“Steve Wozniak, who started Apple Inc. with high-school friend Steve Jobs in a California garage more than three decades ago, said news of his partner’s death struck him just like the shootings of John Lennon and John F. Kennedy,” Anand Krishnamoorthy and Susan Li report for Bloomberg Businessweek. “I’m just totally awestruck, a bit shocked, a bit surprised,’ Wozniak, 61, said in an interview today with Bloomberg Television’s Susan Li on the ‘Asia Edge’ program. ‘I did not expect it. It felt a lot like you just heard that, you know, John Lennon got shot, or JFK, or Martin Luther King.'”
“‘He was one of those cool guys,’ Wozniak said. ‘He knew technology, he understood it. We talked about the philosophies of the day — the counterculture was strong, the hippie movement, words in songs — and went to concerts together,'” Krishnamoorthy and Li report. “‘It was a strong friendship,’ [Woz said.] ‘The technology was happening on the side.'”
“‘I got to watch the whole growth in him,’ Wozniak said. ‘Coming from a young kid to starting a company and having success and trying to find ways to manage things and have his own control and power. Going off from the company, coming back very learned, knowledgeable about how to watch the operations,'” Krishnamoorthy and Li report. “‘Steve, the last few times he talked to me, was having all these strong reflections of those early days and how much they meant and how much fun,’ Wozniak said. ‘He would even say things like, ‘Did you ever think this would happen?’ ‘Look how great, big Apple got as a technology company.’ He was really getting excited about these things. He was kind of like his normal, young self again.'”
“Wozniak said his last conversation with Jobs scared him because he could tell that his friend’s health wasn’t good. ‘He sounded a little weak in the character and the voice and the motivation,’ Wozniak said. ‘I was a little bit scared on the phone. He didn’t sound as strong as he did the conversation before… It’s going to be hard to sleep tonight.'”
Read more in the full article – recommended – here.
Odd. Does he mean emotionally struck him or surprisingly struck him? If it was surprising, he even said he was scared that his health wasnt great. Alot of people were thinking that he may be nearing the end. If it was emotionally, I would hope the dead of a friend HIGHLY outranks the death of popular figure in society.
I would guess both. It’s not like there were reports of Steve checking not a hospital, or someone blogged about how they saw him a few days ago and how he looked much worse than he did 6 months ago. The news really was sudden and without warning, even though we all knew his health wasn’t good.
Seems like it should have affected him a whole lot more, since he and steve were friends and colleagues
Woz sounds like he’s still in shock and/or denial – like a lot of us. People react differently to such news. Don’t judge. Most of us aren’t being pestered by hundreds of media outlets around the world for our “reaction.” Give Woz some time for it to sink it.
Remember, he’s also being interviewed by Bloomberg, so he had already passed the initial shock of receiving the news and was probably trying to try to explain the magnitude while keeping it together. I’m sure some of that was fond reminiscing combined with having to say something without really knowing how to fully express himself.
It may not have fully hit him yet. People process this kind of thing in their own way.
I lost a close friend of mine… I really had no reaction for the first week. I even went to work the next day. I saw a picture of him the next Saturday and began to think about what our friendship meant to me.
Man it hit like a ton of bricks then.
I’d take Woz’s comment about it being as big as JFK or Lennon getting shot to refer to effect the news is having on the world more so than Woz personally.
He is probably still in shock and processing the gravity of it all.
Odd, the news had struck me as if I’ve lost a teacher, an inspiration and a friend.
What’s odd about him noting that he’ll always remember where he was and what he was doing when he heard of his old friend/business partner’s death?
Woz is still in shock and trying to sort out his feelings. He has every right.
Same. I found it odd that I would be moved. Odd that many people whom I thought wouldn’t care, actually did.
Yes, it is similar to these JFK, Lennon, Jackson deaths, even though it was expected, unlike the mentioned cases.
Well he is sure milking the press for this. He has been on every channel I have been watching, CNN etc…
Uhm, those other people, JFK, Lennon and MLK were all shot, assassinated, murdered. So, he may not have known them, but their deaths were shocking, similar to how someone close to you dying might also be shocking.
We all knew deep down that things weren’t right, the writing was on the wall when he resigned as CEO.
And yet his death was still a shock and surprise to me, because a big part of me had convinced myself that he would beat this; that people were being negative in saying that he looked ill every time he appeared in public.
Now I feel like I’ve lost a mentor. Suddenly the man who made my career possible is gone forever.
That’s very kind and sincere. I read this Steve Jobs quote: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
Exactly what I told people too.