Thank you Steve Jobs

This may be the first time I have ever felt sad for a corporation because they lost one of their leaders. But this is different; it is personal. Steve Jobs passed away today, October 6, 2011. I feel like I lost a life long friend because I have.

Steve and I started our relationship in 1979. You see we were about the same age, a year apart. He was building computers and I was ing them. OK, we were eons apart but I felt the connection. I bought an Apple II because … I was never sure but I knew I needed one. It was cool. It was the future.

It had 64Kb of RAM, an external floppy disc drive and I had to a cheap black and white monitor separately. There were no programs, um I mean apps, and I had to write my own if I wanted to see anything. So using BASIC, I wrote my own version of Quicken.

I was an Electrical Engineering student at the University of Memphis and word spread to the local newspaper, the Memphis Commercial Appeal. A reporter came to my house to interview me about this strange thing I had bought.

I waxed on and on about it would change the world, the impact it would have on people. The reporter just looked at me. But you see, I believed. I believed in Steve and Woz.

I went to work for HP and Apple became the enemy. Actually, Apple was ignored. With 1% marketshare, it was a non factor in the personal computer world so like billions of others, I became immersed in the Windows world. But I always read, watched and wanted Apple. Steve got my heart. He captured my imagination like no other company.

30 years later, I retired from HP and began to transform our home from a Windows shop to an Apple one. Not because Windows and PCs were bad, Apple was just better. Today we have 9 Apple products from iPads to iPhone to iMac to iEverything. Yup; hook, line and sinker. The cool aid tastes good.

I once interviewed at Apple. I had returned from 5 years with HP in Europe and was trying to reintegrate into the US scene. Apple had a position back in Europe, where we loved to live and I applied. It was for a position two levels below Steve.

It only took a few minutes to see that I would be personally directed by Steve even though I would not report to him. Every question I asked or point I raised was referred to Steve. It was clear who ran Apple to this applicant. I didn’t get the job but my admiration soared. A hands-on CEO who cared about everything … everything.

Today, I write this on an Apple product. I read about Steve’s passing on an Apple product. Sitting here in Europe on my way to an Alzheimer’s conference, I see a lot of Apple products.

Henry Ford changed the way people moved, Steve Jobs changed the world.

I will miss you Steve but you were smart enough to make sure I won’t miss Apple.