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Staff post about: Steve Jobs Become an Author

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When the billionaire entrepreneur and Apple founder was 17 years old, he recalls reading a quote that continues to make a lasting impression on him to this day: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It was a quote that would come in handy when Steve Jobs’ cancer was diagnosed in 2004.

It was 7:30 in the morning and Jobs was waiting at the hospital to undergo a scan to determine whether or not he had cancer. A few hours later, Jobs’ life would be drastically different. After the scan revealed that he did in fact have a tumor on his pancreas, the doctors told Jobs that it was almost certainly an incurable type of cancer and that he should expect to live no more than six months from that point on. “I didn’t even know what a pancreas was,” recalls Jobs.

Doctors told Jobs to go home and get his affairs in order, “which is doctor’s code for prepare to die,” says Jobs. “It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next ten years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.”

For the rest of that fateful day, Steve Jobs’ cancer diagnosis plagued him and his family. He had gone from sitting on top of the world, with a great career and a growing family, to believing he had just three to six months left to enjoy it all. However, later that same evening, Jobs went back to the hospital for a biopsy, where, he says, “they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor.”

Jobs was sedated throughout the biopsy, but his wife was there by his side, taking in the entire painful process. After the doctors viewed the cells under a microscope, everyone in the room started crying. As it turned out, this particular type of cancer was a very rare type of pancreatic cancer that could in fact be cured with surgery. Jobs had the surgery and, thankfully is alive today to tell the story.

“Death is very likely the single best invention of life,’ says Jobs. “It is life’s change agent.” While he acknowledges that no one wants to die, Jobs says the knowledge that we all will should be motivation enough to live the best life possible. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life,” he says. “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”

While it was one of the most frightening experiences of his life, Steve Jobs’ cancer diagnosis taught him the importance of making the most of the time he still does have left.

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