It was appropriate that the passing of Steve Jobs would provoke such an enormous response by way of his biography by Walter Isaacson. The book has been on Amazon’s top 100 list for 142 days, since around a month before his death at age 56.

Appropriate, because Jobs’ entire existence since he was a teenager has been a series of sensational events, one after the other. You learn quickly, however, that his was not a fairy tale existence. He was a creative, driven, uniquely motivated force of nature. But he was able to craft a life that put products and systems into play that truly changed the world.

It was amazing to me to meet, by way of Isaacson’s book, Jobs as a person. To learn that he came, like many of us, from humble beginnings. It is fair to say that he danced to a different drumbeat than most folks, but he basically worked from the same set of tools that we (most of us) were all born with. Eyes, ears, hands… you get the picture.

I drew from this biography the challenge to myself to keep writing and doing and showing up every day. At age 60 it is not too late for me to change the world. Not striving for that but you never know. Would it not have been a shame if Steve Jobs had not kept pushing and shoving, sometimes against incredible odds, to do the things about which he was most passionate?

While this blog was not established for me to review books, I do recommend that you pick this one up. In spite of its continuing popularity the price is around half of where it started. Or you can do like me and buy the download version for your e-reader. If you do, drop me a line and tell me what you drew from it.