer platform development company. In 1996 Apple bought over Next and Jobs returned to Apple. At Apple Steve Jobs reputedly earned one United States dollar a year! But he owned shares in Apple and Disney that put his net worth in 2010 as US$8.3 billion and the 42nd wealthiest American, according to Forbes. That is a man born out of wedlock and who battled with pancreatic cancer for years and had liver transplant in April 2009.
For sure, Steve Jobs did not invent computer technology. He invented methods, business models and new ways to do things using the technology. That is the kind of innovation that Obama talked about in his state of the nation address last year that makes America competitive. Today, Nigeria needs not invent the wheel in any way. What we need is one man who can think out new ways we can meet our various challenges utilizing available technology. That is what should be expected of an economy that wants to be among the 20 biggest in the year 2020.
Jobs and Barack Obama, sons of immigrants, are the true story of America dream. From being born an orphan, a college dropout and ravaged by cancer but with an indefatigable can do spirit, Steve Jobs became an America icon ranked among John D Rockefella (Standard Oil), Henry Ford (Model T car) and Sam Walton (Wal-Mart). Although some disagree with ranking Jobs among these greats, we cannot dispute Jobs place as an innovator, entrepreneur and marketer. Jobs certainly earned his place as an icon. Nigerian “icons” are people who neither earned nor deserve their places in public reckoning. Our “business tycoons” are no more than rent racketeers who cornered our commonweal by knowing people in government or who are fronts for our treasury looters and who have the rankling audacity to flaunt their ill-gotten wealth.
Contributions to education
What the world remembers Jobs for is not his wealth; he was legitimately wealthy. He is not remembered by the number of houses he owned in different parts of the world; he probably did not own more than one. He is not remembered for the model, size or number of his cars; he probably owned no more than one. But the world remembers him for his innovations and contributions to education and health.
In a commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005, Jobs spoke about living and dying. That is a subject we hardly want to discuss in our lives. We think it is morbid to discuss death instead of the billions in the bank! We live in denial, as if we will live forever, or that death will come with advance notice. Our behaviour is conditioned by this seeming arrogance that we will die when we want. I believe that if we woke up everyday knowing that it could be the last we would act differently; we would have no inclination to postpone what today could achieve; we would be less arrogant; we would be less preoccupied with mundane living; we would place premium on being compassionate to fellow beings. When we die everything comes to nothing except the legacy we leave behind. And Jobs put it poignantly: “To know that you are going to die is the best way to avoid falling into the trap of thinking that you have something to lose”.
Jobs will be buried with nothing, not even an iPhone! He will take nothing with him. But his name will live forever because of the innovations he left behind. A Job well done, Steve!
Chief Enechukwu and the creation of Anambra State
EVER so often, Nigerians make claims about an issue forgetting that there are many others who know probably more about that issue. I read the story: “How We Fought Nwobodo and Got Anambra State” credited to Chief Ifeanyichukwu Enechukwu, one time Speaker of old Anambra State House of Assembly in Daily Sun of October 6, 2011 with astonishment at the inaccuracy of his recollection of the history of creation of additional states in Igbo land.
In the body of the story, there was not an iota of evidence that the struggle Chief Enechukwu talked about, albeit against Chief Jim Nwobodo, Governor of old Anambra State, is what gave rise to splitting the state into present Anambra and Enugu states by President Ibrahim Babangida.
It is true that today every Igbo is talking, meeting and “struggling” for the creation of an equalization state for the South East. But that cannot give rise to anybody claiming that his group or meeting gave rise to the creation of the state, especially if such meetings did not take any concrete step to actualize the desire for the additional state!
I do not wish to say more for now because those who signed the only memorandum to President Babangida articulating the reasons that compelled him to create additional states for Ndigbo, those who toiled day and night within the system in Nigeria and outside the country and those Igbo groups who worked in different ways to support the project foreswore grandstanding for strategic reasons.
But the true account will one day be told. So let those who think that there is a historical vacuum to fill stop making embarrassing claims. There are yet many more battles to be fought for the Igbo nation. Flippancy and irreverent outbursts as some Igbo politicians are prone to may not help such causes!
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