Virgin America has branded one of their jumbo jets with a tribute to Steve Jobs. On the side of an A320 reads the quote “stay hungry, stay foolish”, taken from The Whole Earth Catalog Jobs mentioned in his famous 2005 Stanford commencement speech. The airline told MacRumors the name was decided based on an internal competition and took service to the air last Fall.
Richard Branson, the billionaire tycoon behind the Silicon Valley-based Virgin America, wrote about how Steve Jobs was the entrepreneur he most admired in The Telegraph and on his own blog:
Jobs may not always have been the best leader of people – which may, in part, have been due to his health problems – but he was innovative, determined and, above all, passionate. Finding gaps in the market, and creating products that make a real difference to people’s lives, can only be accomplished if you have passion for what you are doing. If you make something you are proud of, that filters down to your staff, as well as your customers. Today, more than ever, you’ve got to do something radically different to make a mark.
In a 1997 marketing campaign for Apple, entitled “Think Different”, Jobs said: “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.” I am proud to say that, in the accompanying montage, he counted me as one of them. I think it’s an attitude that’s shared by all leaders who make a difference – and it’s one reason why, despite our vastly different styles, Steve Jobs was always the entrepreneur whom I most admired.
Given the admiration Branson had for Jobs, it’s only fitting his airline dedicated an aircraft to the late Apple Co-Founder. Here’s a video of Branson expressing his thoughts about Steve as the entrepreneur he admires (Flash video):
[via MacRumors]
