Written By: Patrick Goudjo-Ako
Post Reading Time: 6 minutes.
2007. He was one the most intelligent person I’ve ever met. He was a really deep, powerful, calm, brilliant human being. He was a father, a husband, god-father, a son. He was generous, open minded, curious, attentive to others. He was a teacher, a consultant, a computer guy. He was a good wine taster. He built businesses, relationships. He helped a lot of people succeed. He was one of my mentors. His name is Denis Paradis. He used to work in Montreal, at prestigous business school called HEC. Back then, I wasn’t a student of that school. In the years to come, I took some Finance classes. I never finished them. Now, Denis is dead.
- =French= Word by HEC business school about Deniss death.
I met Denis in Abidjan, capital of Cote-d’Ivoire, a country in west Africa. A very beautiful country. I was studying problem solving using computer’s brain at university. He came to give us some programming classes. I was fascinated by the man. The topic is just that. Programming. Nothing exciting. Anyone can learn programming and build amazing software based on detailed specifications about the expected output. However, very few people can think about a proper solution, given the problem to solve. And very few can come up with non trivial or completely simple and elegant solutions. Denis was one of them. I was fascinated by his mind. By how he approached the technical problems. By how he approached life. He noticed I was very curious about how to come up with ideas that worked for very complex problems. Every single time I went to his office, he would ask me exactly the following: How is it going with your work ? How is your family doing ? Are you happy ? Do you still work on how to be a better person every day ? Do you need something I can help you with ? And every time, he would give me one of his own books, or a magazine or some web links to visit.
Map of Cote-d-Ivoire
One day, I was in his office and he told me we could work together on some mathematical unsolved problems. The are called The Millenium Prize Problems. We would get one million dollars ($ 1,000,000) for each problem that we solve. I was confident Denis would be able to solve them if he decided to put his attention to it. He was a really technically strong guy. Any person who really knew Denis could be confident in his abilities to solve almost any technical problem. Some people are like that. They are just good. As of december 2011, six of those problems still remain unsolved. Denis had books on that. We spent some time talking about it, and how to approach the solutions. Then we moved to something else. Denis always had ideas. Great ideas. He was kind of a genius. Almost too smart. If you need one million dollars, read about the problems here and try to solve them.
Millenium Prized Problems
One day in Montreal, while he was coming to school, his car was hit by another car which had been stolen by young guys driving at an extremely fast pace. Denis was with his wife, Michelle. He instantly got seriously injured and in coma for a long time. I visited him a lot of times at the hospital in Montreal. I would wait and go in his room very late, so that we could be just the two of us. I wanted to spend some precious time with him. I knew he had so much to teach me. And during that time, he taught me about life, strength, love, compassion, tenacity, simplicity. A lot of time, I was with other of his great friends and colleagues, like Pierre Desrosiers or Gilbert Babin. But most of the time, I would be alone. We would communicate by the eyes. Denis could not talk. He was not able to feed himself. He wasn’t able to move. Denis was like a baby. That was really sad to see. Looking at a guy who was one of the most energetic man I knew, and seeing him with zero autonomy was depressing. Sometimes, I cried. I would give him some baby toys that he could use letters and try to place them so he could make a sentence. One day, he wrote something like: I am sad. I want to be out of here. I didn’t know what to say.
But Denis never gave up. He fought as much as he could. His wife, Michelle, that I got the chance to meet, is a very strong woman. She helped him. She also was injured in the accident, but less seriously and by God’s grace, she was fine after being kept at the hospital for some time.
Never Give up
Denis always told me to never give up. I will never ever up. You should never ever give up for your dreams. Make sure you bring them to life. Make sure that every day, you take one small step towards the realization of your dreams. What can I tell you more ? I loved Denis. He was like a father. He was my technical mentor. He was a life mentor. I still do have mentors but no one will ever be like Denis. I can also tell you this:
Spend time with people you love. With people who love you. Take care of your family. Don’t spend time with people who don’t love you. Wish them happiness and move away. Remain in a constant peace state of mind. That’s not easy but at least work on it. Tell people you love that you care about them. Life is fucking short…or long…depending on how you spend it. Time is one of your precious assets. Make good use of it. Love. Be loved. Be generous of your time and your attention. Help someone else become a better person.
