Tim Cook marks Steve Jobs’ birthday with inspirational quote

Today would’ve been Steve Jobs’ 62nd birthday, and Tim Cook took to Twitter to pay tribute to Apple’s co-founder and Cook’s predecessor as CEO.

“Remembering Steve, whose words and ideals will always inspire us,” Cook wrote. He then quoted a line from Jobs: “There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

“Follow your heart”

The line comes from Steve Jobs’ famous 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University, the relevant segment of which can be seen below. Jobs, speaking soon after his cancer was first diagnosed, was talking about the motivating factor that came with knowing he would die one day.

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose,” he said. As a result of this, “There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Tim Cook took over from Jobs as Apple CEO a few short months before Jobs passed away from pancreatic cancer complications in 2011. In doing so, Cook became Apple’s seventh CEO, following Michael Scott, Mike Markkula, John Sculley, Michael Spindler, Gil Amelio and Jobs himself — who held the position for longer than anyone else.

This week, Apple announced that the 1,000-seat auditorium at the soon-to-open Apple Park will be named the Steve Jobs Theater.

Source: Twitter

Luke Dormehl

Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.