Leaving a very lasting and memorable legacy, Steve Jobs died on 5 October 2011.
But being the famed Apple CEO and creating legendary devices like the iPhone, isn’t all he left behind.
A year before he passed away, due to a respiratory arrest relating to a tumour, Jobs sent himself a moving email.
The legendary inventor co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak in 1976, soon gaining fame for their creations.
After some time away, he returned to the tech company as CEO in 1997 and is credited with reviving it, leading to the creation of the likes of the iPod and iPad.
Leaked publicly, the dad-of-four emailed his own email address on 2 September 2010, with some rather thought-out, stirring words – using one of his own devices.
A true tech legend. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Sent at 11:08 at night, Jobs sent the following to himself: “I grow little of the food I eat, and of the little I do grow I did not breed or perfect the seeds. I do not make any of my own clothing. I speak a language I did not invent or refine.
“I did not discover the mathematics I use. I am protected by freedoms and laws I did not conceive of or legislate, and do not enforce or adjudicate. I am moved by music I did not create myself. When I needed medical attention, I was helpless to help myself survive. I did not invent the transistor, the microprocessor, object oriented programming, or most of the technology I work with.
“I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being.”
And of course, the email was signed off with the classic: “Sent from my iPad.”
He sent the email on his iPad. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Jobs was diagnosed with cancer in 2003 – a rare form of pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer.
He received a liver transplant in 2009, but sadly died in 2011 at the age of 56.
While the leaked email shows his deep thoughts and moving words, his final words before death are also well-reported.
His sister, Mona Simpson, described in her eulogy that his final words ‘were monosyllables, repeated three times’.
Apparently, he simply said: “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.”
Included in a thread with Jobs’ email on X was him replying to a customer struggling with their phone’s reception, to which he simply responded: “Just avoid holding it that way.”
Well, fair enough – he knew what he was talking about.
