Men After Fifty

It Takes BALLS To Face The Issues Of Midlife & Beyond!

Welcome To Men After Fifty!

I'm Dr. Adam Sheck, and I'd like to welcome you to the "Men After Fifty" Community! Living for more than half a century on this planet is a rite of passage and I wanted to create a place where we can share our wisdom and experience to help each other and to help those who matter in our lives. As true for many "men after fifty", I've had a number of careers over my … [Read More...]

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Sex
  • Relationships
  • Health
  • Finances
  • Career
  • Spirituality
  • Family
  • Join
  • Contact

Steve Jobs and Me

October 6, 2011 by drsheck · 2 Comments

Have I ever met Steve Jobs?  Not in person.  Yet he had a profound impact on my life, as he did on so many.  And his death touched me, impacted me, saddened me.

He was a MAN!  Probably not a perfect man, yet a man.  He lived his vision.  He was true to himself.  He didn’t compromise.  He didn’t settle.  He pushed himself and those around him to live full out, to live their greatness.

Everyone knows how he dropped out of school and started Apple in his garage.  How he was thrown out of his own company, replaced by a soft drink manager.  How he picked himself up, continued to live his vision, got his company back, and then brought it out of near bankruptcy to become (at least now) the largest company in the world.  He created, innovated, had a family and children and had interesting taste in clothes.

I remember as an undergraduate at MIT when the Apple II came out, this little computer you plugged into your tv.  At this point, the smallest computer I had ever seen (and most people hadn’t even seen a computer in the mid-1970s!) was about the size of a walk-in closet.  And many computers filled entire rooms and buildings!  Punchcards were still a common way of data entry.  Pretty wild.

And less then ten years later, the first Macintosh computer came out.  I remember a dear friend of mine bought one of the first ones and we just marveled at the fonts we could use and how pretty the love poems we wrote to women were (and how those pretty love poems would get us what we wanted – we WERE in our twenties, you know).

And although my workplace was FULL of IBM PCs and their “big” 13″ amber monitors, I chose to buy a Mac SE with its 9″ black and white built-in screen.  And I’ve owned probably a dozen Macs since then.  And then an iPod.  And then an iPhone.  And then an iPad.  And then …

Yes, I’m a Mac-addict and the ultimate consumer for technology.  AND, what investment karma I’ve had over the years has been greatly tied in with Apple stock as well.  I remember it when it lived in the $30s and when it dropped into the $15s.  And in the $100s and into the $400s.  I’m sure it will always be a part of my portfolio and I will be grateful to Steve Jobs for a chunk of my retirement funding for sure.

And this morning, I awakened, saddened by Steve’s death at such a young age.  He was only three years older than I.  It’s sad when anyone dies, yet someone who was so prolific, so impactful, so brilliant, it’s even sadder.  I can only hope that he articulated a long-term vision for Apple’s contributions to the world and that it is carried out in a grand way.

I’m sad for him, for his family, for the world and perhaps even more for myself.  Mine is more a selfish sadness though, if I’m honest about it.  The question I ask myself now, as a “man after fifty” is, “What is MY vision, and am I living it?  Am I true to myself?”

While few, if any of us can compare our life accomplishments to Steve Jobs, I CAN hold him up as an example.  I CAN use him as a vicarious mentor and hold myself more accountable to living MY truth, MY vision, MY dream.  I can use HIS accomplishments as motivation to push myself further to create MY life more fully.

And I encourage YOU to do the same.  What is YOUR vision and are you LIVING it today?  Are YOU true to yourself today?  HOW can you express more of yourself today?

Think about  it.  Think Differently!

Adam Sheck

And if I can help you in some way, please feel free to contact me.

Filed Under: Articles, Career, What It Means ·

Comments

  1. Noe Gold says

    October 6, 2011 at 3:20 pm

    A significant meditation on a monumental meditator. We all take what we need from the passing of a colossus. For me, it is that Steve was adopted, as is my son, and while he always knew it, it is great to have a role model with that correspondence to his own beginnings.

    And yeah, I was an early adapter as well. Unfortunately I had to sell my Apple stock but so it goes.

    Reply
    • drsheck says

      July 23, 2012 at 2:56 am

      Noe,
      Yes, we can have mentors and role models who touch us that we never even MEET!
      Thanks so much for sharing,
      Adam

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Free Report: 5 Myths That Keep Men Stuck!

Join The Men After Fifty Community!

Close

Latest Thoughts

mental health hangout

Why Won’t Men Get Help?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCPAQrDTf_M[/youtube] Why Won't Men Get Help? I was the featured guest at a Google Hangout sponsored by the Good Men Project recently, the topic being, "Are Men Falling Behind In Mental Health?" We opened up the discussion beyond mental health to the … [Read More...]

gmp google hangout

5 Guys Talking About Manhood

I'm very excited and honored to have been the first guest invited to be part of the Good Men Project Google Hangout on April 11, 2013! [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwdj4keraHQ[/youtube] The five man video chat covered topics ranging from men and relationships, to mission and life … [Read More...]

change

Don’t Wait For The New Year, Start Now!

Don't Wait For The New Year, Start Now! Most of us wait until the "New Year" to reassess our lives and state new plans, intentions and "resolutions" for our lives. Yes, it's a time when there is general consensus that this is a good thing to do, yet why wait? If you want to create change in your … [Read More...]

new macho

Is The “New Macho” A Good Model For Healthy Masculinity?

Is The "New Macho" A Good Model For Healthy Masculinity? As I've said in previous posts (Mankind Project, Men's Work), I'm a big fan of the Mankind Project (MKP).  MKP has shared a great piece offering a great working definition of the "New Macho" as a model for the "New Masculinity". It is a … [Read More...]

sexiest men over 50

What Makes A Man Sexy? Sexiest Men Over 50

What Makes A Man Sexy?  There was a recent survey that announced the 21 "Sexiest Men Over 50".  To be honest, I'm appreciative that anyone is even taking of survey of MY demographic. And the top three were hardly surprising: George Clooney, Antonio Banderas and Denzel Washington.  I find it way … [Read More...]

Copyright © 2023 · Dr. Adam Sheck