In our home, I counted one old Apple II (a part of my personal computer museum), three Macintosh computers, one iPhone, one iPad, a whole raft of iPods, and several Pixar movies as tangible examples of his affect on our lives. Yes, we directly benefited from Steve’s genius.

As I pondered his death and considered my own mortality (I am two years older than he), I was impressed by Steve’s insight that he shared in his famous Stanford commencement address:

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.

“To Follow Your Heart” is great advice, but not always easy to follow.  I have found myself deeply reflecting on that advice during the past few days.  In the things which matter most – family and faith – I have followed my heart and have been blessed beyond measure.  But I must admit that professionally, I wonder.  Am I really engaged in the right things which will deliver the most value to my fellow beings and bring the most joy? Should I soldier on, or make significant changes?  What does my heart really say?

Thank you, Steve, for sharing your world-changing genius with all of us.   And thank you for triggering the deep introspection of the past few days.  May you rest in peace.

And than you, Jonathan Mak, for your inspiring logo tribute to Steve.

I suppose that innovation and business success may have little to do with how conference rooms are named, but I prefer the stimulating names.

Many people call this primitive, but this is not primitive, it is close to nature, it is a good life.

While my son Eric served a church mission to Mongolia, we grew to love the Mongolian people and their way of life.  In this brief CNN video about the boy herdsman turned President of Mongolia, we find a great leadership lesson about humility, vision and remaining close to our roots. This is a powerful lesson we in the more industrialized world should take to heart.

When Apple acquired NeXT, and Jobs, for $400 million in December, 1996, Apple’s market cap was $3 billion. Today it’s $347 billion, leaving it just $2 billion short of being the most valuable public company in the world, Exxon.

If we add to this legacy the fact that under Steve Jobs’ leadership, Pixar produced seven hit films from 1995 through 2006 (Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Cars) before being acquired by Disney for $7.4 billion, we have the most remarkable story of profitable, creative genius in the history of the world.

We could all work on being a bit more punctual for meetings and con calls, don’t you think?

CNNMoney.com/Fortune Magazine published an intriguing article by Geoff Colvin  last Thursday, entitled “The World’s Most Admired Companies.” I enjoyed how the article compared the recent financial upheavals to the time when 40-year old Ted Turner skippered his yacht to victory through a terrible storm.  Turner’s strategy?

"We kept going at full speed during the height of the storm," he told an interviewer. But wasn’t he afraid? After all, 15 people died. Yes, he said, "but I was more scared of losing than I was of dying."

Mr. Colvin observed that many businesses weathered the economic storms differently than others, making this year the most tumultuous in the thirteen year history of “The World’s Most Admired”:

Now that the skies are clearing after the worst economic storm in modern history — far more violent than the experts had predicted — we face a surprising new roster of winners and losers, as our 2011 ranking of the World’s Most Admired Companies makes clear. Stress in the recession and financial crisis brought out traits that may not have been noticed when the sailing was smooth. Upstarts became champions. Famed competitors fell behind; some didn’t make it through the storm.

Ranking the Most Admired Companies was done by assigning scores in the categories of Innovation, People Management, Use of Assets, Social Responsibility, Management Quality, Financial Soundness, Long Term Investment, Product Quality and Global Competitiveness.  An interactive page is provided to view the complete list and by several categories.

It was interesting to see my employer, Oracle, ranked number 2 in the Computer Software industry (after Adobe) and 48th overall. 

Source: Hagar the Horrible comic for February 23, 2011.

For my second sports blog of the day, I share with you three tweets that reveal why Jared Dudley succeeds.  Jared is a go-to bench player for the Phoenix Suns.  He has not been blessed with superlative talent.  In the high-flying, above-the-rim style of NBA basketball, he can barely dunk the basketball.  But the kid works, and works, and works … and his persistence pays off in games.  Time after time, his coming off the bench inspires the team to new levels of effort and performance.

A bit of his secret?

At 11pm on Tuesday night earlier this week, in the middle of the summer, Jared was watching film, trying to figure out how to improve his game.  He shares his thoughts with us:

Every night I been watching film on the top players I have to guard. Tonight is Kobe and the Lakers. It’s cuz of him I’m goin on this diet lol

I’m watching this WCF vs lakers, and Kobe can wear u down..Right when i thought I had some of his moves down he shows me something new

My thinking is I’m not getting any taller or a longer wing span.. So I better get in the best BBALL shape possible.. Back to the LAB

The best BBALL shape possible.  Yes, we can learn from that.  No matter where we are, or what we are doing in life, we can improve our performance, regardless of physical constraints that would hold us down.  We need to study, and work, and study and work some more.  Then, we can rise above our limitations and achieve greatness.

You can view a video of all four solo shots here.

Only seven major league teams have accomplished this amazing feat in the history of the game.

The lesson? No matter how dark and impossible our world seems to be, we all have the potential to break out in a spectacular way.  In the face of immense opposition, we must, as urged by the Curtis Mayfield song, "Keep on Keeping On.”

Behemoth: any creature or thing of monstrous size or power

While I was in heads-down study mode for the CISSP exam last month, on two successive days, the Dictionary.com Word of the Day service sent out the words “Busticate” and “Behemoth” to my mobile phone.

I chuckled a  bit and tried to apply that advice to the exam: Break the broad spectrum of Information Security subject matter into manageable chunks and focus on each chunk in turn.  It seemed to help.  When I receive the results from my test (yes, I am anxious), I’ll have to attribute partial credit to Dictionary.com!

When confronted by seemingly insurmountable obstacles in our lives, we can benefit from this approach: Let’s break out our figurative big hammers and Busticate the Behemoths into manageable chunks that we can successfully manage.

At least for awhile, I think I’ll let this new addage replace the advice of “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, chew well.”