Benarkah Pahlawan Nasional DR Wahidin Sudiro Husodo Ternyata Orang Batak Bermarga Hasibuan….?????

 

Pahlawan Nasional DR Wahidin Sudiro Husodo cukup terkenal sebagai tokoh Pergerakan Nasional 20 Mei 1908 juga dengan nama Budi Utomo, tapi orang banyak yang tidak tahu berasal dari mana asal usul beliau maupun tempat kelahirannya.

“Ternyata beliau adalah orang Batak bergelar Sisingamangaraja X Tahun 1817,” kata M Daniel Sri Muda, SH,  salah seorang keluarga alur cicit dari pejuang bangsa Indonesia itu ketika berkunjung ke redaksi Waspada.

M.Daniel yang kini berdomisili di Jalan Duyung No.10 Pondok Bambu 13430, Jakarta Timur, ini datang ke Waspada ditemani Zulkarnaen Brahmana, menuturkan  Wahidin Sudiro Husodo orang banyak tahu berasal dari tanah Jawa karena penampilan serta namanya berbau nama Jawa, tapi nyatanya sangat berbeda dari kenyataan.

“Maka saya sebagai garis keturunan cicitnya yang ke-21 ingin meluruskan sejarah, sebenarnya beliau memakai nama Wahidin Sudiro Husodo mempunyai arti sendiri bagi beliau memakai nama itu dalam perjalanan perjuangannya.

Dalam pengabdiannya menggusur penjajah Belanda, beliau tampil sebagai prajurit panglima perang, tampil sebagai tokoh ulama Islam. Dalam penyiaran Agama Islam, lanjutnya, Wahidin Sudiro Husodo pergi ke berbagai penjuru daerah yang dilalui untuk menghimpun tokoh-tokoh maupun suku-suku untuk melawan Belanda. Selain itu juga tampil sebagai pendekar persilatan, tokoh raja dan tokoh politik dalam Kebangkitan Nasional pada 20 Mei 1908.

Wahidin Sudiro Husodo dilahirkan di daerah Portibi, Gunung Tua, Tapanuli Selatan, Sumatera Utara, pada 15 April 1791. Panggilan kecilnya adalah Sukhat. Sedangkan nama besarnya dikenal dengan sebutan Sutan Kali Alom atau Sutan Batara Guru Doli serta Haji Maruhum Kahar Hasibuan.

Sebagai pejuang bangsa, Wahidin Sudiro Husodo memang memiliki banyak nama dalam perjuangan mengusir penjajah Belanda. Meski bermarga Hasibuan namun Wahidin tidak suka memakai marga di dalam berjuang, karena perjuangannya bersifat nasional. Ayah Wahidin bernama Sutan Manohan Dibata Oloan

atau Sutan Mangamar dan ibunya bernama Salbiah Siregar.

Orangtuanya adalah seorang raja di daerah Portibi yang terkenal dengan nama Candi Portibi. Masih kata M.Daniel Sri Muda, Wahidin Sudiro Husodo hanya mempunyai penerus garis keturunannya hanyalah seorang putri tunggal dari pernikahannya dengan cicit Sunan Kalijaga bernama Siti Ambar, dan mempunyai garis cucu lima orang, cicit 24 orang serta garis buyut lebih dari 75 orang.

Diakui M. Daniel, memang Wahidin Sudiro Husodo memiliki banyak istri sesuai Syariat Islam untuk mencari keturunan laki-laki, tapi tidak pernah terwujud maka beliau mengangkat anak laki-laki bernama Soemantri bertempat tinggal di Desa Giri Jaya Cidahu Sukabumi dan telah wafat tahun 1004. Sedangkan putri tunggal beliau bernama Taksiah Boru Hasibuan semasa remaja berumur 14 tahun anaknya dibesarkan di kampung halaman Wahidin Sudiro Husodo di Tapanuli Selatan. Anaknya menikah dengan marga Harahap sekitar 1897.

Sekitar tahun 1910 Wahidin Sudiro Husodo menikah dengan Mak Iyok garis keturunan cucu Prabu Siliwangi tanpa ada penerus keturunan, kemudian menikah lagi dengan putri dari garis keturunan Raja Banten bernama Ratu Syarifah dan memiliki dua anak wanita tapi keduanya meninggal semasa kecil dan tidak ada penerus keturunan Wahidin Sudiro Husodo lagi dari Ratu Syarifah.

