Happy birthday, Steve.

59 years ago today, the world saw the birth of one of the greatest pioneers in human history: Steven Paul Jobs. Nobody at the time could have possibly seen what this boy would go on to do throughout the course of his life.

59 years later, Steve Jobs is no longer with us. He lost a battle with pancreatic cancer and left this world on October 5, 2011. It was a sad day in the technology industry and it had ripple effects all around the world. I remember very clearly where I was and what I was doing that day. I was getting ready for an awards and honors ceremony that was being hosted at Littleton High School. The news came to me via Facebook, while I was browsing it on my then-new 2011 MacBook Pro. The tears were falling before I could even stop them. Nobody wants to lose their hero. The man whose footsteps I want to follow would be a man that I would never meet.

US President Barack Obama put it aptly:

"The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented."

You could not be more right, Mr. President. By the end of October 2013, Apple hit the milestone of nearly 700 million iOS devices shipped. (This is just iDevices, not counting Mac computers.) Whether you adore or abhor Apple, there is no denying that in the road from being a garage company in 1976, to when Steve unveiled the Macintosh on January 24, 1984 with tears in his eyes, to the advent of the iPod on October 23, 2001, to the iPhone on January 9, 2007, to the iPad on January 27, 2010, to one of the world's largest companies in 2014, Steve and his colleagues helped shape the technology world for the better. In a statement Tim Cook and Apple released after his death, "Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."

I would encourage anyone reading this to take a look at Steve's 2005 Stanford Commencement address, and take a moment to reflect upon his words and ponder how they may apply to you.

Steve has been an indirect mentor for me ever since I dipped my feet into Apple products in the middle of high school. To this day, it is my lifelong ambition to one day fulfill the role that he once did as CEO of Apple, and create innovations that will help the world for decades to come.  Every day that I wake up, I look in the mirror and ask what Steve also asked himself: "If today were my last day on Earth, how would I spend this day?" I know what I want to do every day. I want to take one step more on the road that is my destiny in life, whether that is flying airplanes, owning a Mercedes-Benz, or running Apple. I know that the dots will connect themselves looking back.

Happy 59th birthday, Steve. Thank you for everything.


Fun fact: This blog post is written in the Helvetica font, a font Apple used in non-Retina iOS 1-6 devices (iPad 1 and 2, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generations) and still prominently uses today.