Visionary Steve Jobs Leaves Behind An Amazing Legacy

By Astrid Rivera

As I began to type this story, I accidentally glanced down at my computer and realized that I was typing this on a MacBook Pro. This is when it hits me, the extent to which the visionary Steve Jobs has impacted my life and the lives of millions of others worldwide.

Many of the things that we now take for granted like the iPhone, iPad and iPod were made possible because of Jobs' innovation and curiosity in a world that usually rewards conformity. As co-founder of Apple, he was responsible for leading us into an era of technological revolution and cultural transformation. Thanks to the genius of Jobs we now experience movies, music and mobile communications in a way never before seen. Simply put, Steve Jobs gave us the future nicely wrapped and ready to go.

But before Apple changed the world, Steve Jobs was an unconventional outsider who took pleasure in the simple things life offered. Born in San Francisco on Feb. 24, 1955, he was given up for adoption and was raised by an Armenian family, who named him Steven Paul Jobs. He quickly displayed an interest for all things electronic.

As reported by The New York Times, Jobs called William Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, as an eighth-grader, after discovering that an essential part was missing from a frequency counter her was building. Mr. Hewlett immediately prepared a bag of parts for the boy and offered him a job as a summer intern. After meeting Stephen Wozniak in an introductory electronics class in high school, Jobs soon realized that together they were capable of great things and the pair began their journey by creating Apple in 1976.

Even the name set the company apart. At a time where everyone was choosing the most intimidating and complex name they could think of, Jobs chose a simple word: Apple. Soon after releasing their second product, the Apple II, the company was a sensation and by 1983 they reached the Fortune 500 list. From there the company went on to release a series of products that for better or worse made Apple stand apart from its major competitors.

During 1984's Super Bowl the company boasted what is today one of the world's most famous commercials, recreating George Orwell's classic novel 1984. Although Jobs temporarily left the company in 1985, he pursued other equally successful ventures such as acquiring Pixar, which was then owned by the famous director George Lucas. With the release of 1995's Toy Story, Jobs emerged from his investment a billionaire.

A corporate heavy-weight, Jobs always saw himself as an outsider and never forgot his humble origins stating,

"I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned Coke bottles for 5-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would talk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Kirshna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on."

Although his battle with pancreatic cancer is lost, his wish to spark a change in the world came true. Perhaps President Obama put it best when he said shortly after Jobs' passing,

"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 has learned of his passing on a device he invented."

Steve Jobs took our hands and led us into the future. It is now up to us to continue to honor his legacy and continue to march onwards as he would have wanted.

How will you remember Steve Jobs? What's your favorite Apple device?

Tags Apple, Astrid Rivera, George Lucas, George Orwell 1984, Hewlett-Packard, iPad, iPhone, iPod, MacBook Pro, Pixar, President Obama, Stephen Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Super Bowl, The New York Times, Toy Story, William Hewlett