Three apples that have changed the world: Adam’s apple, Isaac Newton’s apple and Steve Jobs’ “Apple.” History is filled with common themes and leaders who through their vision define their times. Jobs was one of them. His ideas changed the way people interact, spend their free time and go about doing business.

Jobs passed away Wednesday, Oct. 5 at the age of 56. Apple’s co-founder was a pioneer in the personal-computer and the music industry. His career began with a trace of genius, endured a catastrophic collapse only to rise again with projects that culminated into one of the greatest comebacks of our time.

Comparisons to Thomas Edison and Henry Ford have been heard. All of these men had ideas that they followed with a passion and resulted with some of the most beneficial advancements in modern times. Jobs had 317 registered patents involving different electronic inventions and redesigns.

Tim Cook Apple’s CEO said, “No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.”

Jobs was associated with his animated and passion-driven product launches. He always took pride in what Apple developed. Despite a series of well-known ads, Jobs rarely compared Apple’s products to other companies’.

“He was a huge symbol of innovation and progress. I am interested to see if his death will have any large impact on the way Apple operates in the future with new products” freshman Jake Lehle said.

Valued at $337 billion by Forbes magazine, Apple with Jobs’ leadership became the world’s most valuable company, followed closely by Exxon Mobile and Petro China. Apple became, in the course of 12 years, the largest retailer of online music and along the way sparked interest in animated films through Job’s brainchild, Pixar Animation Studios.

The son of a Syrian immigrant who gave him into adoption, Jobs was born in 1955 and was adopted shortly after by Paul and Clara Jobs with a promise to put him through college. He grew up in Silicon Valley and eventually enrolled in Reed College.

Jobs remained in college for six months; he stayed as a drop in for another 18 months taking classes that he never thought would have a practical use in his life—classes that would ultimately lead to major changes in the conception of the Macintosh.

At 20, Jobs and Steve Wozniak, a friend from college, started Apple from the Jobs’ family garage. Nine years later they released their first creation, the Macintosh. Years later, Apple was on the rise.

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?” Jobs asked John Scully, a Pepsi executive, successfully luring him to become Apple’s first outsider CEO.

Soon, after Scully arrived to Apple, they unveiled the new Macintosh in 1984.

At 30 years old, Steve Jobs was a self-made millionaire, a media celebrity and a darling of investors and business magazines. Then things started to fall apart.

Jobs was fired from his company, which he founded in his early twenties, due to differences with CEO, John Scully, and Apple’s Board of Directors.

Jobs later stated, “It turned out getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have happened to me.”

Over the next five years, Jobs went on to start two new companies and along the way found the love of his life. He started Pixar Animation Studios and NeXT.

“Pixar is an animation company,” Jobs said in an interview with Charlie Rose after the release of Pixar’s Toy Story. “We’re not competing against a Microsoft, or another company; we are competing against, can we make a great film that people love?”

When Apple unveiled the iPod, and the world was forever changed. The iPod could function on both Mac and PC making it an instant success, it quickly changed the digital media industry.

This innovative pocket mp3 player led to the release of iTunes. Just five years after the release of the iPod, Apple surpassed all other companies to become the U.S.’s largest music retailer.

Jobs’ baby, Apple, was now a big player. It was new, it was cool and still is to this day. Through marketing and product releases, Apple has been changing the way the world views technology. Their inventions and innovations are what propels society, letting it adapt and advance.

“Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything,” Jobs said when he introduced the iPhone. A personal-computer, music player and camera that could fit in the palm of your hand, and could slide into your pocket. Apple had suddenly become directly involved in the phone market and Jobs was officially the topic of conversation. “It is very disappointing that Jobs was unable to see the release of Apple’s newest product, the iPhone 4S. At least he was there for the press conference, said freshmen Pricilla Villarreal. In 2011, Apple is selling more than 220,000 iPhones per day, according to Time Magazine.

The App Store quickly followed. It was an ingenious way to make the iPhone vastly more popular, while also appealing to app developers. Apple would only take 30 percent of the revenue.

Jobs was very involved in what apps were put on the store, and if the developers didn’t follow his guidelines, the apps were quickly dismissed.

Apple was smart not to take any more money from developers. This allowed the developers to come to Apple with less hesitation simply because they would be keeping most of their hard-earned money.

Even still, according to PCWorld.com, the mobile app store is supposed to surpass $15 billion dollars in revenue this year since its launch.

In 2010 Apple released the iPad. Apple sold 14.8 million iPads that’s year alone according to Time Magazine. Jobs was on top. No one would have expected this Silicon Valley native to have been the hero of our generation.

Through all of this success, Jobs stuck to the principles that powered his success. He was still very strict, demanding and secretive. He was a man with the vision, and determination to make things happen.

In 2004 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Jobs was told he had only months to live, but after a biopsy, however, the doctors found the cancer was treatable with surgery. Naturally, he had the surgery and was seemingly fine. Then in 2009, he had a liver transplant. When his health deteriorated earlier this year, he resigned and made Tim Cook the CEO of Apple. “Steve Jobs was hugely important to my generation, and to lose a man like him is devastating! I have grown up using Apple products and currently use Apple products for everything. I wish I could have only met him in person before he passed,” said freshmen Hector Hernandez.

Jobs never said much about his health. He didn’t want the public eye shifted to him. “Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it,” President Obama said. “He transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.” Jobs’ own philosophy guided his life and work.

“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,” Jobs said.