If you feel helpless, help someone else.
Rest In Peace, Denis. You will remain alive in our minds.
The Millennium Prize Problems are seven problems in mathematics that were stated by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000. As of December 2011, six of the problems remain unsolved. A correct solution to any of the problems results in a US$1,000,000 prize (sometimes called a Millennium Prize) being awarded by the institute. Only the Poincare conjecture has been solved, by Grigori Perelman, who declined the award in 2010.
The seven problems are:
- P versus NP problem
- Hodge conjecture
- Poincare conjecture (solved)
- Riemann hypothesis
- Yang-Mills existence and mass gap
- Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness
- Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture
P versus NP
The question is whether, for all problems for which a computer can verify a given solution quickly (that is, in polynomial time), it can also find that solution quickly. The former describes the class of problems termed P, whilst the latter describes NP. The question is whether or not all problems in NP are also in P. This is generally considered the most important open question in theoretical computer science as it has far-reaching consequences in mathematics, biology, philosophy and cryptography.
If the question of whether P=NP were to be answered affirmatively it would trivialise the rest of the Millennium Prize Problems (and indeed all but the unprovable propositions in mathematics) because they would all have direct solutions easily solvable by a formal system.
- “If P = NP, then the world would be a profoundly different place than we usually assume it to be. There would be no special value in ‘creative leaps,’ no fundamental gap between solving a problem and recognizing the solution once it’s found. Everyone who could appreciate a symphony would be Mozart; everyone who could follow a step-by-step argument would be Gauss…”
- — Scott Aaronson, MIT
Most mathematicians and computer scientists expect that P≠NP.
The official statement of the problem was given by Stephen Cook.
The Hodge conjecture
The Hodge conjecture is that for projective algebraic varieties, Hodge cyclesare rational linear combinations of algebraic cycles.
The official statement of the problem was given by Pierre Deligne.
The Poincaré conjecture (proven)
In topology, a sphere with a two-dimensional surface is essentially characterized by the fact that it is simply connected. It is also true that every two-dimensional surface which is both compact and simply connected is topologically a sphere. The Poincare conjecture is that this is also true for spheres with three-dimensional surfaces. The question had long been solved for all dimensions above three. Solving it for three is central to the problem of classifying 3-manifolds.
The official statement of the problem was given by John Milnor
A proof of this conjecture was given by Grigori Perelmanin 2003; its review was completed in August 2006, and Perelman was selected to receive the Fields Medal for his solution. Perelman declined that award.Perelman was officially awarded the Millennium prize on March 18, 2010. On July 1, 2010, it was reported that Perelman declined the award and associated prize money from the Clay Mathematics Institute.In rejecting the Millennium Prize, Perelman stated that he believed the decisions by the organized mathematics community to be unjust and that his contribution to solving the Poincaré conjecture was no greater than that of Columbia Universitymathematician Richard Hamilton(who first suggested a program for the solution).
The Riemann hypothesis
The Riemann hypothesis is that all nontrivial zeros of the analytical continuation of the Riemann zeta function have a real part of 1/2. A proof or disproof of this would have far-reaching implications in number theory, especially for the distribution of prime numbers. This was Hilbert’s eighth problem and is still considered an important open problem a century later.
Yang–Mills existence and mass gap
In physics, classical Yang-Mills theory is a generalization of the Maxwell theory of electromagnetism where the chromo-electromagnetic field itself carries charges. As a classical field theory it has solutions which travel at the speed of light so that its quantum version should describe massless particles (gluons). However, the postulated phenomenon of color confinement permits only bound states of gluons, forming massive particles. This is the mass gap. Another aspect of confinement is asymptotic freedom which makes it conceivable that quantum Yang-Mils theory exists without restriction to low energy scales. The problem is to establish rigorously the existence of the quantum Yang-Mills theory and a mass gap.
Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness
The Navier-Stokes equationsdescribe the motion of fluids. Although they were found in the 19th century, they still are not well understood. The problem is to make progress toward a mathematical theory that will give insight into these equations.
The official statement of the problem was given by Charles Fefferman.
