On Purpose

Chapter one

In the year 1974, a nineteen year old young man left the United States of America on a journey to India. He was embarking on a spiritual quest for truth. In India, he changed his western clothes – his t-shirt and jeans – for a Lunghi, a loin-cloth worn by Indian mendicants. That Lunghi would be his sole earthly possession having given away everything. He soon headed north of India towards the Himalayas, the legend of Eastern mysticism. In the Himalayas, he stumbled across a Baba, an Indian mystic, who dragged him up the mountain and shaved his head. He endured torrential rain, thunderstorms, scabies and dysentery in his search for “enlightenment”. The experience in India was as intense as it was disturbing. Sadly, after much search, he never found “the truth”. In his words, “we were never going to find a place where we could go for a month to be enlightened. It was one of the first times I started to realise that maybe Thomas Edison did a lot more to improve the world than Karl Marx and Neem Karoli Baba put together”.

Perhaps he found the truth without realising it. Perhaps the truth is hidden in his two-part summation: 
1. We were never going to go to a place for a month to be enlightened.
2. Thomas Edison did a lot more to improve the world than Karl Marx and Neem Karoli Baba put together. 
Some would debate his executive summary, but the impact of the two-step conclusion on his life would later revolutionise the world and change the way we live and communicate. In some sense, he would become an “Edison”, giving the world delightful products. He did for publishing what the Guttenberg press did to printing. The term “desk top publishing” would never have been without his significant contribution. I am indeed typing this book on a product from his vision.

That young man’s name is Steve Jobs, the legendary co-founder of Apple, the legendary company that gave the world the iMac, iPod and iPhone. 
There’s a Steve in all of us! We’re all searching for purpose and meaning.