Life Lessons From Pioneers In Computers And Football

Larkspur-Corte Madera editor Derek Wilson writes a column called "Tick Tock..Time of My Life" that chronciles his days living with Stage 4 carcinoid cancer. Here's his latest entry.

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The signs were there and we all knew the end was near, but we continued to deny it. These men could never die.

The world lost two men of indomitable spirit and passion within the past week. Both Steve Jobs and Al Davis changed the world in their own ways, although Jobs' influence was more universally felt. They both left behind lessons and wisdom about how to approach life, even in the face of death.

Davis was 82 when he passed away Saturday. He'd been in failing health in recent years, needing the help of a golf cart or a wheelchair to get around, but he never seemed weak. Perhaps too determined to win another Super Bowl, perhaps too full of life, perhaps just to ornery, he still appeared immortal. He never publicly talked about the possibility of death, something he reviled as much as losing. For Davis, it was live to win and win to live, baby.

For Jobs, life was all about love. He loved his work with Apple as much as he loved his wife and children. It was that love, as much as any medicine, that kept him going even as his body failed. Jobs, who died at 56 on Oct. 5, looked ever more pale and thin in recent months, fueling speculation about his health.

I needed Jobs to recover, not because I'm a devoted Apple user, but because I felt if he could beat his cancer, then I could beat mine. We were both being treated by the same doctors, though I never saw him in the waiting room. There was that connection I felt to Jobs that gave me strength and confidence to continue to fight and to live.

Jobs had undergone surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer. The operation was successful and gave him a few extra years of life, but the damage was done it seems. To the end, however, Jobs' heart and mind stayed sharp and full of passion.

Following is a reprint from The Business Insider of part of the 2005 commencement speech Jobs gave to Stanford's graduating class. See the video here. He was not only an exquisite thnker, but an elegant communicator. His words say as much about life and death and as eloquently as anything else I've ever heard. For a full reprint, visit .

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 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.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where 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. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

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 others' 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.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.