“Many who have met Steve Jobs describe their encounters, however brief or inconsequential, as magical–life altering, even,” Austin Carr reports for FastCompany. “A brush with Jobs can be overwhelming: as inspiring as a handshake from Neil Armstrong, as intimidating as a confrontation with Mike Tyson, as intoxicating as a tour from Willy Wonka. ‘So I just met Steve Jobs,’ recalled one New Yorker last year. ‘All I could muster is, ‘I love Apple.””
“A similar sentiment poured out across the web this week, as news of Jobs’s retirement made the rounds,” Carr reports. “On Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, Facebook, fans and colleagues alike described some of their most memorable moments with Apple’s chief executive and visionary. [Here are], a collection of the better anecdotes out there, along with some stories sent to us directly, that show just how influential Jobs has been.”
Read them all in the full article – recommended – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Liran Drabski” for the heads up.]
There are many articles about Steve out there at the moment…
I’ve been reading them constantly and I keep telling myself to get back to what I need to get done today. But reading these reminds me of the last 20 years of my life, things I’ve seen and done, and what an inspiration Steve Jobs has been to me.
So maybe this is what I need to get done today…
THANKS STEVE!
i used to really think steve jobs was an ahole because of some of the comments he would make to people. As i have read more about him over the years ive started to see him in a different light and have realized that he isn’t an ahole but a man of vision who simply does not have time to sugar coat what he is on his mind.
My real realization of this came one day at work after debating with a senior manager in a room full of people. After the meeting a co-worker said to me “man you really chewed that guy up, i’d say you were a real dick if what you had said was not 100% right”.
i replied by saying “hey we don’t have time to feed dumb ideas that are going to slow us down. His plan was sh*t.”
i sat down at my computer and somehow ended up on a website reading a short story about steve jobs ripping some guy a new one at a meeting and it clicked. I totally understood the man for the first time and have enjoyed reading about him ever since.
He isn’t an ahole to me any longer , just another guy who does not have time for dumb ideas. I get it.
Reminds me of an old southern gospel song, “I Saw The Light.”
I met Steve Jobs at an Apple event for Apple education dealers in 1997. They fed us lunch out back of the main building under tents and Mr. Jobs was the principle speaker. He talked about wonderful products in the pipeline for education (the original iMac, in fact) and told the 30 or so of us we’d make lots of money. We got to do a limited tour of the campus and of course meet many of the then education marketing team.
We did make money but of course eventually, it was too much money from Apple’s perspective and in just a few years, Apple cut off the traditional education dealerships. But things always change and I frequently tell my college students – the technology never stops.
Mr. Jobs went around to each of us that day and individually shook our hand and asked how our companies were doing and what did we need from Apple in terms of support from their education marketing areas. He seemed very concerned that we be successful. I think I mumbled something about needing a dedicated help desk area for educators. I don’t think that actually happened.
Still, it was nice to meet him in a close encounter and I was impressed – so much so that I purchased a lot of Apple stock. Today, that has made me much more money than anything I ever did as an Apple education dealer.
Jobs being Jobs, be sure that the lunch you were given was prepared the way he thought was appropriate.
It is funny, but in later years Steven mentioned more than once that he had to change people who made the food maker in the campus (your event was not in the campus, but you get the idea). He thought that was important thing. I bet no other CEO ever thought or will even think of such things as important.
Sorry, but even Timothy Cook is not replacement for Jobs. Steven is truly unique, unparalleled. The helpless medicine can not give us Jobs for like another thirty years of productive life. Epic failure of medicine.
That said, there are doubts that anyone, besides Jobs, could head Apple better than Cook.
I am a huge Steve Jobs fan and have been a supporter of Apple for thirty years. But I am also a surgeon who knows that Jobs waited almost a year from the time he was diagnosed to the time he had surgery to remove his islet cell tumor from his pancreas; he tried alternative therapies instead.
If he had undergone the surgery initially he most likely would not be in the condition he is in now.
i have to say, i don’t get the point of your post. while most (not all) people are looking at the courage and focus and energy it took to go back to a company he founded, got kicked out of, and rebuild it to the leading tech company in the world, you seem to be saying……”since i am a doctor, i know (from what i have read) that his approach was not correct. if you want to “be right” then that’s your choice. but what’s the point? really? what’s the point?
i have a few acquaintances who chose alternative therapies to cancers and with varying degrees of success; some cured, some in slight remission, some not helped. he made his choices and he is a most responsible man.
what is your point? sadly it seems to be “right” in your own mind, but for what purpose.
i see i’m on a rant but when some xxxxxxx speaks up at a celebration with a comment having nothing to do with the celebration, it makes me cringe, until i think jobs himself would say, you make your choices, i make mine.
