Thank You, Steve Jobs. 1955-2011

If there is a fitting obituary for Steve, he helped craft it himself.

This unaired video hits me harder than anything else I've heard today. Before Richard Dreyfuss recorded the final version, Steve narrated the words for early drafts of the Think Different ad campaign himself. When the spot was first created, Steve spoke of how deeply it moved him.

It's easy to take for granted the genius and courage that Steve Jobs represents. My creative and professional life has been impacted, supported, and magnified in innumerable ways by the product of this man's vision. Beyond any single product or creation, I am awed by the company, team, and structure he built around himself in order to bring his vision into reality.

When Steve recorded these words years ago, Apple was floundering and struggling for survival. There was nothing inevitable about the triumph that we see today. There was a younger Steve Jobs, facing chaos and conflict on all sides. With the courage to envision a greater future, and the clarity to execute the hard work needed in order to step from the chaos of that present into the future that we're living in today.

Thank you Steve. My life is better for your audacity in pushing forward.

~Craig Swanson

Here’s to the crazy ones.
    The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.
    The round pegs in the square holes.
    The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
    And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
    About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
    They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
    we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough
to think they can change the world…
are the ones who do.