Tim Cook has emailed Apple staff on the 4th anniversary of the passing of Steve Jobs, thanking them for “remembering both who he was and what he stood for,” reports the Telegraph. Cook said that Jobs was “a brilliant person” who left an incredible legacy.
What is his legacy? I see it all around us: An incredible team that embodies his spirit of innovation and creativity. The greatest products on earth, beloved by customers and empowering hundreds of millions of people around the world. Soaring achievements in technology and architecture. Experiences of surprise and delight. A company that only he could have built. A company with an intense determination to change the world for the better.
Cook also made two references which which seem to indirectly refer to less flattering portraits painted of Jobs in biographies and movies …
Cook wrote that Jobs “loved the people with whom he worked so closely,” and invited staff to stop those who worked with him to “ask what he was really like.”
Apple’s CEO sent a similar email last year, thanking staff for “helping carry Steve’s legacy into the future.”
Cook also tweeted a message about honoring his memory by “continuing the work he loved so much.”
[tweet http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/05/apple-announces-steve-jobs-has-passed-away/ align=’center’]
Apple still carries the memorial page it created in 2011. The full text of Cook’s email can be read below.
Team,
Today marks four years since Steve passed away. On that day, the world lost a visionary. We at Apple lost a leader, a mentor, and many of us lost a dear friend.
Steve was a brilliant person, and his priorities were very simple. He loved his family above all, he loved Apple, and he loved the people with whom he worked so closely and achieved so much.
Each year since his passing, I have reminded everyone in the Apple community that we share the privilege and responsibility of continuing the work Steve loved so much.
What is his legacy? I see it all around us: An incredible team that embodies his spirit of innovation and creativity. The greatest products on earth, beloved by customers and empowering hundreds of millions of people around the world. Soaring achievements in technology and architecture. Experiences of surprise and delight. A company that only he could have built. A company with an intense determination to change the world for the better.
And, of course, the joy he brought his loved ones.He told me several times in his final years that he hoped to live long enough to see some of the milestones in his children’s lives. I was in his office over the summer with Laurene and their youngest daughter. Messages and drawings from his kids to their father are still there on Steve’s whiteboard.
If you never knew Steve, you probably work with someone who did or who was here when he led Apple. Please stop one of us today and ask what he was really like. Several of us have posted our personal remembrances on AppleWeb, and I encourage you to read them.
Thank you for honoring Steve by continuing the work he started, and for remembering both who he was and what he stood for.
Tim
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You’re a good man Tim… That was a nice letter in memoriam & to honor Steve…
Some Bonus Love.!!!
http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/
I just wish the people at Apple would honour what Steve did while at Apple. If Apple released software that totally messed up Steve has the fortitude to apologize to the loyal followers that use the software, unlike the present CEO. The recent iTunes release that totally messed up songs and movies is on example. iTunes still isn’t working the way it should.
Steve wanted to make the world a better place with technology were as the present Apple is more interested in profits and has lost the vision on producing something that can turn the world into a better place to live.
well said….I am with you. As a loyal and inspired follower of Apple and Steve, it really hurts seeing current culture of Apple. Hope somebody will save it!
You mean like how Steve apologized for the iPhone 4 antenna issue by telling people they’re holding it wrong?
Amazing letter, Steve was a great man as leader and father. Apple is Apple because of what he established.
Tim is an amazing CEO too and a loyal friend of Steve.
Wait, didn’t Steve deny paternity, call the mother of child a whore (and say that 28% of the population of the US could be the father), and skip out on child support for years until a paternity test proved he was the father of his daughter? Then, when he was proven the father, didn’t want to exercise his visitation rights until he was coaxed into it by his new girlfriend?
So you’re perfect? Tell us about it, please….we want to hear what perfection is…
We all make mistakes… He wasn’t ready to be a father and was in denial like so many people have been before…
It was during the time of the hippies, both him and his then wife were both hippies and they both slept around – love, freedom, and peace – so yes, anyone could have been the father…
He was a strong minded guy who had big dreams and wasnt going to let anything get in his way… his biggest fault was that he thought he was invincible – it turns out that he was just as human as the next guy…
yeah he skipped out on being a father… but he later regretted that and finally came to terms with it…
Who said I was perfect? I was just responding to someone saying that he was a great father. He was not, and we shouldn’t lie to ourselves that he was. Rose colored glasses and all of that.
Can you post the remembrances from AppleWeb? I think we’d all like to read those.
Um, I think that’s only accessible to Apple employees.
http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/
Miss you Steve :'(
I understand wanting to protect his legacy, but Steve made some very morally questionable decisions in his life…not giving stock options to those who were there from the start, denying his own daughter, humiliating people during interviews…list goes on. He also did some pretty amazing things too, he brought apple back from the dead, and bet the farm on the iPod and won. I remember my first iPod…was the one with the touch wheel and it had firewire 400! That thing was awesome even though it was black and white. It had an actual spinning hard drive in it :P
Having read and seen most of vids about Steve, he seems to possess an ever changing maturing personality.
Ed Catmull seems to have seen the progression from a colleague/close friend viewpoint. In his book Ed definitely recognises Steve’s ego but also recognises Steve’s deep willingness to understand and help. Sometimes this would manifest as dramatic events and at other times Pixar’s Steve Jobs building.
In a definitive movie about Steve Jobs I want to get a sense how all these traits can coexist.