“A Newsweek magazine from 1988 signed by Steve Jobs has sold for $50,587, according to RR Auction,” CNET reports. “The winning bidder of the signed Newsweek magazine is an anonymous collector from the Chicago area.”
“The magazine went up for auction last week, and was consigned by Diane Williams of Escondido, California. Williams met the Apple co-founder back in October 1988, while working as a senior buyer for software company Lotus Development Corp. (now Lotus Software),” CNET reports. “She attended the unveiling of Jobs’ NeXT computer at the Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and brought along a few magazines that featured him on the cover.”
“After the unveiling, she said, Jobs came down and sat on a table close to her. She asked if he would sign one, to which he responded, ‘I don’t do autographs.’ Williams said she asked him to ‘write something from your heart then,’ at which point he smiled, hesitated and then pulled the Newsweek and wrote ‘I love manufacturing.’ After hesitating again, he underlined ‘love.’ Then he looked at Williams and signed it,” CNET reports. “‘It was like time stood still,’ Williams said in a previous interview with CNET.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve seen Steve take photos with Apple fans before, at Macworld Expo New York in 1999 for one example, where he made a surprise visit to the show floor, but we never saw him sign anything for a fan, even though posters, books, magazines, and such were offered to him. In such situations, once he was recognized, he’d be quickly besieged with requests for photographs and would be forced to quickly leave.
“Most people that are able to make a sustained contribution over time rather than just a peak are very internally driven. You have to be because in the ebb and tide of people’s opinions and of fads there are going to be times when you are criticized. Criticism is very difficult, and when you are criticized you learn to pull back a little, and listen to your own drummer. To some extend that isolates you from the praise if you get that eventually to. The praise becomes a little less important to you, and the criticism becomes a little less important to you in the same measure. And you become more internally driven. That is why it’s hard doing interviews and being visible: As you are growing and changing, the more the outside world tries to reinforce an image of you that it thinks you are, the harder it is to continue to be an artist. Which is why a lot of times, artists have to go, “Bye. I have to go. I’m going crazy and I’m getting out of here.” And they go and hibernate somewhere. Maybe later they re-emerge a little differently.”
Excerpt from “Steve Jobs: The Unauthorized Autobiography”
I went to the opening of the Apple store in Palo Alto, and Steve and Ron Johnson were there. I had a long conversation with Ron. He seemed to be very excited about the whole thing and eager to talk. But I wanted to get a picture with Steve and send it to my colleagues at work who believed Apple should have died by then. So I go over to where the cameras are being sold, and I ask one of the employees if he will take a picture of me and Steve and upload it to a computer so I can email it. The employee looked terrified. There was NO WAY he would suggest to Steve that he would take a picture. I said, “No problem. I’ll ask Steve. You just take the picture.” He agreed, and so I went over to Steve and asked him. He said, “No. I have my kids with me.” I guess he was letting me down easy. I was disappointed, but it was interesting that his terrorizing ways could reach down to the lowliest employee at a newly opened Apple Store.
“his terrorizing ways ”
god, I wish his successors had a bit of ‘ terrorizing ways’ and terrorized the Mac Pro (not updated since 2013) guys , the Mac Mini people (2014) , the creators of the Apple TV remote, the people who thought a weak GPU and 16 GB of RAM would be sufficient for the highest end MBP users, the person who suggested Planet of the Apps etc.
God I miss Steve Jobs terrorizing ways.
(Years and years later 90% of Apple’s income is still from products created by Jobs. Apple Watch and AirPods although wonderful products are still so small income wise they are lumped into ‘other products’ category).
CultofMac:
Jony Ive:
““I remember having a conversation with [Steve] and I was asking why it could have been perceived that in his critique of a piece of work he was a little harsh. We’d been working on this [project] and we’d put our heart and soul into this, and I was saying, ‘Couldn’t we … moderate the things we said?’
And he said, ‘Why?’ and I said, ‘ Because I care about the team.’ And he said this brutally, brilliantly insightful thing, which was, ’No Jony, you’re just really vain.’ He said, ‘You just want people to like you, and I’m surprised at you because I thought you really held the work up as the most important, not how you believed you were perceived by other people.’
I was terribly cross, because I knew he was right.”
cold. 🙂
Pipeline would have sent him to the Vice President of Feewings & Butthurt Oversight.
whenever I act like a ‘jerk’ I give the excuse “i’m trying to be Steve Jobs”, they then tell me I’m 20 steps lower than his genius to get away with it, “And don’t forget to take the trash to the bin on your way out” (my wife, Dave’s reality distortion buster)
I just posted a picture of Wile E. Coyote on Facebook saying “Gad I’m SUCH a genius!” With the added comment – The minute you think such a thing, the next moment you’re flat on your face saying “My name is Mud!”
heh
seriously:
“cold”
reminds me when happy staffers wanted to organize a big party for Apple’s 30th anniversary with celebrities etc, and sent jobs an email about it, Jobs gave a one line reply, something like ‘No. We focus on the future not the past”
Steve Jobs created Apple, greatness, with his laser focus. Perhaps though he needed the ‘moderating influence’ of those around him, it was a balance. But without Jobs the balance seems out of kilter.
btw, perhaps that’s why Eddy wants to party so much nowadays, he missed so much under Jobs… !