Steve Jobs died last night at the age of 56, which came as a bit of a shock. While I knew he was battling a rare form of pancreatic cancer, for some reason I didn’t expect it to kill him. Now he’s gone leaving his great legacy for the world to remember him by.

I remember seeing the first Macintosh in a store window in Sweden and thinking that this was what I needed for my graphic design work. This was the point when computers began to interest me. I never liked the old text driven interfaces of other computers, I found them cumbersome and not worth the effort. The first computer I used was a Macintosh. So, I guess you could say that I am in the computer business because of Steve Jobs.

I have always thought that we have to do things we enjoy if we want to be any good at what we do and have some satisfaction and happiness in our lives so hearing what Steve said at his 2005 commencement address at Stanford, made me quite happy:

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life,” he told the Stanford University graduating class of 2005. “Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

So, not only has Steve Jobs been a catalyst for my life and career, he continues to be a great inspiration to me. We can only hope that we will live and die as well as he did.

Thank You, Steve.