Steve Jobs has died. America’s 21^st Century explorer genius is gone who revolutionized how we all live. The one area he has failed was in saving his body. Should he have put his efforts into revolutionizing the medical industry that could have saved his life? Now research and studies are being done at John Hopkins University to remove cancerous cells from tumors and replacing the good cell matter back into the pancreas. He died from cancer of the pancreas.

America has failed in not putting its efforts into saving this man who we all knew was seriously ill since 2004. For seven years his health has been in decline. He had a liver transplant from a man in his twenties in 2009 where he hoped he would get better but never did get healthy. He worked till his last days. He took a medical leave this year in 2011 and gave up his CEO status two weeks ago.

When he spoke at a graduation at Stamford University he revealed his philosophy. ”Live each day as if it is your last day.” He translated those words into get something done. Get your ideas out and make them work and let everyone know about it. Ordinary people say, “This could be my last day at life, forget it , I’m not going to do anything.” So, Starting in 2003 he gave the world what you probably own now. The I Pod, I Tunes, I Phone, The Power Mac, Apple I Computer, Apple II Computer and the Mackintosh. Since the knowledge of his illnesses, it became the most productive years of his life. When you know you are going to die, you have no fear and you should just do things. Beethoven wrote his last three symphonies after he became deaf.

Steve was a child his parents did not want. He was an adopted child. After 6 months of studies he dropped out of college. The company started in his garage at age 20 and grew to be worth 350 Billion Dollars; it grew 7000%. He became the most successful businessman of our generation. In his thirties he met his wife. He co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak. In 1980 the company had its initial public offering, the biggest IPO since 1956. In 1984 Apple introduced the first Macintosh computer. Jobs left Apple in 1985 after the board did not agree with Job’s direction for the company. In 1991 Apple introduced the Power Book 180c, the first portable computer. In 1998 Apple unveiled the I Mac. In 1999 Apple introduced the I Book. 2001 Jobs introduced I Tunes and the I Pod. The I phone launched in 2007, I pad launched in 2010, and in 2011 launches I Pad 2. He resigned August 2011 .He was worth over 6 Billion dollars. He died at 56 years old.

He was disrespected by his own company. He wanted to simplify technology and make devices easier to use. He wanted to make affordable products for all. The computer companies were selling gigahertz, gigabits, and modems. He wanted to sell simplified products to benefit all people. They thought he was nuts! The computer industry was flowing nicely so the board of directors voted to get rid of him when he was age 30 and trying to push his new ideas.

Like all geniuses, the conventional people of the time believes they are crazy. Like Galileo who saw stars, or Bell who thought speaking through wires was a good new thing. Steve Jobs’ idea was a computer without press buttons or a mouse or a cursor. The spinning wheel as in the I Pod or the touch screens as in the I Phone both he was able to successfully launch after he started his own company. Apple rehired him 12 years later in 1997.

A music lover, he wanted more easy access to the music. His marketing sense helped the world to have instant access to music at their fingertips. I Tunes succeeded where many digital companies failed it made the purchasing of music legal and accessible to everyone. Music became central to the smartphone. Now, 16 Billion songs are downloaded into the Apple I Tunes Store. Yes, this computer geek thought of us and him.

He gave us the Apple store in every mall. Ordinary people can just walk in and be part of the latest innovation. Technology is now in everyone’s life. Apple became the most valuable company in the world. Bill Werde the editor of Billboard Magazine attributes Steve as the creator of the Digital Music Age. 314 million I Pods have been sold since its launch a decade ago. There is a generation of people who only know a world with Apple in it. They were toddlers when the I Mac was introduced. This is a generation where everyone owns at least one Apple product. This generation doesn’t even use pen and paper to take motes in a classroom. It’s all on their Mac.

He pushed and succeeded hardware integrated with software thus no viruses. That is why anyone who does real work on a computer probably does it on an Apple. The familiar silver computer with the giant apple with a bite in it was thought of after Apple records which was the Beetles recording label. It is like the biblical story of the Garden of Eden where someone dared to take a bite out of the forbidden fruit and somehow survived. The Apple bite is about sin going against the norm. Yes, he went against the advice of the computer industry gods and successfully gave the world useful devices that were unlike anything they have ever seen or used before. He made technology fun. His company toyed with new animation technology. He bought Pixar from George Lucas that made Toy Story and sold it to Disney in 2006.

He knew that death for him was near by announcing his step down in August. The new I Phone 4S was just launched that will give us voice to technology. Talk to your phone. Ask a question and in moments answers will magically appear on your screen. The I TV is yet to be made available within the next 5 years.

Capital Advisors Growth Fund currently owns 45,000 Apple shares. They are not worried. Apple currently has a good management team. The competition has not gotten anywhere near the products that he left the company. Apple shares have not gone down upon immediate knowledge of his death in fact shares of Yahoo went down upon speculation that Microsoft would take over it.

Now people are leaving flowers at Apple stores. He was pushing his products but he was a private faithful family man married with 4 children. If you bought 100 shares in 1997 when he took over his business again, it cost you $340. Now the same 100 shares is worth $40,000. It changed many lives. When he had company troubles, he never went begging to Washington asking for a handout the way many companies did.

So, have a drink tonight and toast to the crazy ones. The misfits, the rebels, troublemakers, the round pegs in the square hole, the ones who see things differently. They are not fond of rules, they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, agree with them, glorify or vilify them. Just about the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward. And as some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. It is the people who are crazy enough to think out of the box and think they could change the world. He thought differently and this paragraph was the text from an Apple commercial. His products now allow us to think differently.

Steve Jobs has been featured on the cover of Time magazine 8 times and on the next issue he will be on the cover again. There was a movie about his life called the Pirates of Silicone Valley. He gave his e-mail address out to the public and if you were lucky he would answer your questions with a one word answer. He died one day after his new product was released. If everyone in the world shut off the devices that he made at the same time, there would be a global power surge. There isn’t a single person in the world who can replace Steve Jobs we can only hope the board of his company can keep his products useful and new for a few more years. Too bad his body couldn’t keep up with his mind.

If there isn’t a heaven, Steve Jobs will invent one!