“Semua ini saya sampaikan untuk meluruskan sejarah tentang asal usul keturunan serta tempat beliau berjuang dengan memakai bermacam namanya,” katanya seraya menambahkan keturunan cicit beliau di dalam mengabdi serta berjuang untuk Negara Republik Indonesia ini sejak tahun 1945 adalah Kol. (Purn) Bahari Efendi Siregar (alm), mantan Komandan Basis Jakarta Raya 1956, mantan Aspri, Jenderal M.Panggabean (alm) tahun 1968, Letnan Satu CPM (Purn) Abdul Murad Siregar (alm) dan Letda Alwisori Muda Siregar (alm).

Sedangkan M.Daniel Sri Muda adalah anak dari garis cucu beliau bernama Aminah Boru Harahap. Dan M. Daniel juga aktif sebagai anggota Pejuang Siliwangi Indonesia, anggota Organisasi Perintis Kemerdekaan Republik Indonesia, serta Alumni Targati Bela Negara tahun 2003 Departemen Pertahanan RI, kata M.Daniel yang telah menerbitkan buku Sekilas Kisah Biografi dan Perjuangan Pahlawan Nasional Doktor Wahidin Sudiro Husodo bergelar Sisingamangaraja X Pada Tahun 1817, Panglima Tuanku Rao pada Tahun 1821-1837, Mangkunegara IV Pada Tahun 1853-1881.

M.Daniel mengimbau, para ahli  buku sejarah dapat mengkaji lebih dalam lagi siapa sebenarnya Wahidin Sudiro Husodo sebagai Pahlawan Nasional dan juga sebagai bahan seminar untuk pelurusan sejarah bangsa Indonesia yang selama ini penuh dengan silang pendapat umum demi kepentingan tertentu.

Menurut M Daniel, untuk pemimpin negara ke depan, Daniel mengimbau untuk merenung segala perjuangan yang dilakukan pejuang terdahulu. Hendaknya apa yang dijanjikan kepada rakyat, harus diwujudkan.  “Jangan mengatasnamakan rakyat, jika mereka terlupakan,” demikian M.Daniel.

Medan, WASPADA Online.

Source: http://isranpanjaitan.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/benarkah-pahlawan-nasional-dr-wahidin-sudiro-husodo-ternyata-orang-batak/

Diponegoro and the Java War (1825-1830)

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After the annexation of The Netherlands by France in 1811, the British took over the remains of the VOC Empire. In the East Indies the British Governor Raffles, who founded Singapore (which very soon economically overpowered Batavia) in 1816 after his forced departure from Batavia, has put through a lot of reformations in his five years as Governor-Genearal of the former Dutch East Indies, at that time mainly Java.

The return of the Dutch in 1816 - 1820 was not problem-free. This was due to the fact that the Dutch wanted to turn a lot of the "reformations" around.

Financially the reinstatement of the East Indies was a disaster for the new and poor kingdom of William I.

In order to establish an equilibrium between England and the much feared France, the British wanted the new Dutch Kingdom (officially united with Belgium until 1839) to have a few colonies again. The British were even so kind as to give Holland a loan, so that they could keep head above water (financially). Monopolising the trade in opium eventually resulted in the needed profits only around 1828.This, in fact was the start of the so-called Indian Positive Balance ("Indisch Batig Saldo"). (see my introduction page)

The poor Holland (hardly any money in the bank) had to try to get back "old" authority over the East Indies. On top of it all there were large revolts from the moment that Holland returned to the East Indies, for instance the one on the Moluccas, headed by Pattimura .
Nobody wanted those Dutch, who tactlessly tried to turn back time to the good old days of the VOC, back.

One of the largest, and for the Netherlands the most expensive, revolt was the Java War under guidance of Diponegoro..

The real motive eventually was a problem with succession at the courts of Yogakarta. In the meantime, it was also a problem that the Javan nobility was not allowed to ask rent for the land anymore. This was one of the changes that Raffles and his predecessor"The Thundering Grande Lord" Daendels had put through.

