It’s pride month! The weather in London is shining and apparently according to the news this morning its set to be shining for the whole of June (So everyone has the gays to thank for that! 😉 )
ANYWAY Let’s get down to the tea of this article!
I wanted throughout this month to share many of my, what I am calling Pride Inspirations. People who are supportive or part of the LGBT community and played a huge part in my development and growth as a person. So it seemed fitting to start this series of posts with a person very close my heart. Timothy Cook, CEO of Apple.
Apple has been a company close to me for as long as I can remember. Back in the days of Steve Jobs, I became fascinated with the world of technology and how to make it into a business model. Originally childhood Brandon wanted to go into biology, oh how much that career path has changed!
So when Steve died and Tim took the reigns, like most people I think, I was apprehensive. In comparison to Steves charisma he seemed dull and too corporate, and reports of Apples demise were aplenty .
Sometimes I agreed with them for the same reason that was being said by so many people at the time, he just could not do as good of a job as Steve. 8 Years on, and he has switched my mind so far from my original impression.
What I love about Tim is he defied the odds. Everyone was planning and betting on his downfall and the very shadow cast by his predecessor, was huge and impossible to fill. However he didn’t buckle under the pressure, he took that situation and began carving his own path and his own shadow. He didn’t intend and wasn’t going to fill the shadow cast by Steve, he cast Tim’s shadow and I am in awe of what he has achieved in doing so. He has always kept the DNA of Apple the same as it has always been, yet changed it so much to reflect his vision of what Apple should be doing and what Apple can do.
When he came out in 2014, this cemented my growing love for his leadership. He doesn’t have a pride flag over his leadership, he doesn’t shout from the rooftops that he’s a gay CEO, he just excels and does a great job, and this will reflect greatly on him in the years to come. He used his position as one of the most powerful CEOs in the world to his advantage and used it as a force for good, sending a powerful message to gay people across the world that its ok to be gay and its ok to just be yourself and there’s no wrong in that. Being who you are.
He continues to use his position to the advantage of others, actively standing up to the current president of the United States about his actions on Climate change and various other controversial deals. He stood up against the FBI for protecting user data and never buckled to the pressure that the worlds law authorities put on him and the tech industry about opening these encrypted systems and creating holes in the system that, if in the wrong hands, could lead to catastrophe for billions of people.
Lastly, he is just a great humble guy, stating that he will be donating 90% of his wealth to charities close to his heart, he’s never in the public eye in terms of his private life. He stays strictly dedicated to his position as CEO of the most valuable company in the world and has made it into such a powerful company, without losing track of what its stands for. Keeping the think different mantra that has kept it going for over 40 years.
Tim Cook, is and shall always be, a pride inspiration for myself, and I believe many many people around the world.
B xoxoxo
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