The tech giant Apple begun its eventful journey on April 1, 1979. Tim Cook addressed Apple employees on Apple’s 45th Anniversary.
Tim Cook began his message by mentioning that the company was formed in Cupertino, California to create products that would transform and redefine what technology could achieve. People’s lives would become better through this process.
He said that they were rededicating themselves to the same mission on the occasion of their anniversary and that they would keep this mission alive for a long time in the future instead of fondly looking at it as something that has passed.
He mentioned that the important thing about Apple has not changed is setting the pace that other companies try to match. He mentioned some of Apple’s latest achievements including M1 chips and 5G iPhones. He also mentioned how iPads were used to foster education and productivity and Watches could be used to maintain health and also mentioned the “Software and Services” that brought these gadgets and devices to life.
He spoke of the challenges and the tests that each one of them had to face. He said they added complexity, resolve and commitments that extended beyond work. He said that “on many fronts, we know even brighter days are ahead.”
He concluded the mail by saying that a similar email was sent by the founder Steve Jobs when an earlier anniversary was celebrated shortly after Cook had joined Apple. Cook said that Steve had said, “It’s been an amazing journey so far, yet we have barely begun.”
Cook added that this was still true and asked his team to remember that none of them would be there for the end of the story but it was on them “to make sure it’s one worth telling.”
Tim Cook’s message to Apple employees:
Team
On April 1, 1976, a company was formed in Cupertino to create transformative products that redefine what technology can achieve and make people’s lives better in the process. Forty-five years later, we mark this occasion by rededicating ourselves to that mission – and to keeping it alive for a long time to come – rather than to remember it fondly as something past.
While some things about Apple have changed over these many years, the important things haven’t. From the M1 chip to 5G iPhones, from iPads that change the face of education and productivity to a Watch that can look out for your health, to the very best Software and Services that bring them all to life, we have never stopped setting the pace that others try to match. What I can tell you with gut certainty is that there has never been a moment of such great potential as this one, nor have we ever had so talented and dedicated a team. That shouldn’t make us rest easy. Great potential obligates great people to meet it.
I know this past year has tested each of us in ways that we never imagined. It’s asked all of us to adapt, its added complexity to our work and it has requested additional resolve and commitment in areas of our lives that extend well beyond our work. But I also know that what we have each achieved during this time should make us enormously proud. Through a once-in-a-generation challenge, the things we make, and the ways in which we make them, have revealed profound and lasting new sources of value to the people who love and count on them. And, on many fronts, we know even brighter days are ahead.
In an email like this one, to mark a much earlier anniversary shortly after I joined Apple, Steve said, “it’s been an amazing journey so far, yet we have barely begun.” Still true. Remember that none of us will be here for the end of the story, but it’s on all of us to make sure it’s one worth telling.
Tim
