THE death on October 6, 2011 of Mr Steve Jobs erstwhile co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Apple Corporation, makers of the iconic Apple Computers and the i-series of computing and communication gadgets came as a shock across the globe, and has attracted much lamentation. He was mourned, not as a businessperson who traded in computers and electronic conveniences, but in the manner of a pop star or someone engaged in some sentimental fondness. Given that Mr Jobs was no theological or political leader, this widespread outpouring of tributes from far and wide is an acknowledgement of the path and progress of human civilisation he spearheaded.Obviously, Jobs in death deserves the applause responding to his life and times, which unleashed phenomena yet to be fully grasped in some parts of the world: that Technology has reinvented the world and changed it to the bargain of millions of ordinary persons. Technology is no longer the exclusive preserveof geeks, rocket scientists and sophisticated analysts. And, for sure too, technology has changed the lives and fortunes of a number of inventors and astute investors.Steve Jobs provided a platform for grateful millions of users of technology applications to acknowledge the impact on their lives and businesses. He was an endowed steward of technological exertions, user-friendly innovationsand marketing success. He was only 56, but he altered the way the whole wide world communicates.As holder of 329 United States of America patents, itself an awesome achievement, Mr Jobs was easily a genius, and very prodigious. The lessons of his life must bear repeating because his display of tenacity and talent began well before anyone paid attention to either his addiction to technology or the attendant numerous success and fortune.Jobs was without any of the early privileges that would usually portend advantages and success in life. Born out of wedlock, his biological parents were able to convince themselves to hand their infant baby out for adoption. Growing up in his new home, he dropped out of formal school at 17 and wanderedthrough vocations, maintaining a rancorous interest in computing. This early love at first sight pushed him to literally get self-trained in the computer cult.It is a measure of the ordinariness of his beginnings that Jobs was in search of self-identity and even experimented with excursions in India and after becoming an adherent of Buddhism, did not lose sight of his intuitions and innate skills for computing and interpretation of the arcane software algorithms in the 1970s. He kept up with his boyhood friends and in 1976, launched the Apple Computers, the first strike in a long record of visionary accomplishments in the field.In 1985, Mr Jobs was ousted from the company he cofounded and left to other endeavours in the same industry. But in 1996, reconciliation loomed when Apple bought over his new company and Jobs rejoined as Chief Executive of the enlarged company. The ability to overcome the pettiness of the quarrel and pursue a larger dream was so profound that his return unleashed the legendary inventions at Apple Corporation.Today, Apple is one of a few global valuable brands and is extremely well regarded in stock markets in every corner of the world. Pursuing his dream, he further set an example of forgoing salary, earning One US dollar per annum and opted for payment by Apple's stock options. In an almost maverick act at the time, Mr Jobs was an early example of an entrepreneur as manager, willing to forgo the static and predictable pay structure of industry to the fortunes of the company as manifest in the stock prices. His hunch proved right and by his death, his personal worth was in excess of US$8billion. To put this in context, this is about an equivalent to a quarter of Nigeria's current foreign reserves.The lessons Mr Jobs have left us in this part of the world is that talent hardly comes through without the determined pursuit of a vision to use it, to actualise. Mr Jobs was extraordinary in spite of his handicaps of birth, challenges of schooling, difficulties of relationships at home and in the workplace. He nevertheless stuck to very fierce challenges with his pet vision for gadgets to work. He became the applications man, the software guru. His exemplary life strikes a familiar chord with many Nigerians.An extraordinarily gifted man, Jobs came back as often as the vision kept on track and enjoyed results of innovation and hard work with so much modesty. He has been described as ''a hero to everybody of his generation, a dreamer and a doer'', 'the greatest CEO of his generation''. Mr Jobs has made the world a better place than he met it through the fertility of his mind and creativity of his spirit and the doggedness of vision. Surely he has ascended as an immortal.
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