The Dutch Daendels was indeed the General who invaded Holland supported by the French in 1794. During his East Indies period as Governor-General (1808-1811), he gave order to build the Grote Postweg ("Grand Postal Road ") from the West to the East of Java, thousands of peasants were forced to do this and died due to severe labour. After his return to Europe he joined Napoleon on his way to Moscow and finally died as Governor-General of the former slave fortress Elmina in the present state of Ghana (see my homepage)


The Java nobility was deprived of their income. This did not mean that the population had prospered, because the colonial authorities wanted to start collecting this. But that is really a completely different story.

Pangeran Prince Diponegoro
Continuing drought and a few failed harvests logically caused commotion amongst the population. And now those much-hated Dutch were back again!

The memory of the compulsory Lord services for Daendels for the construction of the Grand Postal Road from West- to East-Java was still fresh. The thundering Grande Lord prouded himself in the fact that the Grand Postal Road was built at minimal costs in only one year (naturally: the compulsory Lord services). Thousands of Javanese did not survive!

The personal frustrations of pangeran Prince Diponegoro would eventually be the cause of the outburst, because he was not chosen to be the next sultan of Yogakarta.

The construction of a road through his area was the spark that lit the fire. It has never become clear if this was connected to the Grand Postal Road.

Diponegoro became convinced that he was chosen by Allah to lead a rebellion against those secular Dutch. So then a, in the eyes of the Javanese, holy war started to which everybody, the nobility as well as the unhappy peasants, had to commit. Soon, Java was completely in frenzy. The Dutch did not understand at all....

The Dutch authorities were totally surprised by the massiveness of the rebellion and the fanatism. Defeat after defeat was suffered. It even looked like they had to give up Java again. This was not preferable because Java was to be the pillar on which the poor Dutch economy had to stand again. (!)

The "army" that was stationed in the East Indies had their hands full on all those other local rebellions, so they could not concentrate on their defence against Diponegoro.
Diponegoro developed into a charismatic leader with excellent tactic insight. The Dutch had not learned a thing from the guerrilla tactics during the Boni wars in Surinam. (see my Surinam link) They left for the homelands in large groups (beating drums or not)…they had no defence against Diponegoro, who applied a kind of a tactic of “burnt earth”. No food was left anywhere and, more important, no clean water in the jungle for the fully European packed Dutch troops.

This way, the Indian army lost one third of its men every year and this had to be completed from Europe as fast as possible. In their utter despair they set up a campaign in Europe to recruit people. They also bonded with several Indian monarchs from out of Java. In 1830 they had about 20,000 men, half of them were Europeans.

The tactics of the new Dutch head De Kock eventually were of great importance. He "simply" adopted the methods of Diponegoro and established small but heavily fortified posts ("bentengs"). Moreover, the Dutch proved to be masters in the "divide and conquer" principle. The peasants were promised lower costs by the instrument of land lease, because the nobility would again earn the rent. That way, the knife cut both ways: the peasants thought they were better off and the nobility had income again. The nobility was again able to negotiate with the European land loaners who wanted to rent land from the Java farmers

Surrender of Prince Diponegoro to General De Kock, a primary school poster...
Diponegoro was willing to negotiate but was still, despite an escort, imprisoned by De Kock in Magelang during the start of the negotiations on 28 March in 1830.



Diponegoro had demanded that he would be recognised as sultan and as the head of the Islam on Java.

Those demands were too large for an already beaten Prins. This suited de Kock well: "I did not at all find it unpleasant. This was a perfect opportunity for me to tell him that we could not only not indulge in such demands, but that I also considered him to be my prisoner from that moment on."





Diponegoro was exiled to Makassar on Celebes. In 1837, he was even visited by Prince Henry (the youngest son of the later King William II) who called him a proud man who was captured by the Dutch because of "treason".
Diponegoro spent his days with writing texts from the Koran. He died in 1855.

His grave in Makassar is a national monument now.

The university of Semarang on Central-Java (the area where Diponegoro lived) is named after Diponegoro.

Pictures of the prison of Diponegoro can be found HERE

Diponegoro's saddle and lance were moved to Holland as a bounty and were returned to Indonesia in 1975.

