http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/
I hate that this page exists, and I’m in tears right now as I write this.\
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Steve was my CEO for 8 of the most turbulent and most formative years of my life. I started with Apple pre-iPod, when the company was floundering and not expected to survive. The cadre of believers I worked alongside were as rabid as I was, believing in Steve’s vision for the company and for the world. We worked our asses off, and sure enough, the world started to take note. \
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11 years on, Apple is the biggest company in the US, and I’ve moved on from the company, but I still get a surge of pride everytime I spot someone using an iPhone, or beavering away on a MacBook, and I happily get these surges often.\
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The surges have been accompanied by a knot in my stomach since Steve announced his medical leave last year. Every longtime Apple employee could read the finality in his statement. Today’s announcement – while awful – was entirely expected. I imagine the rest of my old coworkers are tonight wondering what this spells for the company. The visionary is gone, and with him the micromanager who made the whole business run so exactingly. (Pixar – the other hugely successful company he nurtured concurrently to Apple’s meteoric rise – has a deeper bench and can weather the loss far easier.) The future of the company I loved so well is in doubt.\
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As sad as this makes me, I’m saddest when thinking about his real babies – the three young kids he leaves behind. He gave so much of himself to Apple and Pixar, I feel guilty that they’ve lost him so early. Knowing he’s consecrated in the American Pantheon alongside Edison, Lloyd Wright and Ford can’t be much of a consolation to teenagers who’ll dearly miss their dad.\
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RiP Steve, Apple employee #002, from Apple employee #48449. It was an honour working with you.