Different
The story I like to tell people about my career at Apple was when I was working in Apple Online Store support in 2001. There was a MacWorld keynote being given, they shut down the phone lines for an hour or so so we could watch on closed circuit TV. At some point during the presentation, I turned to my boss who happened to be walking by at the time. I looked up at him (he's a damn tall dude) and the first words out of my mouth:
"Who in the hell in their right mind is gonna shell out $400 for this damn thing to put their music on?"
Ten years later, I'm still a little astounded by how little I knew.
I mention this as one of the first things that came to mind when I walked into a restaurant this evening, and my dining companion for the night said to me, "Did you hear the news?
"Steve Jobs died today."
There is going to be many things said and written about Jobs in the coming days by people far more eloquent than I. A fair bit of hyperbole will be mixed in with the facts and stories. But in my humble estimation, it is all well earned. Whatever faith you ascribe to in the platform wars, there can be no denying that the man truly merited the designation "one of a kind".
I've worked for Apple almost a dozen years now. Like any occupation, it has its good days and its bad. There have been times when this job has been my best friend, giving me something to pour myself into while coping with separation and divorce. There have been times where this job felt like my worst enemy. It has always been fairly stable and secure. Today, that's something not a lot of workplaces can claim and there is a tremendous amount to be thankful for in that.
However, working for Steve Jobs was a concept that sort of existed separate from the actual career for me. It's hard to explain if you never worked there. But there was something about watching him, hearing him as he touted whatever new product we were getting ready to roll out that you couldn't help but get bound up in the enthusiasm. "Visionary" is a label that gets bandied about a little too loosely in my opinion, but FSM knows the man deserved it.
Hell, he redefined it. Maybe set the bar for the word so high, I don't know what it would take to merit earning it again.
What was that I wrote earlier about hyperbole?
In all seriousness though, this exuberance the man had was pretty damn contagious. Prior to Apple, I spent some time working at Paramount Theater in Austin. There was a marketing director who was the most hardcore of Mac geeks. He had an actual Newton that he used daily as a PDA, eschewing the then ubiquitous Palm Pilot in favor of this tech that had had its day and ostensibly lost the battle. He and I would get into mocking PC vs Mac debates and I never knew what drove that love that he had.
A year or so later I'm working at Apple, and I don't want a new iMac. I need a new iMac. Suddenly, I knew. I lost all ability to speak the Wintel language and I've never looked back.
And I know that the Mac platform isn't for everyone, but you see the tech everywhere now and you understand just how much the company and the man's vision shaped how we interact with tech, what we expect of it...and you can't deny the influence that he had. My Facebook feed on my iPhone is flooded with comments not just from my fellow Apple employees mourning the loss, but from an abundance of people who had no connection to the company but recognize what Steve Jobs did and meant. Ex-patriates from the company pausing to comment on how much their time at Apple meant to them.
I never once met the man, but I can't help but feel sad for him being gone. The world really is a lesser place now.
I wish we had more people like him. I wish we had more leaders like him. People who weren't afraid to really dream, reach for the stars and damn the naysayers who said it couldn't be done. If the naysayers were right, just trying again until they're proven wrong. And then keep doing it, over and over. As good as you can possibly make it, and learning from your mistakes along the way.
I wish I could be more like he was. Fearless in a way that few people are while going where no one else would think to and then pushing on without looking back while the competition scrambles to keep up. But in some sense, maybe I did and do live up to that ideal.
The slogan for a long time was "Think different." I've come to have pride for the ways in which I do that, the ways in which I live that. It wasn't Apple that made me do that. But it was Apple that made me realize that doing that...thinking differently...was a pretty OK way to be.
I said it before when he stepped down, and I say it again paraphrasing a man who was as whimsical and alive as Steve Jobs was.
So long, Steve. And thanks for all my fish.
"Who in the hell in their right mind is gonna shell out $400 for this damn thing to put their music on?"
Ten years later, I'm still a little astounded by how little I knew.
I mention this as one of the first things that came to mind when I walked into a restaurant this evening, and my dining companion for the night said to me, "Did you hear the news?
"Steve Jobs died today."
There is going to be many things said and written about Jobs in the coming days by people far more eloquent than I. A fair bit of hyperbole will be mixed in with the facts and stories. But in my humble estimation, it is all well earned. Whatever faith you ascribe to in the platform wars, there can be no denying that the man truly merited the designation "one of a kind".
I've worked for Apple almost a dozen years now. Like any occupation, it has its good days and its bad. There have been times when this job has been my best friend, giving me something to pour myself into while coping with separation and divorce. There have been times where this job felt like my worst enemy. It has always been fairly stable and secure. Today, that's something not a lot of workplaces can claim and there is a tremendous amount to be thankful for in that.
However, working for Steve Jobs was a concept that sort of existed separate from the actual career for me. It's hard to explain if you never worked there. But there was something about watching him, hearing him as he touted whatever new product we were getting ready to roll out that you couldn't help but get bound up in the enthusiasm. "Visionary" is a label that gets bandied about a little too loosely in my opinion, but FSM knows the man deserved it.
Hell, he redefined it. Maybe set the bar for the word so high, I don't know what it would take to merit earning it again.
What was that I wrote earlier about hyperbole?
In all seriousness though, this exuberance the man had was pretty damn contagious. Prior to Apple, I spent some time working at Paramount Theater in Austin. There was a marketing director who was the most hardcore of Mac geeks. He had an actual Newton that he used daily as a PDA, eschewing the then ubiquitous Palm Pilot in favor of this tech that had had its day and ostensibly lost the battle. He and I would get into mocking PC vs Mac debates and I never knew what drove that love that he had.
A year or so later I'm working at Apple, and I don't want a new iMac. I need a new iMac. Suddenly, I knew. I lost all ability to speak the Wintel language and I've never looked back.
And I know that the Mac platform isn't for everyone, but you see the tech everywhere now and you understand just how much the company and the man's vision shaped how we interact with tech, what we expect of it...and you can't deny the influence that he had. My Facebook feed on my iPhone is flooded with comments not just from my fellow Apple employees mourning the loss, but from an abundance of people who had no connection to the company but recognize what Steve Jobs did and meant. Ex-patriates from the company pausing to comment on how much their time at Apple meant to them.
I never once met the man, but I can't help but feel sad for him being gone. The world really is a lesser place now.
I wish we had more people like him. I wish we had more leaders like him. People who weren't afraid to really dream, reach for the stars and damn the naysayers who said it couldn't be done. If the naysayers were right, just trying again until they're proven wrong. And then keep doing it, over and over. As good as you can possibly make it, and learning from your mistakes along the way.
I wish I could be more like he was. Fearless in a way that few people are while going where no one else would think to and then pushing on without looking back while the competition scrambles to keep up. But in some sense, maybe I did and do live up to that ideal.
The slogan for a long time was "Think different." I've come to have pride for the ways in which I do that, the ways in which I live that. It wasn't Apple that made me do that. But it was Apple that made me realize that doing that...thinking differently...was a pretty OK way to be.
I said it before when he stepped down, and I say it again paraphrasing a man who was as whimsical and alive as Steve Jobs was.
So long, Steve. And thanks for all my fish.