In 2015, Steve Jobs’s supposed last words on his deathbed spread like wildfire across social media, showing a repentant Steve Jobs who regretted having lived a life built around the pursuit of wealth and lamented that he could not take with him any of the things he had lived for once he died.
“Non-stop pursuit of wealth can turn a person into a twisted being, just like me,” reads one of the paragraphs from our supposedly repentant Steve Jobs.
These supposed last words of Steve Jobs have been shared millions of times on social media, with tens of millions of “likes”. They were also turned into a YouTube video by Badabun (which publishes without confirming whether the content is true), with millions of views. I suppose it’s a message most people like to hear. It’s like having the perfect excuse not to fight for your dreams, because here we have a successful man who regrets having devoted his life to fighting for his.
The problem is that it is completely false. And not just flatly false: merely thinking that Jobs could have said such a thing means not understanding who Steve Jobs was, what he did or why he did it.
The made-up last words circulated as an image, alongside a picture of Steve Jobs looking gaunt from his advanced illness.
Why are these last words fake?
To begin with, you only need to have read about Steve Jobs or listened to him to know that he wouldn’t say such rubbish even on an ecstasy overdose.
First of all, no biography has recorded them. In fact, we have already published what his last words were, as recorded in Walter Isaacson’s authorised biography of Steve Jobs, and as you can see, his real words are a far cry from the ones in that fake text.
We later learned that, before he finally stopped breathing, with his last breath and in the company of his sister, all Jobs said was “Oh wow”.
The author of this fake text clearly knows practically nothing about Steve Jobs, because Jobs did not chase wealth; he wanted to change the world. Wealth was simply the result of a job well done.
The text mentions God several times, yet Steve Jobs himself admitted that his belief in God was about 50-50. Not because he believed in God just a little, but because he wanted to think he might live on after death, so as not to lose all the wisdom accumulated over a lifetime. Then he would think better of it and say that it was probably all like an on/off switch, like the one on a smartphone.
If people like Steve Jobs had not had the passion needed to do what they did, the way they did it, they would have deprived the world of great advances from which we all benefit today.
Steve Jobs completely transformed as many as six different industries
Even if there was anything he might have regretted, it would have been treating some people ruthlessly, though he had an answer even for that: when you are changing the world, you can’t be soft on people.
See also: Business: 6 beliefs of self-made rich people
So I’m sorry to tell those who have found in these fake words an excuse to settle for less, watching an idol repent of having been ambitious, that no: Jobs died proud of what he had created and with just one regret, that he did not live longer to keep doing exactly what he was doing. No more, no less.
In the end, a hospital bed costs the same for everyone. If you chase wealth, you will die just the same as if you chase poverty. The person who pursues their dreams will die, and so will the person who pursued conformity.
That’s why, ultimately, we shouldn’t worry so much about how a person dies, but about how that person lives and the mark they leave in this life. And Steve Jobs left his mark. He had a purpose.
The Steve Jobs case shows the problem with the internet
People used to think stupidity was simply a result of people not having information. Then the internet came along and put information in everyone’s hands equally; you could even say there is too much information. But having information is one thing, and extracting knowledge from that information is something very different. It then became clear that stupidity is just that: stupidity.
It isn’t down to a lack of information. It’s down to how that information is used, and to how far you are willing to challenge your beliefs, which are often biased by the manipulation of social media and news outlets.
On the internet there is a constant struggle to capture your attention, and unfortunately, your attention is captured with sensationalist and often false messages. Lies and half-truths sell better than the truth, because people don’t always like the truth, and sometimes it is more boring than a lie.
You can give a lollipop to someone who isn’t interested in bettering themselves and they’ll end up sucking the stick instead of the sweet. You can give someone a fishing rod, and they’ll probably turn it into a selfie stick and then complain that they can’t catch any fish.
See also: The 6 flaws of Steve Jobs that, taken together, became genius
Featured image: Mark Kriegsman, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr.
