Icon. Game changer. Relentless. Inspirational. Dedicated. These are all words to describe a brilliant individual whom the world will never forget.

It’s literally all over the news and Internet only a few hours after it happened, so I’m sure you all know by know, but today the world lost an amazing person.  Apple’s former CEO, Steve Jobs, passed away today at the early age of 56 years.

Insane.  That’s all I can think.  Only 56 years old and the man has accomplished the work of 4 lifetimes. This may be more well known than I think, but I figured I’d give a brief history of some of Jobs’ primary roles throughout his life.

Steve Jobs has done so much to advance the technological world.  He started out with Apple.  Steve Wozniak and Jobs founded Apple together in the 70s and made the personal computer popular in the 80s.  In the mid-80s Steve was let go from Apple and founded NeXT, a platform developing company, and acquired Pixar which he then became CEO of for 20 years.  In 2006 Disney bought out Pixar and Steve became a majority shareholder in Disney stock.  In the mid-90s Apple bought out NeXT and brought Steve back on as CEO, where he had been until August 2011 when he resigned from his position, while remaining at Apple as Chairman of the Board.

Steve had brought back true quality and amazing design to the technology scene, both in the hardware and software realms.  Everything Apple has developed and come out with over the last decade has been so technologically advanced and of superior quality that it has forced everyone else to step up their game, proving to be a very tough competitor.  This is a huge factor that keeps technology advancing so quickly.

Below are links for articles about his death and reactions, as well as some of my favorite stories and videos about Mr. Jobs that I think really show what kind of person he really was, in the business world at least, I of course can’t speak for his personal life. As an entrepreneur myself, he was extremely inspirational to me.

Apple’s official announcement: http://www.apple.com/stevejobs

Reactions to his death including Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and many more: http://bit.ly/p7vTmQ

The symphony of a relationship between Jonathan Ive and Steve Jobs: http://n.pr/pASkxH

Jobs’ 2005 Stanford University Commencement Address: http://bit.ly/pbbPiF

Thank you, Steve.
“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”