The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture
The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture deals with a certain type of equation, those defining elliptic curves over the rational numbers. The conjecture is that there is a simple way to tell whether such equations have a finite or infinite number of rational solutions. Hilbert’s tenth problemdealt with a more general type of equation, and in that case it was proven that there is no way to decide whether a given equation even has any solutions.
Written By: Patrick Goudjo-Ako
Post Reading Time: 7 minutes.
December 2011, I’m flying to Chicago. Almost 2012 which I wish to be the best year ever for every person reading these lines. The boarding is taking time, so I decide to have a nice drink and read on my kindle, as usual. I was reading The Flinch by Julien, a friend of mine. Julien is a New York Times bestselling author of two books incuding Trust Agents. His last book I was reading has been co-written with Seth Godin and you can get it for free. I recommend it. Just download a kindle app for your computer. Ok, back to the airport… About 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time, people started to board and I was among the last persons to get inside the aircraft. I love flying, even if I’m a bit afraid sometimes. I guess I love confronting my fears.
Chicago, nice city !
We were in the sky for about one hour. I was thinking about my most exciting experience in the sky when the plane attendant, a gorgeous lady, told us: “Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please. We have a very important message from Eric (not his real name) to deliver to Helen. Helen, Eric would like to ask you to marry him. You can take about two minutes to think about it and let us know“. I was very happy to hear that. I was happy to see that they were declaring their love for each other in my presence. Three young ladies I boarded with and who were sitting close to me started discussing this proposal. We all looked at each other and I could see the brightness in their eyes. I think they were also happy for our friends.
I’m thinking how interesting it will be when, years from now, they will be talking about that with their children. About how Eric waited for the plane to be way high to make a highly important demand to his wife-to-be. God bless them.
What you give to your spouse
This very magnificent moment makes me think and want to share some ideas I got after reading one of a good friend’s words about why people should – or should not – get married.
Marriage is a gift. It’s a gift you make to your spouse.
After all the time you enjoyed together, you tell your partner you want him/her to remain in your life forever. You say “I want to be there for you, whenever you will need me. I want to help you attain your goal. I want only good for you. I also want you to be with me. Now and for ever.”
You cannot give a gift like that lightly. You cannot play or not consider the basics before offering it. It’s too important to mess with it. A friend I highly admire, and who has done a lot in my life and still help me, James Altucher, recently wrote about the elements people should consider when getting engaged in such an amazing and highly important relationship as marriage. I take most of his words as they make sense to me and are pretty close to how I see things on that matter. According to him the following things should be analyzed before offering the gift of marriage to your spouse:
A) Discipline:
Does your spouse have the same discipline as you regarding what to go for in life ? If you want to live a palace with people cooking you food and your spouse want to live in small house, you may have an issue. The notion of contentment you both have should be as similar as possible.
The saying goes like this: put a dime in a glass jar every time you have sex with your girlfriend/wife the first year. After that, take a dime out every time you have sex. You’ll never empty the jar.
Your goal, if you are both disciplined, is to empty that jar as quickly as possible. Equal standards of cleanliness and discipline are part of that after that blissful first year.
For me, I try to go more and more towards a more simple life, with less material things. This takes time. But obviously I can’t be in a healthy relationship if my partner is having completely different views on that matter. You got to talk and discuss things to an extent that satisfies both of you.
B) Ethics
You standards regarding ethics should be close. Standards about non-violence, telling the truth, feelings about adultery. Feelings about what you want in life. In many cities, you get to see people taking the bus or train together, kissing each other and then move in opposite directions. Many of those are already living with different spouses. You can’t do that in a healthy relationship. Think about why you are in relationship and how it helps you grow as a person. Take time. Think twice. Then be fair with yourself and with your partner. You can’t remain in a relationship if you are not happy about it.
C) Physically. You should always have similar ideas about what constitutes good health and the methods for keeping the good health. If one of you works out every day and the other never does then attraction would be lost fast. Also, the one who works out every day will have consistently higher libido. And the one who doesn’t work out every day will feel bad how they look and will end up with lower libido. If libidos are way out of whack then, that’s it, the marriage is in trouble and adultery is around the corner.
