There was a time when I really disliked Apple. It really had nothing to do with their products or the company itself but more with how I disliked how fans seemed to blindly follow and buy everything Apple made. I was anti-popular tech and always tried to shy away from what everyone else was using. That applied most definitely to the iPhone. For the first 3 generations of the iPhone, I was very against getting one and instead stuck with the BlackBerry just to be different from all my friends. That changed when the iPhone 4 and iOS 4 came out and I could no longer ignore Apple’s darling phone any longer. By then, the iPhone was able to do most of what my BlackBerry could do and more so there was really no reason for me not to buy one, even though it meant me becoming one of the Apple “zombies.”

From that day, I had become an Apple fan. Several months later, I also purchased an iPad 2. In the time I’ve owned my Apple devices, I’ve become a fan of the man leading Apple to greatness, Steve Jobs. This was a man who commanded respect and when he spoke, people listened. You didn’t have to own an Apple product or even like Apple to hear what he had to say and more often than not, he really did know what he was talking about. Even if at the time, it seemed like complete crap, it was his vision and ability to see something most of us couldn’t that made him respected in his field.

Steve Jobs was a perfectionist and it really showed in all his endeavors. Apple, NeXT, Pixar, then back to Apple. He lived a full life and influenced many with his ideals and work ethics. I can say that even though I didn’t know personally, he has influenced my life and the way I conduct business on a daily basis.

Steve Jobs will be missed by all his fans as well as those who respected what he did for the world and for the tech industry. There will never be anyone else quite like him in thus world. I’m glad that he is no longer suffering from his battle with cancer and know that he has moved on the a better place. Even though he is gone, his memory and ideas will live with us for a very long time.

Goodbye Steve Jobs. You will never be forgotten.