Metaphor

Its often that people ask me, why do i admire Steve Jobs so much???

Why do i call him GOD???

Often they compare him to Bill Gates and ask further why Steve???  Why not Bill ??? 

Bill has topped the Forbes list for over a decade, whereas Steve has hardly been able to be among the top 50.

Microsoft's  market  share is way to larger than Apple Inc.

By making the technology affordable, Bill has touched life of large no. of people than did Steve.

And most importantly, by signing The Giving Pledge, Bill agreed to donate almost all of his fortune to Charity whereas Steve denied to sign any such pledge.

Then why Steve??? Why not Bill???

To lift the veil of this 'why?' You need to know a different story of Steve.

To be specific,  its the same story that you know,  just revisiting to it more closely this time. So closely, as if it relates to you...

As if its Metaphor of your own life!

To tell it shortly without any technicalities (as you will find in Walter Isaacson), Steve found Apple.

He didn't just incorporated it as a company, but rather, he built it to life.

He did all whatever he could, to create an experience, one of its kind.

It can only be related to something that a mother does for her son.

Steve loved Apple.

But then, he was abandoned by the same company he poured his life into.

Steve had to resign Apple, AND HE STAYED OUT FOR OVER 10 YEARS.

Its this part of the story, that i admire him for.

Being ABANDONED by something that you loved so much is the worst thing which can ever happen to you, i believe.

How the hell could he survive it???

But in those 10 years, IRRESPECTIVE of what Apple had to say about him, he still LOVED Apple.

He was honest while building it, was Honest while bringing it to life, honest while loving it beyond life.

AND HONEST EVEN WHEN HE WAS ABANDONED.

i admire him for the same Honesty!

Being honest is whats important, No matter if at times it may taste sour.

In those 10 years, Steve's best friend and a Billionaire Larry Ellison, looking Steve in grief, proposed him to buy the entire Apple Inc. And once Larry buys Apple, he can force back Steve to his place.

Steve denied Larry's proposal.

At this point in this story, i doubted Steve's love for Apple. Was it that in 10 years, he lost his interest in Apple??? Did he decided to move on in life???and if not so, why would he ever deny Larry's proposal???

Steve wanted to return Apple not by his own forces, but by Apples own calling.

Because the things that happen of their own wish, are more joyful than it would if forced.

10 years was a big time for someone of your own to know your worth.

But no matter how long it takes for them to know your worth, THE DAY COMES !!!

Steve returned to Apple on its calling.And the story ahead need not to be told.

Steve gave the best he could. Saw the unexpected worst. Loved. Got abandoned. Still Loved. Stayed  honest. 

And its for this story, that i know, the meaning of being honest. It might go unnoticed at times, but never stop being so. Things might be taken away from you. Don't chase them. Stay honest, Pure. And they WILL return to you....doesn't matter if it takes 10 years.

There are many stories about Steve.

Depicting his childhood, incorporation of Apple, Apples growth, inventions and off-course, as Steve puts it, its "Remarkable Products".

But among all this stories, i guess the above story goes unnoticed.

Its the same old story you all know,

But you will only know it, if you revisit it, this time, a bit more closely.

So closely, as if it relates you...!!!

PS: 'i' in the above post is intentionally keyed in lower case.

 

the answer

Few days ago,a 'then' best friend of mine, asked me "what makes me happy. Real -real happy?"

I paused a bit, and said "MONEY".

Well, my pause wasn't for to think of the answer. I was quite certain about it. My pause, however, was to think, if saying so would create a bad impression of me in her mind.

Money is ultimately what we all struggling for.  Yet explicit love for it is thought by many as negative. Love for work/ profession is considered as 'Passion' , but love for money is thought as 'Greed'. And of course, Passion stands at a higher moral ground than Greed.

Whatever, I risked to say so, for my love for it mattered me more.

On a one (un) fine day, I added a new rule to my diary," To  prefer  money to people". Maybe I was a bit frustrated on that day. But somewhere deep in my heart I always believed that I would be really happy to find an exception to this rule. But as it turned out, it was the most absolute rule since the 3 rules that Newton founded in the eighteenth century.

The reason to it is that we all are 

Humans. And humans are punished by the nature with an useless gland in their body.  Emotional Gland!

These glands, which are usually left untraced by any radio waves, results in various emotions including but not exhaustive : love,pain, anger,joy and in some people, EGO!

These emotions further lead to expectations. And expectations if not met, hurts.

You never expect from others to move mountains. Your expectations maybe as decent as a simple text asking if you are fine, a simple Good night wish which not just makes your night good but perhaps also makes your day worth. It can be a simple song that you share, the happiest/saddest moment of your day  or else a simple 'best luck' to cheer you up when the other things least work.

You may think of all these as little lovely gestures that you expect from restricted few. But irrespective of  what you think of them,  to others they maybe "TIRING".

Well if you are ever hurt with the unmet expectations, it totally is your fault. because  it's you who expected from wrong people.

Maybe that's the reason WHY SOME PEOPLE ARE TOO WISE TO HAVE ONLY EXPECTATION : NO EXPECTATIONS !!! 

Well coming back to money, you can always expect from it. And it will always buy its worth (& if economy is set in deflation, it will even buy more than its worth)

So lesson number #1:

"It's better to expect from money in your pocket than people in your heart."

Money never disrespect you. It never hurts you. Neither does it punishes you for the mistakes you didn't make.

And as the Rule of Capitalism says, the more you have it, the more you will make it. Good enough. Ain't it ???

Well I won't coin any further lessons as lesson number #1 is more than sufficient to have the worldly wisdom.

I would just say that Greed, for the lack of better word, is GOOD! 

amidst the crowd....

Fading winter breeze, little bit of  sunshine, February is really a month for a day like Valentine to match perfectly.Its finally the time of new year when the 'New Year Party Hangover' is over.You are done with sending new year wishes or making up 'Resolutions' & look forward to 'ACTUALLY-DO-SOMETHING' with it. But then before you could start with the 'ACTUALLY DOING' part,you realize that its February-The Valentine Month.

For the commited peoples its the time to think of some crazy idea which would make the day 'THE DAY'. For the others not attached,Valentine’s Day is simply a reminder of their single status.

Falling under the second category (as I have ever been ) ,I was flying on my bike to the office, late as usual.The speciality of the traffic signals (if you haven't realized it ) is that they totally know if you are late.And if you happen to be so,they will all stare  red at you. After 120 seconds of eternity, the signal finally turned green.But still it took longer than usual for the traffic to clear.
As I went a bit ahead,I realized that some car (the driver of which perhaps was getting late for THE  special day) has hit a dog dead.The body of the dog was lying in the middle of the road and people maneuvered their vehicles from the sideways.And as I was about to do the same,I saw some 10-12 year old kid who was pouring some water into the dogs mouth,standing there in the middle of the street.Me, you or anyone else would have thought the dog to be dead and moved on.But the kid refused to do so.I don't know if he knew the dog is dead or not,he decided to take an effort in case it is not.At the risk of appearing insane , he decided to do so,as it would matter to someone.Maybe this was the way he chose to show love on this valentine.
I thought of asking the kid if it was his dog,but then, does it even matter ???

The crowd continued to move from the sideways, as always.
But what I felt happy to see,was that, amidst the crowd, there was a human !!!