Today marks the 71st anniversary of Steve Jobs’ birth. The legendary co-founder of Apple Inc. was born on February 24, 1955. Had he not passed away from complications related to pancreatic cancer on October 5, 2011, today would have been his 71st birthday.
The world lost an extraordinary combination of talents that day: a visionary genius, a masterful showman, an unrelenting perfectionist, and a charismatic force for disruption — all in one person.
Steve was an incredible leader, innovator, and friend whose world-changing ideas moved all of us forward.
Celebrating his remarkable life and legacy today, on his birthday. pic.twitter.com/ajHO2aVVlT
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) February 24, 2026
“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.”
— Steve Jobs
MacDailyNews Take: We miss you every single day, Steve. Gone far too soon. It’s impossible not to wonder how much further technology — and Apple — might have advanced if you were still here guiding the ship.
“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. 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.”
— Steve Jobs
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it, and that is how it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.”
— Steve Jobs
Rest in peace, Steve. The impact of your life’s work continues to endure and grow.
Rest in peace Steve, the world certainly misses you.
What I liked about Steve was that he understood that innovation comes from annoyance.
He was annoyed at punch cards, DOS, green screens, and the smirks from geeks who were members of an exclusive club of those who could make them work. So when he saw the GUI at Xerox in ’79, he understood its significance. He wanted a computer for the people, an appliance as user-friendly as a car. He recognized the absurdity of needing to be a mechanic to use a car to get to work. He refused to accept this status quo. He used his outrage to create something better, something significantly more user-friendly, something different.
The Mac was born.
Later, with the second coming of Jobs, the iMac was born (with more than a little help from Jonny Ive). Why should computers be ugly beige machines? A few years later, the iPod and iTunes arrived, completely disrupting the music industry. The very way we would get our music forever changed.
I love the story about how the iPhone came about. Higher-ups at Apple, all sitting around a table before a meeting began, talking about how much they hated their cell phones. Someone (Jobs?) flipped the conversation and simply said, “Well, if we made a phone, how would it be different?” We’d later learn that Jobs wasn’t wholly convinced that devoting resources to a brand-new hardware category and having to cut a deal with a mobile carrier was wise, but eventually he was all in.
I was at the Moscone Center in 2007 when he unveiled it like a master showman. Never, in my life, have I ever felt a collective shiver go through a few thousand people. Did Jobs forsee iPhone one day becoming the major source of revenue for a computer company? Probably not at the launch, but he certainly knew it was going to blow up the entire cell phone industry. Nokia, Blackberry, Palm, Motorola,… Do kids today even know those names?
We miss you, Steve. You were probably as annoying as hell to be around, but thank you for turning your annoyance into something so world-changing.
Happy Birthday, wherever you are.