Apart from the large destruction, the Java War killed (estimated) 200,000 Javanese, (famished included) 7,000 Native and 8,000 European soldiers. The political consequences were clear: the Java nobility had lost its power up until the next century.


What happened with the Dutch:

Governor-General Van der Capellen had returned to Holland in 1825 a frustrated man: everything had failed and moreover he had to tell King William I that the rebellion of Diponegoro might well be the end of the new colonial adventure.

This man must have had a very bad time pacing around on his trip back to Holland........







The Flemish (for Belgium and Holland were united now) Du Bus de Gisignies (left photograph) would be his successor. The story says that Du Bus de Gisignies weighed a 145kg, when he returned to Europe in 1830, he had lost 60kg.

His successor Van den Bosch (photograph on the right) started with new ideas: he was to be the founder of the cultural system. According to King William I, he was able to produce money from the Indies like "Moses could get water out of a rock". This was in spite of the debt of 40 million guilders, caused by Diponegoro and others, he had to start with.

If you are interested in a (year 1941) biography about all the Dutch East Indies Governor-Generals, including the above mentioned gentlemen, please use this link.


On the map below the overview of the Nineteen-Century wars that had to be fought in order to instate Dutch authority everywhere:

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Like to read my other stories about the Dutch East Indies?
More to come......

and in English as soon as possible (some sites are already translated : see below the header after opening of the requested story in Dutch )

Introduction to the history of the Dutch East Indies

Governors-General of the Dutch East Indies

Jan Pieterszn Coen and the extinction of the population on the Banda islands

The killing of at least 5000 Chinese people in 1740

Who was Pattimura ?

Who was Diponegoro ?

The "betrayal" of the ( present holiday ) island of Lombok and the "Treasures of Lombok"

The pacification of the ( present holiday ) island of Bali

Wilhelmus van Nassaue, Ziet gij dien heldenstoet? Zij schoten op de vrouwen En drenkten 't land met bloed. De kwasten der banieren zijn darmen van een kind. Licht dat ge aan hun rapieren, nog vrouwenharen vindt.

The war of aggression against Aceh The war of aggression against Aceh has been the largest Dutch war ever which resulted in 100,000 people killed and 1,000,000 people injured

Book covers and references

Photos and images of the Dutch East Indies

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ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL Dutch East Indies ARCENGEL

            ......a Northsea coast state of robbers......
            .....building railways from stolen money
            stunned the victims with
            opium, Gospels and Dutch gin...

             I dare to ask you in confidence is it
            your order that more than thirty
            million of your subjects in the East are maltreated and
            squeezed in Your name?

            Multatuli [1860] ...to the Netherlands...King William III

....that village was set to fire, because it was captured by the Dutch.......


Yes, the village was captured by the Dutch, so it was burning

After each Dutch victory a fire
After each Dutch victory a destruction.
Dutch warfare methods induce desperation






Translated by Sonja van den Heijkant

 

Source:  http://home.iae.nl/users/arcengel/NedIndie/diponegoroengels.htm

The Wright brothers:
Wilbur and Orville Wright

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The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, had two older brothers, Reuchlin (1861-1920) and Lorin (1862-1939), and a younger sister Katharine (1874-1929). They were the children of Bishop Milton Wright (1828-1917) and Susan Catherine (Koerner) Wright (1831-1889). Wilbur Wright was born near Millville, Indiana on April 16, 1867. Orville Wright was born at 7 Hawthorn Street in Dayton, Ohio, August 19, 1871.

Their father settled the family in Dayton, where he was editor of a newspaper published by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. His various jobs as a minister in that church led to the family moving frequently, but they didn't sell the house on 7 Hawthorn Street, and kept returning.

The Wright house provided an excellent setting for the children's intellectual and creative development. Orville wrote of his childhood: "We were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate whatever aroused curiosity."

One activity Bishop Wright initiated was for debates in which two family members would each defend one side, then switch and defend the other side. The house had two libraries: Books on theology in the bishop's study, while the downstairs library had a large and diverse collection. Reading in the family library played a big role in the development of the Wright brothers' interest in flight. 

