The Passing of a Business Leader
by Mark Chussil
I remember where I was when JFK was assassinated, when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, when the Challenger exploded, and on 9/11.
Today, when Steve Jobs died, I was on vacation in Napa Valley. Even in a winery’s tasting room, someone thought the news important enough to burst into the room and make an announcement.
Steve Jobs was a complex man, a thinking man. http://bit.ly/qvAJsl He pushed others hard and he pushed himself hard. We find that motivating. No one is driven to achieve easy things; we are driven to achieve hard things.
When’s the last time we mourned the passing of a business leader? What other business leader would we mourn?
What do the answers to those questions mean?
I’m thinking about those questions and I want to take my answers to heart. I know that no one will burst into a room to announce my demise. Still, when my time’s up I want to be able to look back and honestly say I am satisfied with the decisions I made. Not in some revisionist or perfectionist way, but rather that I made thoughtful decisions with what I knew and believed at the time I made them. That applies to my personal life and my business life, because in truth there is no separation; there is only my life.
Farewell, Steve Jobs. Thank you for what you did for us, for your dedication to excellence, and for living consciously.
“I didn’t say it would be easy. I said it would be worth it.”
Heard from Dan Gibbons, one of my teachers.
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
Annie Dillard
“Don’t get called out on strikes.”
Leo Durocher (?)
“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.”
John F. Kennedy
“May you live all the days of your life.”
Jonathan Swift