Whoah dude, chill out and read (better) first, he is simply replying to Derrs statement that Jobs condition was the result of “epic failure of medicine”. Sajboy only responds to that statement from his own perspective and expertise.
What’s wrong with that? Posters can’t respond to statements from other posters anymore?
jeez……..
Thank you. Very well put. Besides, who knows who this guy is? A doctor? Yeah sure. Witch doctor maybe.
“Waiting for almost a year” is tabloid-like gossip which was published by “respectable” publication.
Jobs himself told the story: “last year” (from 2005, when he said it, meaning 2004) he was diagnosed with cancer and initially said that there will be only like two months of life left. Then medics quickly returned with more analysis data and said it treated with surgery. And in August of 2004 Jobs had surgery.
Nothing to do with waiting for almost year — this is totally made up story that make no any sense.
uh,no. You are incorrect. Steve Jobs was diagnosed in October 2003 and waited until July 31, 2004 to have his Whipple surgery (removing part of his pancreas). If you are going to berate someone ( making stupid comments like “tabloid-like gossip” do some homework. And yes I am a surgeon who knows what he is talking about
The whole idea of “October 2003” timing is tabloid-like gossip nonsense that never had confirmation and that was directly denied by Jobs himself.
And I am not berating anyone, besides “jounalists” which speculated on Jobs’ health for years to spur both clicks, but even more so share-price movement (so-called “bears”).
Also, the fact that this eight month wait was never confirmed has nothing to do with whether you are surgeon or not, or with your level of expertise. It is just about malicious gossip that was made-up on very specific time (if you consider the date of that article) for goal of influencing of markets.
Again, the name calling about the tabloids. Why don’t you click on the link below and see where Steve Jobs waited 10 months before undergoing surgery.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/02/news/companies/elkind_jobs.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008030510
Yes, this is exactly the place this gossip was made up. Directly denied by Jobs years before, and nonsensical either way.
Here’s a different perspective.
What if Steve knew his health wan’t going to get better? Therefor everything he does is compressed, he has to get good products out, bring Apple to the top of the market. Ultimately make his dream products reality before it’s too late.
In theory, as a healthy person he should live 40 more years, 20 to 30 of it working at Apple.
What drives a man, any man, is mostly a mystery. However maybe there is no way possible to reproduce the kind of man which Steve is, because he knows he’s living on borrowed time. Steve is more than the sum of all his parts, and then he’s driven on top of that.
You can’t make someone into this, it’s a natural occurrence and as bright as Steve is, he saw it coming and instead of languish about it, he did the only thing he could and worked as hard as possible, one, to extend his life as long as possible, and two, get the iPad and any new life changing product out as soon as possible.
I am not saying this out of disrespect, however I am trying to understand what makes and drives him.
There are some incredible stories in that article. I just love his attention to detail – absolutely incredible. His passion for perfection is what should drive every CEO or person with any authority.
His mantra is simple – do your very best. For too long people get bogged down in the complexities and over-complicate everything until they forget what they are working for. Most CEOs are doing their job for one thing – make profit. Whenever I read a story about Steve, it always seems to me like he reverts almost child like to the simplicities of everything – something most people just can’t do.
With Steve, he does his job to make awesome products that people want to use. Profits are just a happy side-effect. If only other companies could see that this is the correct way to drive innovation and the human race forward.
Thank you Steve for everything you have done.
I also despise it when people reply “it’s not quite as simple as that.” Usually politicians say this in response to a direct, simple question such as “why is tax so complicated, why not just tax people 10% of whatever they earn, across the board?”
Usually, things are very simple. It’s only when you strip out the crap you see this to be true. In the case of my example, tax is complicated for a reason – it’s so the rich can stay rich and the poor can stay in ignorance, obfuscated by regulation and unnecessary rules.
There is a reason why things are complicated; nothing is as simple as that. Your “10% flat tax” example is as good as any out there, and it is very easy to explain (objectively and rationally) why it is a very bad idea.
This is neither a time, nor a place, to debate tax code, though, so I’ll leave that discussion for some other time.
Predrag, thank you for totally proving my point.