In 1878, when Orville and Wilbur were ages 7 and 11, their father brought them a toy "helicopter." It was based on an invention by French aeronautical pioneer Alphonse Penaud. Made of cork, bamboo, and paper, with a rubber band to twirl its twin blades, it was a little bigger than an adult's hand. They later said this sparked their interest in flight. During the next few years, Wilbur and Orville tried to build these themselves, but the bigger they made them the less well they flew. Somewhat discouraged, the brothers turned to kites.

The family moved from Richmond, Indiana back to Dayton in June 1884, less than a month before Wilbur would have graduated from high school. The next year he attended Central High School in Dayton for additional studies, in Greek and trigonometry.

During the winter of 1885-1886, Wilbur was hit in the face with a hockey stick while playing an ice-skating game, resulting in his losing his front teeth. The injury did not seem particularly serious, at least at first. But Wilbur, who had been athletic and healthy until then, began to be withdrawn. As the Bishop later said, "In his nineteenth year when playing a game on skates at an artificial lake at the Soldier's Home near Dayton, Ohio, a bat accidentally flew out of the hand of a young man... and struck Wilbur, knocking him down, but not injuring him much. A few weeks later, he began to be affected with nervous palpitations of the heart, which precluded the realization of the former idea of his parents, of giving him a course in Yale College." Wilbur remained homebound for the next four years, possibly suffering as much from depression as from his vaguely-defined heart disorder. Wilbur cared for his mother Susan during this time, who was dying from tuberculosis. He also read extensively from the family library.

In 1889, with Wilbur's help, Orville designed and built a printing press, and the brothers began publishing a weekly and then a daily paper. In 1892 they opened a bicycle shop, and in 1896 started manufacturing their own brand. Orville invented a self-oiling wheel hub. That year German aviator Otto Lilienthal died in a glider crash, but his pioneering work showed that manned flight was feasible. French aviation researcher Octave Chanute collected data and brought together young aviators to experiment with gliders on the sand dunes at the Lake Michigan shore. The Wright brothers interest in flight was renewed, and they set about to learn everything they could about the subject, gathering and reading whatever they could, and later designing experiments of their own.

To provide adequate lift for large gliders, the Wright brothers needed to find a place with more wind than was typical anywhere near Dayton. In November 1899, Wilbur wrote to Willis L. Moore, Chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau, asking about high wind conditions throughout the country. The first rural place on the list Moore sent back was Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. During the years 1900, 1901, and 1902, Orville and Wilbur experimented at Kitty Hawk with kites, gliders, and a wind tunnel they built to test wing design. The Wright brothers developed the first effective airplane, and made the historic first airplane flight in 1903.

In 1905, the Wright brothers built an airplane that could fly for more than half an hour at a time. In 1908 Orville made the world's first flight of over one hour at Fort Myer, Virginia, in a demonstration for the U.S. army, which subsequently made the Wright planes the world's first military airplanes. That same year Wilbur made over 100 flights near Le Mans, France; the longest one, on Dec. 31, a record flight: 2 hours, 19 minutes. 

The brothers never married. Wilbur Wright died at age 45 of typhoid. Orville Wright died of a heart attack at age 77.

Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, December 17, 1903. Orville Wright's famous first airplane flight. Several larger versions: first airplane flight picture.		Camp d'Auvours, September 21, 1908: Wilbur's record flight of 1 hr 31 min 25 4/5 sec. Later that year he flew 2 hrs 19 min. Click: larger (double-width) picture.
Wilbur describes his airplane to a fascinated King Alfonso XIII of Spain, 1909. Click: larger (65% wider) picture.		Preparing the plane for takeoff. Click: larger (40% wider) picture.

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May 30, 1912

This morning at 3:15, Wilbur passed away, aged 45 years, 1 month, and 14 days. A short life, full of consequences. An unfailing intellect, imperturbable temper, great self-reliance and as great modesty, seeing the right clearly, pursuing it steadily, he lived and died.