I love training. I love making physical exercise and I think we get a lot of things to choose between as far as sports is concerned. Soccer, basketball, tennis, badminton, swimming and so on. Just walking and running in the park or the streets is already great to experience with your loved one.
Do not go that far !!! Push-ups are ok !
D) Mentally. This doesn’t mean you have to be equally smart, or like the same books and movies. But I do think it means having a similar curiousity, a similar love of having things you are passionate about, a similar eagerness to explore the unknown. Ask your mate what he/she wants to discover and help him/her get it. You should be a certain proud in helping the person you want to share the rest of your life with attain his goals.
E) Emotionally. There’s the notion called “Splitting the difference” – one side is always aggressive, the other side is always passive. And this difference gets wider after marriage. You should check that every day and make neither you of your mate is doing too much in the relationship. You see something wrong in the house. Do it. You don’t have to wait for the other person to come and clean it. There is a piece of cat shit on the floor. Clean it. You don’t need to let it there so you can show your partner how messy it is. (By the way, I might probably never marry someone who has a strong love for cats and wants to bring four of those species in the house). And your partner should think the same way. You are in it together. You fail or succeed as a team.
You must avoid this
F) Willing to Surprise. You should make your partner experience some nice moments. Write a note and put it under his book. Write on a several paper notes the different reasons why you are happy day after day that he shares your life. Bring him see a movie he has always been talking about. Make him laugh.
And obviously, we are all spiritual creatures. We can’t ignore that aspect. Here is James’s advice on it:
G) Spiritual. Ultimately, we’re all on a path. Not to see who makes the most money. Or who can bowl the most strikes in game. Or who can do the most pushups. But what are the attributes I need to pursue to find contentment in life. You’re 30 years old, say, and thinking of getting married. 60 years is a long time if you think you are going to be in a monogamous relationship that long. You can’t neglect the spiritual connection between your spouse and you.
Who thought Marc and J-Lo would break up ?
By the way, as James clearly mentions, the above checklist is not just to decide if you should get married to X, but if you, personally, should get married at all! You might not be ready to be “ethical” in terms of adultery. You might not have any clue what sorts of long-term goals surrounding contentment you have. Who knows? I just think this is a good starting point.
You can also apply the same checklist in your current relationship or the one you plan to get into, even if marriage is not yet on the table.
As for me, I know I will get married. At least, that’s something I want. Therefore I will surely take time to go through those points with the person sharing my life.
For those of you planning to get married in 2012, I wish a year full of love and health. I wish you to empty your dimes jar (see above) as quickly as possible. To all of you, may 2012 bring happiness, joy, contentment and realizations of your dreams.Go for them.
About two minutes after the first interruption by the gorgeous flight attendant, she took again the mic and said: “Ladies and gentlemen, we have Helen’s answer. She has accepted to marry Eric. Please join me in congratulating them. Let’s wish her happiness and love.“. That was cool. I had just just been a witness a great moment in the life of our two friends.
The pilot or co-pilot came out of his cabin to personally congratulate Eric and Helen.
Soon after, I was landing in Chicago, a pretty nice city.
You can get James last book, I was blind but now I see here.
Happy New Year 2012 and may God give you Health, Love, Happiness to you and to the people who get in contact with you !!!! Dream BIG !!!
–
Posted by Patrick Goudjo-Ako
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What separates the legendary CEO from the chronically dissatisfied cubicle dweller? It’s not innate talent, argues Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell in his new book.
Fortune: What exactly is an outlier?
Gladwell: It’s a technical term for a phenomenon that is outside normal experience. Scientists use it all the time when they are graphing data. You’ve got a nice little bell curve, and then you have a couple of things that are way out here. Well, this book is about people who are way out there.
F: How did you become interested in this topic?
G: I was interested in writing about success. I just became convinced that our explanations [of what drives it] were lacking. We have the kind of self-made-man myth, which says that super-successful people did it themselves. And we have a series of other beliefs that say that our personality, our intelligence, all of our innate characteristics are the primary driving force. It’s that cluster of things that I don’t agree with.
