Steve Jobs, Charity and Social Innovation

There have been a few blog posts about Steve Jobs' and his limited role in charity work. I would like to challenge these claims, not because I knew him personally, or because we were involved in the same projects. Rather, I suggest, the very culture of Apple was one that was striving towards stronger communities, by virtue of how he approached innovation and social interaction with technology.

Steve Jobs said, "Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” People who work and volunteer in the charitable sector take this to heart.  Those who are working in the social innovation and social change space, not only take this to heart, but live it on a daily basis.

Thank you Steve Jobs for validating the bleeding edge work that so many of us are doing in pushing the social innovation and social change agenda.  Your business savvy, straight-up nature and thinking will be missed.