- from the Diary of Bishop Milton Wright

Biography highlights

Wilbur Wright
1867, Apr. 16: Born, Millville, Ind.
1889: Began publication of a four-page weekly newspaper, the West Side News
1892-1904: Operated a bicycle repair shop and factory
1896-1903: Made aerial experiments with kites and gliders
1899: Built a model biplane which he flew as a kite
1900: Made first trip to Kitty Hawk, N.C., for experimental flights
1901: Built wind tunnel for testing wing surfaces
1903, Dec. 17: Participated with Orville in the first successful flight of a motor-powered airplane
1908: Made record-breaking flights near Le Mans, France, and concluded an agreement with a French syndicate for construction of flying machines in France
1909: Made round trip demonstration flights from Governors Island, N.Y., to the Statue of Liberty and Grant's Tomb.
With Orville organized the American Wright Co.
1912 May 30: Died, Dayton, Ohio

Wright Brothers
Art Poster
National Archive

Orville Wright
1871 Aug. 19: Born Dayton, Ohio
1889: Edited the West Side News
1892-1904: Operated a bicycle repair shop and factory
1896-1903: Made aerial experiments with kites and gliders
1900: Made first trip to Kitty Hawk, N.C., for experimental flights
1903, Dec. 17: Made first successful flight in a motor-powered airplane
1906: Received patent for the Wright flying machine
1908: Was seriously injured in airplane crash during demonstration flights for U.S. War Department
1909: Successfully completed airplane tests for the War Department.
Organized the American Wright Co.
1910: Formed first of the Wright exhibition teams of pilots trained to demonstrate the Wright airplane
1915: Sold his interest in the American Wright Co.
Became Director of the Wright Aeronautical Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.
Appointed member of the U.S. Naval Consulting Board
1920: Appointed member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
1948, Jan. 30: Died, Dayton, Ohio

Source: http://www.wright-house.com/wright-brothers/Wrights.html

Steve Jobs, The Man Behind Apple, Dies at 56

Steve Jobs, billionaire co-founder of Apple and the mastermind behind an empire of products that revolutionised computing, telephony and the music industry, has died in California at the age of 56.Jobs stepped down in August as chief executive of the company he helped set up in 1976, citing illness. He had been battling an unusual form of pancreatic cancer, and had received a liver transplant in 2009.

Jobs wrote in his letter of resignation: “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.”
Apple released a statement paying tribute: “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives … The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.”
Jobs was one of the pioneers of Silicon Valley and helped establish the region’s claim as the global centre of technology. He founded Apple with his childhood friend Steve Wozniak, and the two marketed what was considered the world’s first personal computer, the Apple II.
He was ousted in a bitter boardroom battle in 1985, a move that he later claimed was the best thing that could have happened to him. Jobs went on to buy Pixar, the company behind some of the biggest animated hits in cinema history including Toy Story, Cars and Finding Nemo.He returned to Apple 11 years later when it was being written off by rivals. What followed was one of the most remarkable comebacks in business history.
Starting with his brightly coloured iMacs, Jobs went on to launch hit after hit transformed personal computing.Then came the success of the iPod, which revolutionised the music industry, leading to a collapse in CD sales and making Jobs one of the most powerful voices in an industry he loved.
His firm was named in homage to the Beatles’ record label, Apple. But the borrowing was permitted on the basis that the computing firm would stay out of music. After the success of the iPod the two Apples became engaged in a lengthy legal battle which finally ended last year when the Beatles allowed iTunes to start selling their back catalogue.
Jobs’s remarkable capacity to spot what people wanted next came without the aid of market research or focus groups.”For something this complicated, it’s really hard to design products by focus groups,” he once said. “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
Jobs initially hid his illness but his startling weight loss started to unnerve his investors. He took a six-month medical leave of absence in 2009, during which he received a liver transplant, and another medical leave of absence in mid-January before stepping down as chief executive in August.
Jobs leaves an estimated $8.3bn, but he often dismissed others’ interest in his wealth. “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful … that’s what matters to me.”

Tom Szaky ,The Garbage Mogul

“In looking at waste as an entirely modern, man-made idea, I stopped viewing garbage as garbage and instead slowly started to see it as a commodity.” – Tom Szaky

Everyone experiences those formative “A-ha!” moments when a scene or image strikes us in a profound way. Many spend their lives building beliefs and passions stemming from that very moment. Inspired by the success his friends had using red wiggler worms to process compost, Szaky felt there could be a business in commercially producing and distributing a product he would call ‘Worm Poop’. Szaky, 30, is founder and CEO of Terracycle, which sells consumer products made from recycled waste. He was named “Best CEO under Thirty” by Inc. magazine in 2006, beating out Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.