The premise of this book is that you can learn a lot more about success by looking around at the successful person, at what culture they belong to, what their parents did for a living. Successful people are people who have made the most of a series of gifts that have been given to them by their culture or their history, by their generation.
F: Talk about Bill Gates. The mythology is that he was spontaneously drawn to computers. But you say that’s not the case.
G: Bill Gates has this utterly extraordinary series of opportunities. When he’s 13, it’s 1969. He shows up at his private school in Seattle, and they have a computer room with a teletype machine that is hooked up to a mainframe downtown. Anyone who was playing on the teletype machine could do real-time programming. Ninety-nine percent of the universities in America in 1969 did not have that.
Then, when he was 15 or so, classmate Paul Allen learned that there was a mainframe at the University of Washington that was not being used between two and six every morning. So they would get up at 1:30 in the morning, walk a mile, and program for four hours. When Gates is 20, he has as much experience as people who have spent their entire lives being programmers. He has this incredible headstart.
F: What link does practice have to success?
G: The 10,000-hours rule says that if you look at any kind of cognitively complex field, from playing chess to being a neurosurgeon, we see this incredibly consistent pattern that you cannot be good at that unless you practice for 10,000 hours, which is roughly ten years, if you think about four hours a day.
F: You also talk a lot about culture. How does it affect math skills, for example?
G: We give kids from around the world the same set of math tests, and every time we get the same results: America is just below average, and then at the very, very top are Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. It occurs again and again.
There’s an ultimately unconvincing argument that this has to do with IQ. I think what it has to do with is culture. Asian culture has a profoundly different relationship to work. It rewards people who are persistent.
Take a random group of 8-year-old American and Japanese kids, give them all a really, really hard math problem, and start a stopwatch. The American kids will give up after 30, 40 seconds. If you let the test run for 15 minutes, the Japanese kids will not have given up. You have to take it away.
I argue that this has to do with the kind of agriculture pursued in the West and the East going back thousands of years. I have ancestors who were peasant farmers in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. They probably worked 1,000 hours a year, if that. In the winter, they slept. They drank a lot of beer.
These Asian cultures are all wet-rice agricultural economies. Growing rice is this extraordinarily complex, labor-intensive activity that requires not just physical engagement but mental engagement. So a farmer in 14th-century Japan or 14th-century China was working 3,000 hours a year – three times longer. I know it sounds hard to believe, but habits laid down by our ancestors persist even after the conditions that created those habits have gone away.
F: You share a fascinating story about culture and airline safety.
G: Korean Air had more plane crashes than almost any other airline in the world for a period at the end of the 1990s. When we think of airline crashes, we think, Oh, they must have had old planes. They must have had badly trained pilots. No. What they were struggling with was a cultural legacy, that Korean culture is hierarchical. You are obliged to be deferential toward your elders and superiors in a way that would be unimaginable in the U.S.
But Boeing (BA, Fortune 500) and Airbus design modern, complex airplanes to be flown by two equals. That works beautifully in low-power-distance cultures [like the U.S., where hierarchies aren't as relevant]. But in cultures that have high power distance, it’s very difficult.
I use the case study of a very famous plane crash in Guam of Korean Air. They’re flying along, and they run into a little bit of trouble, the weather’s bad. The pilot makes an error, and the co-pilot doesn’t correct him. But once Korean Air figured out that their problem was cultural, they fixed it.
F: So let’s broaden this out. Are there lessons in this book that are applicable to the business world?
G: Yes. Instead of thinking about talent as something that you acquire, talent should be thought of as something that you develop. Procter & Gamble (PG, Fortune 500) is a great example of a company that does that and has prospered as a result. Look around Wall Street, or what’s left of it today, and you’ll see lots and lots and lots of people from Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500). That’s not a coincidence. It’s because they took their mission to invest in people seriously.
F: Should people be expected to take the issue of developing talent seriously right now, in the middle of a crisis?
G: Paradoxically, this might be the perfect time. When it’s easy to make money, you have no incentive to think about development of talent. Now, you’re forced to. At least that’s my optimistic hope. 
I just found this ad by Microsoft for their new kinect product.
With XBox 360 and Kinect, Microsoft is actually raising the bar for other competitors.
What do you think is possible with Kinect ?
