Dear Steve...

Dear Steve,

I trust this mail finds you in the best of spirit!

 

The morning of 6th October 2011 brought the bad news. All these years we have been running around and I could never find the time to write this mail to you. Finally it had to be written after you left.

 

When we joined the industry as engineers you had already started Apple Computers. Macintosh had already become popular in India. We would often discuss why Macs were so limited in numbers when IBM compatibles were selling like hot cakes. Even the engineering students could assemble a computer at home and sell it.

 

When I got an opprtunity to work on the Mac I realised what superior OS can be. I came to know how Mac was different. Later on I realised how Steve was different.

 

A friend gifted me the book written by John Sculley. Though his term at Apple was not successful, and he was the very person to put you out of Apple, John did portray what a genious Steve is. The story was interesting and there was a lot to learn for a young graduate like me. No one thought you would ever return to Apple. The news coming out of Apple, for almost a decade, was not really great! Financial issues, product development issues, management issues - nothing seemed to go right! Thankfully, things took a favourable turn and you returned. Your second innings at Apple truely over-shadowed the first one.

 

iMac, iPod, iPhone - things just kept happening. Apple made lots of money, not because it wanted to make money, but because you wanted to build products for the future. You said, "It is not the customer's job to know what he wants, it is ours." Your products crossed the threshold of technology and became pieces of art.

 

Every product that hit the market created a league of its own. Your ideas and innovation taught us the difference between good engineering and spirited engineering. We learnt engineering from you, years after graduating out of a University.

 

You made the products intuitive. Your eyes could catch what others couldn't. You adopted GUI, mouse, and numerous other technologies when others had not realized their potential. You built products that simplified life, at the same time improved its quality. Apple products kept on disrupting conventional beliefs and shattering businesses. Others change the rules, you changed the game.

 

Your life was trailblazing and death was unique. Out here in India we kept on hearing about garage-start-ups in the Silicon Valley that made it big including Apple, Hewlett Packard, Hotmail, and others. We kept on hearing about the new generation of entrepreneurs. Names like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates informed the world that the next generation had arrived. This new breed could do things in 10 years that others did in 50. We have heard of businessmen who made it big over a lifetime of 50 or even 75 years! Their enterprises were built over not just their lifetimes, but over generations of their descendents. Your generation grew at amazing speed. While the IBM, and GE executive wore suits in office, you and Bill would sport a jean and T-shirt and yet get the same respect.

 

While most other Silicon Valley greats comfortably settled in their areas, you went through multiples of ups and downs in your personal and professional life. Your wealth swinged from zero to millions, to come down to zero again, and sure enough to go back to millions again. You made a difference to three different domains, IT, Telephony, and Entertainment. Without you, these three would have never converged.

 

There is one thing that we don't like about you Steve; you were the first New Generation Silicon Valley entrepreneur to pack your bags and leave. In one of your intereviews, you mentioned that after being diagnosed with cancer, the doctors said something to you that meant "prepare to die." But you came back with a bang. Tell me Steve, how did you keep your flame of creativity alive all this while? Where did you get this energy from?

 

Steve, you were not just an engineer, you were a gifted engineer! You didn't just see a better future, you invented it for us!

 

We have only one thing to ask Steve…do it again...show us your magic... just once more...we are hungry for more foolish people like you.

 

Come back to motivate millions of engineers...to inspire millions of students...to guide budding entrepreneurs...to help billions choose a better life...may be in a different body this time... because death can only destroy the body...it cannot destroy the spirit called Steve Jobs…Steve can not die...death can!

 

Awaiting your reply!

 

Yours,

Mak