Steve Jobs was one of the best-known and most influential businessmen of the modern age. The Apple co-founder helped introduce Macintosh computers in 1984 and the iPhone in 2007, along with countless other digital products that have become everyday facets of our digital age.

Best known for his brilliant vision for Apple’s product design and for blending technological innovation with smooth, artistic presentation, Jobs has become a blueprint for leaders of all stripes, with many people poring over his wisdom in an effort to glean just a hint of it for themselves.

Jobs died in 2011 at the age of 56. By then, he had already relinquished his position as the CEO of Apple, and had been battling pancreatic cancer for eight years. 

Steve Jobs’ Last Words

According to his sister Mona Simpson, in the very last moments of Jobs’ life, he gazed at his family and said, simply, “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.”

Simpson revealed the details of Jobs’ death in an eulogy she delivered at his funeral, which was subsequently published in The New York Times. “His tone was affectionate, dear, loving, but like someone whose luggage was already strapped onto the vehicle, who was already on the beginning of his journey, even as he was sorry, truly deeply sorry, to be leaving us,” she wrote. 

After saying the words, “his breathing changed. It became severe, deliberate, purposeful. I could feel him counting his steps again, pushing farther than before. This is what I learned: he was working at this, too. Death didn’t happen to Steve, he achieved it,” she recalled. 

“His breath indicated an arduous journey, some steep path, altitude. He seemed to be climbing. But with that will, that work ethic, that strength, there was also sweet Steve’s capacity for wonderment, the artist’s belief in the ideal, the still more beautiful later. Steve’s final words, hours earlier, were monosyllables, repeated three times. Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them. Steve’s final words were: ‘Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.'”

The words seem to encapsulate some of the artful minimalism that Jobs was so famous for in his design philosophy and leadership style. They also seem appropriate for a man who had already eloquently contemplated the brevity of life many times.

Steve Jobs’ Beliefs About Mortality and the Afterlife

In a commencement address at Stanford University given after receiving his cancer diagnosis, Jobs reflected on mortality. “Death is the destination we all share,” he said in the speech. “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.”

“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,” he continued. “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 also shared his thoughts on the afterlife in an interview with the biographer Walter Isaacson. “He said, ‘You know, I’m kind of 50/50 on believing in God,” Isaacson recalled Jobs saying. “But I want to believe that something endures, that your wisdom that you accumulate, that the knowledge that you have somehow is able to endure after you die.’”

A Posthumous Hoax 

Jobs left behind a vast trove of information in the form of both his creations and his archive of speeches, quotes, and insights. However, following his death, an essay began circulating on social media that appeared to have been written by Jobs on his deathbed.

The essay critiqued “the non-stop pursuit of material wealth” and seemingly saw Jobs refer to himself as a “twisted person.” However, there is no evidence that it was actually penned by Jobs, and the essay has been officially labeled a hoax.

Instead, Jobs seemingly ended his life with an expression of sheer awe. It’s not clear what he was saying “oh wow” about—was it his family, a burst of brilliant light, or a descending angel? Regardless, it is well-known that the feeling of awe can have significant mental and physical health benefits, helping to ground us in gratitude and to connect us to the extraordinary improbability of our short lives on Earth. To end life with an expression of this powerful emotion certainly doesn’t seem like a bad note to finish on.

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