Which real life applications to you see for this product ?
How can Kinect make the future brighter ?
Think about it….
I will do the same.
- By Patrick Goudjo-Ako
On Saturday September 17th 2011, I decided to go for the most extreme activity and life experience I’ve ever done. I decided to go and make a parachute jump for the first time in my life.I went to Parachute Montreal, a company located about 45min from Montreal, in St-Esprit, Quebec.
Flying over the clouds !
This is with no hesitation the most extreme thing I’ve ever done. I’ve been thinking about that for a while but now I’ve made it happen. A reason why this also happened is because of a beautiful lady called Mariama. For a reason I don’t know, she doesn’t appear on the video below, but she was with me that day. I think the software I used applied some compression. I will make another video which will contain the entire footage. She knew I wanted to make that experience. When she heard that some tickets were for sale, she told me about that and I automatically purchased them. Thank you M !
If you want something, go for it. I wanted to skydive. I knew it is risky. I knew lot of things can happen. I also knew I wanted to do it and that it’s one of the great achievements I wanted to make at that time. Ninety nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they go for the mediocre. You want it bad enough ? You can have it. One day, I will go to space. It’s important to have models in your life. I do have a lot of them. My dad, mum, brother and sisters are among them. Yes, Pikatchou, Ash, Jo, dad and mum, I love you. I know I don’t tell you that often enough. I will change that.
In the plane
Why did I decide to make that jump ? For many reasons.
1- I wanted to experiment an extreme sensation. I love doing extreme things, special in sport and life adventures. I haven’t done a ton of them, but I like taking chances. Im currently training for my first KungFu fight that will happen in November 
in front of about 150 persons. More on that later.
2- I wanted to test my limits. Five years ago, I wasn’t thinking about doing that, even if I definitely wanted to make some special things. I don’t regret it at all. That was totally extreme and AMAZING !
3- I wanted to achieve one (1) more thing on my 2011 year resolutions. At the beginning of 2011, I made a list of things I want to achieve that would make me happy. I believe that the point of making such a list is to take action on them and execute it. It’s not always easy but it’s worth it. While revising my list, I decided to go for one thing I hadn’t done yet. I choose to go for a parachute jump.
4- I wanted to achieve something I never did before. Let’s be real. Jumping out of a plane and falling at a speed between 200 and 240 km per hour is not something you do every day. Unless you do it as your job.
Yes, 240 kilometers per hour is approximately the speed I’ve been falling at. This was just amazing. Life is good.
Jim Rohn once said: ‘Life is not just the passing of time. Life is the collection of experiences and their intensity‘. That surely doesn’t mean to jump out of a plane but for me this was one of the lifetime experiences I wanted to do at that point. Therefore I went for it. And I don’t regret it. This is so far the most extreme experience I’ve ever done in my life and the best one. I encourage you to not be afraid of doing the jump if you want to experience it. It’s really not as difficult as we might think. I think FEAR is actually the most blocking part of the entire process.
Happily for me, what I fear more is fear itself. Therefore, I go for what I want.
Landing from the sky
I try not to let it take control of my goals. Many times a day, I get afraid to do things. Still, many times a day I do things that look crazy. Like this week I took the subway while wearing some lovely eyeglasses you might find completely weird, but I love them. I will write on that soon.
This jump is the first but not the last one.
My advice to all all you reading this is:
Go for your dreams. If you succeed, you deserve it. If you fail, you learn for the next try.
Life is good.
HERE IS THE VIDEO of the jump from the plane.
Patrick.
Wednesday October 05th, I am laying down in a room of my apartment, reading as usual and making some researches when I learn that Apple founder, Steve Jobs, just passed away after fighting for many years with Cancer. What a shock. He was born on February 24th 1955. Seven years ago, he had been diagnosed of a very rare form of pancreatic cancer. He was only 56. He was too young. We are always too young to die. People need us down here on earth. People need our attention. This is a sad day for the computer world. This is a sad day for anyone who has been following Steve and used the magnificent tools his brain has been able to conceive. Jobs had a neuroendocrine tumor, which is less aggressive than some other types of pancreatic malignancies.
Steve will be missed. His love has always been for his wife, Laurene, their 4 children and and his entire family.
