BUSINESS MATTERS (BEYOND THE BOTTOM LINE) By Francis J. Kong
(The Philippine Star)
Updated October 08, 2011
Two words in the English American vocabulary never fail to stop me in my tracks. These two words are “breaking news”.
Tired from the conference, information overload and a little bit of
jetlag, I decided to spend Wednesday night alone in my apartment in New
York with a turkey sandwich I earlier bought from a diner. I sat
comfortably on the leather chair and surfed through some of the 700
cable TV channels before settling on a popular news program. I was just
in time to hear the newscaster announce, “And now we have some breaking
news: Steve Jobs has just died...”
I knew this day would come the moment I saw his frail figure making a
public presentation his very last of the Ipad2. Still, a sudden,
unexplainable surge of sadness permeated my entire being when I heard
the news. I’ve never met Steve Jobs, but I’d say I’m acquainted with
him. All of us in my household enjoy his Apple products.
A few minutes later all the major news networks were buzzing with the
same news, and famous personalities from Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg
to US president Barack Obama were paying tribute to the Apple founder.
Most of them declared, “We will miss you!”
Steve Jobs actually thought about his death a lot. He talked about it
in his commencement address in Stanford University June 12 of 2005. He
said,
“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like, ‘If you
live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be
right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33
years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, ‘If
today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about
to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in
a row, I know I need to change something.”
“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. 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...
“...No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven
don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all
share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because
Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s
change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now
the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually
become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is
quite true.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone
else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma which is living with the results
of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions
drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to
follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you
truly want to become. Everything else is secondary...”
Death and dying do make a philosopher out of any person, no matter how eccentric, brilliant, wealthy, famous or powerful.
I texted my friend Louie in Manila when I heard the news about Jobs’s
death. His succinct reply was, “My friend, that’s where all of us would
go anyway!” That’s so true! Paul presents another perspective in the
New Testament: “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” That’s the
perspective people in the faith take on when faced with the
inevitability of death.
Death is a fearful thing, but the prospect of entering life with
Christ for eternity is such a great proposition it dispels the fear of
it.
Long before Jobs addressed his audience at Stanford, I had addressed
audiences of my public seminars with the same words (It used to be on a
Post It app note in my computer as well), with a little, personal twist
at the end. My message goes, “Live each day as if it were the last,
for one day you will be right, and ask the Lord to teach you to number
your days so that you may gain a heart of wisdom.”
We all should, shouldn’t we?
I will miss you Steve.
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