Hunter S. Thompson’s Security
“Security ... what does this word mean in relation to life as we know it today? For the most part, it means safety and freedom from worry. It is said to be the end that all men strive for; but is security a utopian goal or is it another word for rut?
"Let us visualize the secure man; and by this term, I mean a man who has settled for financial and personal security for his goal in life. In general, he is a man, who has pushed ambition and initiative aside and settled down, so to speak, in a boring, but safe and comfortable rut for the rest of his life. His future is but an extension of his present, and he accepts it as such with a complacent shrug of his shoulders. His ideas and ideals are those of society in general and he is accepted as a respectable, but average and prosaic man. But is he a man? Has he any self-respect or pride in himself? How could he, when he has risked nothing and gained nothing? What does he think when he sees his youthful dreams of adventure, accomplishment, travel and romance buried under the cloak of conformity? How does he feel when he realizes that he has barely tasted the meal of life; when he sees the prison he has made for himself in pursuit of the almighty dollar? If he thinks this is all well and good, fine, but think of the tragedy of a man who has sacrificed his freedom on the altar of security, and wishes he could turn back the hands of time. A man is to be pitied who lacked the courage to accept the challenge of freedom and depart from the cushion of security and see life as it is instead of living it second-hand. Life has by-passed this man and he has watched from a secure place, afraid to seek anything better. What has he done except to sit and wait for the tomorrow which never comes?
"Turn back the pages of history and see the men who have shaped the destiny of the world. Security was never theirs, but they lived rather than existed. Where would the world be if all men had sought security and not taken risks or gambled with their lives on the chance that, if they won, life would be different and richer? It is from the bystanders (who are in the vast majority) that we receive the propaganda that life is not worth living, that life is drudgery, that the ambitions of youth must he laid aside for a life which is but a painful wait for death. These are the ones who squeeze what excitement they can from life out of the imaginations and experiences of others through books and movies. These are the insignificant and forgotten men who preach conformity because it is all they know. These are the men who dream at night of what could have been, but who wake at dawn to take their places at the now-familiar rut and to merely exist through another day. For them, the romance of life is long dead and they are forced to go through the years on a treadmill, cursing their existence, yet afraid to die because of the unknown which faces them after death. They lacked the only true courage: the kind which enables men to face the unknown regardless of the consequences.
"As an afterthought, it seems hardly proper to write of life without once mentioning happiness; so we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?” - HST
Innovator. Visionary. Futuristic. Idealist. Inventor. Fortune Teller. All apply to our Ambitious Man of the Month and it's only fitting we honor him on the same day as America honors the man who first brought "modern" technology to the Americas (though at the expense of the noble savages, surely). Steve Jobs had taken what he knew about software and utilized it to captivate the world. This man epitomized anti-security. Jobs left security to find himself and decided to go for broke with a plethora of innovative ideas that took him from a great business man to a legend.
We all know that Jobs had the mind of a well oiled machine, but there are other aspects of his life that personify what type of human he truly is. He spent his life sailing for the new world. Each expedition from security led him to take his vast experiences and infuse them with savvy forward thinking in order to see outside of the box, rendering him a true businessman philosopher.
Jobs was not born a blue blood. He was rich in intelligence, but not rich financially. Adopted by an Armenian family, he lived a middle class life. He attended the small Reed college in Portland Oregon, although he dropped out after only 1 semester. Because of his vast interest in computer science, he still audited calligraphy classes which he later credited for some of his innovative computer theories with the MAC. In order to survive during these times of insecurity, he did whatever it took to make enough money to get by. By rummaging bottles and sleeping on floors, he pondered what can be. This is a man who decided security was not his thing.
After moving back to Cali, he took a job at Atari, where he decided to save up the funds for a spiritual adventure to visit the Neem Karoli Baba at his Kainshi Ashram. It was then that he gained his utmost appreciation for all that was different. It’s where he met people as varied as the hippie supreme Wavy Gravy and Larry Brilliant (the current head of philanthropy for a small company called Google) and, like all great visionaries he needed this time getting lost in the wild to discover the Truths of life. Following this enlightenment, he became a Buddhist, shaved his head, and entered a new Galaxy created from the blackholes of Psychedelics. It was this subtle disorientation of the mind that lead to his avant-garde take on business models, theories, software designs, and the overall outlook on society.
Upon his return to the real world, he took another job with Atari where he was able to make an intensive overview of their circuit boards and figure out a way to reduce the chips. With this knowledge of minimizing the size needed for a "brain" and his newly-enhanced creative spirit, he co-founded what would become a household name in Apple. Jobs was instrumental in developing a wild product that at its time was considered impractical - the personal computer. Soon, though, he started feeling restrained and got into a bloody battle with the board only rivaled by such epics as BRAVEHEART and LORD OF THE RINGS. After determining that his time with Apple was up, he broke the shackles and created his own company.
Once again, Jobs was throwing security in the wind in order to maintain his freedom. Just after he created his own company, the Merlin of business theory acquired the computer graphic portion of Lucasfilm LTD becoming the majority shareholder. He took what his illustrious abilities from here to a flourishing animation cinema powerhouse and helped found Pixar, which has dominated the animated movie genre for the past 20 years. Once again, his intelligence infused with his ability to think outside of the norm lead to successes in software technology and cinema. He was able to take important aspects of each industry and mold a valuable business model in order to adapt to changes in society. After Pixar rose quickly, the prying eyes of its competitors realized that in order to maintain any power in the Animation Cinema world, it would need to eliminate this thorn. Disney decided to buy Pixar, which lead to Jobs becoming a majority shareholder of Disney with a seat at the throne of Directors.
Now, after he originally left Apple, he had also created his own business and education related software that, like everything else he touches, turned to gold. After years developing the core of this creature, Apple had no choice but to buy him out. He eventually came back with a vengeance and reinserted the company as a force on the market. It went from being a well-respected organization that was slowly going the way of Atari, Sega, and the internet Boom to a flourishing worldwide name.
During his most recent years with Apple, the company developed an innovation in the personal entertainment industry that swept the world like the right hand of Zeus. He was a visionary who knew where the company had to adapt. With him at the helm, Apple rolled out the iMac, iBook, the iPhone, and the iPad. He made technology cool, sleek, sexy, and above all, a necessity.
This creative genius understood how to extrapolate the essence of each business model in order to make it correlate to every industry. After an epic battle with cancer, technology could not help him. This creative visionary has given society so much. On October 5th 2011, he left this world, but as someone who was the ultimate seeker, he is now once again on an epic adventure.
What’s going to happen to Apple? Its future is uncertain, but at the young age of 56 Jobs legacy is. He made his mark on the world. Its fearless leader is gone as is his crystal ball to the future. Knowing him and understanding that his life was coming to a close, I’m sure he had the foresight to leave the company well to do.
- Kyle
- Kyle
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