Steve was a bold guy, always willing to make his thoughts loud and go for this dreams and what he thinks was the best thing to do. He was a true entrepreneur, a leader, a goer. He has never been a quitter and was totally absorbed and passionated by technology. He said: “Innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem. It’s ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea.”
After being almost fired from the company he created, Steve has been through a tough time, where he could barely see how he would handle the coming years. He was devasted. That happened after his views on how to manage Apple were opposed to those of John Sculley, who has been offered by Jobs the position of Apple’s CEO. Just before leaving, Steve sold all of his Apple stock and just kept one share. At the time, Sculley was working at Pepsi-Cola. Jobs asked him the following question, which shows you how determined he can be: ¨Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?¨. Most people can attest, he did change the world. Concerning his return to Apple, he said the following: My position coming back to Apple was that our industry was in a coma. It reminded me of Detroit in the ’70s, when American cars were boats on wheels.
Being away from Apple led Jobs to the foundation of NeXT, a development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets. He also founded Pixar, one of the greatest animation movies companies in the world. The technology he developed there has been been very useful after his return at Apple. He was willing to, once again, take charges of the company he founded and make it one of the greatest technology companies in the world. Apple inspires. Because Steve inspires. Anyone who has got the chance to work with him can attest how smart, confident and focused he has always been on building a better world with wonderful technologies. I never got that chance but I’ve been lucky enough to use some his products including the Macintosh, Ipod, Iphone, Ipad, MacBook and many others. The Macintosh, announced on January 24th 1984 at Apple’s shareholders’ meeting became the first commercially successful small computer with a graphical user interface. The Mac project had been started in the 70s by Jef Raskin and taken over by Steve to become what we know today. Her is what Jobs said regarding that moment: “I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard on something, but working on Macintosh was the neatest experience of my life. Almost everyone who worked on it will say that. None of us wanted to release it at the end. It was as though we knew that once it was out of our hands, it wouldn’t be ours anymore. When we finally presented it at the shareholders’ meeting, everyone in the auditorium stood up and gave it a 5-minute ovation. What was incredible to me was that I could see the Mac team in the first few rows. It was as though none of us could believe that we’d actually finished it. Everyone started crying.”
Most times, it’s said that it’s only after people pass away that their talent, character, great qualities are loudly talked about. This will not be an exception for Steve. However, many of us have been able to see it and testify how great he was. For every single person wanting to become an entrepreneur, Steve is a model you should look to. Take time to study his personality and you will get incredibly useful advices on how to behave.
In his commencement speech he gave at Standford University in 2005, Jobs pronounced very profound words that make total sense today after his death. He has always tried to follow these principles and lead his life in a remarkable way while inspiring others to follow him in this quest for humanity change by technology. Here is what he said about death:
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
We have nothing to lose. We are already naked. We were born naked and will will leave this planet in almost the same dress. Every material thing we accumulate here is just that: an accumulation of things. Jobs was conscious of that. Look for life experiences. Look for ways to improve your life and those of people you meet. Work and behave so that you can leave this place in a better condition you found it in. Jobs death as anyone death should be one more reason to make each of us be aware of how important our lives are. At the same time, they don’t mean much if we don’t work on them. The greatest enterprise one can have is the one of his own life. Leading it to its full potential and sharing amazing moments with people we love. Love. That’s the word. Let’s make love, not war. Steve was just looking for that. Connect people by allowing them to share common experiences through the amazing products built by all the companies he has founded.
During that same speech, Jobs also said the following: Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. That is so true. Is that easy to do ? Not at all. Is that worth doing ? Completely ! Give it a try. Do it sincerely. And you will see the rewards of a life guided by faith and determination.
Today I want to sincerely address my sympathies to Laurene and the entire Jobs family.
Thanks for all you did for Steve. Thank you for helping him out with his illness and for allowing us to benefit from this talent and human being wisdom. Thank you to Apple, NeXT, Pixar and all companies Steve has been a part of.
Today, we are losing a great man, loved by his family and friends. Everything happens for a reason. Steve Jobs is immortal. Samuel Butler once said “To himself everyone is immortal; he may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead. ” and Marcel Proust said “People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to true immortality but through which they continue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive. It is as though they were traveling abroad.”