Both Szaky and TerraCycle reached this point via circuitous routes. Born in Hungary under the Communist regime, Szaky fled with his parents to Toronto in 1986 after the Chernobyl explosion. When eight-year-old Tom arrived in Toronto, he was conversant in Flemish, French, Dutch, Hungarian, and the art of fending for himself in strange environments. Soon he learned to speak English and attract adult support for some amazing ventures.

“My parents never told me ‘No’,” he says of his exploits. All of them involved rallying his peers to do something “cool” and then convincing adults that the project was OK. His motto: “If you are going to do it, do it big, and if no one helps, do it anyway.” Success usually meant getting started before getting permission. Szaky was just 14 when he was bit by the entrepreneurial bug .The idea of starting a company was new to him, but he was interested in the internet. So he taught himself to code and launched a graphic design company which employed 3 associates and earned its young proprietor a five-figure income, while landing clients as big as Roots clothing company.

In 2002 Szaky was a freshman at Princeton when he heard about a friend’s discovery.If you fed organic waste to earthworms, they produced fertilizer that plants seemed to love. Fascinated by the concept, Szaky quit school during his sophomore year to launch what is now TerraCycle. From that point on, Szaky was a man obsessed. He paid a Florida inventor $20,000 for a contraption that housed millions of worms and began shoveling Princeton University’s food waste into it to feed an ever-growing colony of worms.He admitted he never was undaunted by having to shovel 150-pound barrels of garbage daily.

Szaky decided to sell this home-brewed plant food, Earth Plant Fuel.Committed to selling a fully sustainable offering, he packaged his prized Worm Poop in paper bags and took it to gardening stores inviting them to stock it. The response was that the product looked good, but the aroma was not consumer compatible.



Szaky realized he had no money left to design and make packaging for his precious worm poop. That led to his second breakthrough. Szaky started raiding recycling bins for soda bottles. The product was made from waste, so why not the packaging as well? Szaky developed a process to mix his Worm Poop with water, strain out the solids to leave a nutrient-rich liquid, then fill recycled bottles with it and seal them with waste spray tops

To build up a surplus of bottles, he persuaded church and school groups to form “bottle brigades,” which would collect bottles in their neighborhoods in return for small donations. The idea was so good that Szaky took top honors at the Carrot Capital Business Plan Challenge in 2003 and a prize of $1m in investment. A good thing, as Terracycle had only $500 in the bank at the time.Under Szaky’s direction, more and more trash fed more and more worms which fed more and more plants, and, with Americans throwing out 2.5 million plastic bottles an hour, packaging was also readily available.

In 2007 ,Seth Goldman, the founder of the US drinks company Honest Tea, asked Szaky if he could find a second life for his Honest Kids juice pouches, made from a combination of plastic and aluminium. In a bid to find a solution, Szaky sat up all night teaching himself to sew the empty pouches into tote bags. Goldman loved the idea and together they came up with the first corporately financed collection brigades.

As the company grew, Szaky saw opportunities everywhere. Trash was something to be ‘upcycled’ into an offering more valuable than the original product. He started with seed starters and potting mix, made from and packaged in waste. Then he offered the Urban Art Pot, made from electronic waste. Then came plastic products, from kites to clipboards, all completely recycled.Today, more than 19 million people around the world collect trash for Terracycle, saving about half a billion pieces of waste per month from ending up in landfills.

Estimated to be worth at $5 million, he recently bought a modest house in nearby Princeton and in an interview said the he prefers to buy as little as possible. “I don’t want to go to Ikea and throw it out after three years, so I buy expensive durable products.’ He has worn the same pair of jeans for nine months and his favorite cotton blazer is 10 years old. Another unusual part of his company is its intern program. Szaky bought a 10-bedroom 7,000 square-foot Victorian house near Trenton High School and hired a cook. Interns work for free, and in return they get room boarding and food.Once the company is self sufficient, I really want to go back to school ”he said. A behavioral economics major, Szaky hopes to return to his former advisor, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman.

Szaky teaches us that there are resources other people are paying to get rid of today that can form the basis of new and valuable offerings. While building a business on trash might not top the glamour charts, it also offers one more lesson: that the word sustainability can apply equally to a business and to the planet when spoken by an entrepreneur