Steve Jobs has gone. Thank you Steve, the world will remember you forever.
Jobs has always been a positive man. Let’s not be sad, as our time here is already counted. Let’s achieve great things and remain humble. Let’s build relationships that matter. Let’s make the world a better place to live in.
Life is good and worth living.
Written by Patrick Goudjo-Ako.
Written By: Patrick Goudjo-Ako
Post Reading Time: 3 minutes.
I just finished looking at a TED conference video given by Simon Sinek, about how great leaders inspire action. I’ve found it quite interesting and full of teachings. Each person viewing it can make its own judgment and qualifications about the speech. However, truth be said, Simon is right on many points. He hasn’t invented anything new. He says the following: People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.
This explains how a company like Apple can have people waiting in line for 6 hours to be the first getting a new iphone, or ipad or any other product.
If you plan to launch a company, a venture, a quest, anything that has value to your heart, you might find valuable taking a look at his speech.
Have a look and make your own idea.
Don’t jump to the bottom of the page.
Read line after line and try to guess who the following person is.
He had to work to support his family after they were forced out of their home.
His mother died.
He failed in business.
He was defeated in his bid for the legislature.
He lost his job and couldn’t get into law school.
He declared bankruptcy, and spent the next seventeen years of his life paying off his debts.
He borrowed from friends to start his business.
He was defeated again in his bid for the legislature.
His fiance died and his heart was broken.
He had a nervous breakdown and spent the next six months in bed.
He was defeated in his bid to become the speaker of the state legislature.
He was defeated in his bid for Congress.
He was defeated again in his bid for Congress.
He was rejected for a job.
He was defeated in his bid for the Senate.
He was defeated in his bid for Vice-President and got fewer than one hundred votes.
He was defeates again in his bid for the Senate.
He was elected President of the United States.
…….
……..
……..
Most people find it hard to believe that this long saga of so-called failures is actually a blow-by-blow account of the life of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States.
If you never quit, you never fail.
Hi,
it’s 1:14AM on Tuesday June 28th 2011. I’m tired, about to go sleep after looking at some very inspiring videos and I have a thought: “Let’s share a bit of what I learned today”. Last week end, on saturday, just after finishing my martial arts class, I’m in the streets, driving home when I meet Mark Cuban, billionaire, owner of the NBA basketball team Dallas Mavericks.
What do I do ? I just right there and go talk to him. How can I miss such opportunity ? There is so few chances I can meet him that I tell myself I have to go see him. The next 3 to 5 minutes would be epic. I’m thrilling, going towards him. When I reach him, I politely say Hi and he replies. He is SOOOO simple, humble, polite, calm and he accepts that I take a picture with him.
The few minutes I spend in his presence have been so wonderful and taught me that humility precedes glory. I quickly tell him that I’m very happy the Mavs won the NBA championship. I guess every person meeting almost say that too. I was very impressed by his elegance and how he didnt decline my proposition for the picture or to talk with him. He tells me he’s visiting some friends. Some people are walking with him. I can see that he has to go but still, he never really let me know that.
I wanted to share this moment because I feel blessed to have met Mark and I also think that there is no shortcut to success. Mark’s history, from the creation of MicroSolutions, the firing from his job because he wanted to close a deal instead of sweeping the floor, the bar he opened, the trash bags he sold, all the hours and energy, attention and determination he put in his accomplishements is a testomony of how focused and resilient we have to be for succeeding.
Mark, you are an icon, a model, a gentleman, a success story an example of True realization.
I understand now why you say ‘ After I die, I want to come back as me. Because I am the luckiest person in the world’.
Thanks Mark for opening my eyes on so many things in that short moment.
I’m confident I will meet you again, and my passion for computers, programming and success will bring me on your path.
Mark, today more than yesterday, I will keep working on my passion. As you said in her interview, ‘If you see it as a job, you’ve already lost. It will never become your passion.’.
I wish you to have more and more success and greatness for your kids, wife, parents and relative.
Like you, I will be an example and a leader and my family will be proud !
Patrick Goudjo-Ako.
