Ondrej Holzman About memories Brian Lam a Steven Wolfram we have already written about Steve Jobs. Now, however, we remember the co-founder of Apple once more. Walt Mossberg, a well-known American journalist and organizer of the D: All Things Digital conference, also has something to say.
Steve Jobs was a genius, his influence on the whole world was huge. He ranks alongside such giants as Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. He is a role model for many other leaders.
He did what a CEO is supposed to do: hire and inspire great people, lead them for the long term—not a short-term job—and often bet on uncertainty and take significant risks. He demanded the best quality from the products, above all he wanted to satisfy the customer as much as possible. And he knew how to sell his work, man, he really knew how.
As he liked to say, he lived at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts.
Of course, there was also the personal side of Steve Jobs, which I had the honor to see. During the 14 years he led Apple, I spent hours in conversation with him. Since I review products and am not a newspaper reporter interested in other matters, Steve was more comfortable talking to me and perhaps told me more than the other reporters.
Even after his death, I would not want to break the confidentiality of these conversations, however, there are a few stories that describe the kind of Steve Jobs I knew.
Phone calls
When Steve was first at Apple, I didn't know him yet. At that time I was not interested in technology. I only met him briefly once, when he wasn't working at Apple. However, during his return in 1997, he started calling me. He called my house every Sunday night, four or five weekends in a row. As an experienced journalist, I understood that he was trying to flatter me to get me back on his side, because the products that I used to praise, I have recently rather rejected.
The calls were increasing. It was becoming a marathon. The conversations lasted maybe an hour and a half, we talked about everything, including private things, and they showed me how big a scope this person has. One moment he was talking about an idea to revolutionize the digital world, the next he was talking about why Apple's current products are ugly or why this icon is so embarrassing.
After the second such phone call, my wife was upset that we were interrupting our weekend together. But I didn't mind.
Later he sometimes called to complain about some of my reviews. However, at that time most of his products were easily recommended to me. Maybe it was because, like him, I was targeting average, non-technical users. I already knew he was going to complain because every call he started: “Hello, Walt. I don't want to complain about today's article, but I have a few comments if I may." I mostly disagreed with his comments, but that was okay.
Introducing new products
Sometimes he would invite me to a private presentation before introducing a hot new product to the world. Maybe he did the same with other journalists. Together with several of his assistants, we gathered in a huge meeting room, and although no one else was there, he insisted on covering the new products with a cloth so that he could reveal them with his own passion and a twinkle in his eye. We usually spent hours discussing the present, the future, and current events in the business afterwards.
I still remember the day he showed me the first iPod. I was surprised that a computer company was getting into the music industry, but Steve explained without further details that he saw Apple not only as a computer company, but also wanted to make other digital products. It was the same with the iPhone, the iTunes Store, and later the iPad, for which he invited me to his home for a demonstration because he was too ill to go to his office.
Snapshots
As far as I know, the only technology conference that Steve Jobs regularly attended that was not under his patronage was our D: All Things Digital conference. We have repeatedly had impromptu interviews here. But we had one rule that really bothered him: we didn't allow images ("slides"), which were his main presentation tool.
Once, about an hour before his performance, I heard that he was preparing some slides backstage, although I had reminded him a week earlier that nothing like that was possible. I told two of his top assistants to tell him he couldn't use the pictures, but I was told I had to tell him myself. So I went backstage and I say that the pictures will not be there. It probably wouldn't be a surprise if he got mad at that point and left. He tried to reason with me, but when I insisted, he said "Okay" and went on stage without them and, as usual, was the most popular speaker.
Water in hell
At our fifth D conference, both Steve and his long-time rival, Bill Gates, surprisingly agreed to attend. It was supposed to be the first time they appeared on stage together, but the whole thing almost blew up.
Earlier that day, before Gates arrived, I had interviewed only Jobs and asked what it must be like to be a Windows developer when his iTunes is already installed on hundreds of millions of Windows computers.
He joked: "It's like giving a glass of water to someone in hell." When Gates heard about his statement, he was understandably a bit angry, and during the preparations he told Jobs: "So I guess I'm the representative of hell." However, Jobs just handed him a glass of cold water that he was holding in his hand. The tension was broken and the interview went very well, both of them behaved like statesmen. When it ended, the audience gave them a standing ovation, some even crying.
Optimistic
I don't know how Steve spoke to his team during Apple's difficult period in 1997 and 1998, when the company was on the verge of collapse and he had to ask the big competitor, Microsoft, for help. I could certainly show his temperament, which is documented by some stories that tell how difficult it was to come to an agreement with various partners and vendors.
But I can honestly say that in our conversations his tone was always full of optimism and confidence, both for Apple and for the entire digital revolution. Even when he told me about the difficulties of breaking into a music industry that wouldn't allow him to sell digital music, his tone was always patient, at least in my presence. Even though I was a journalist, it was remarkable to me.
However, when I criticized record companies or mobile operators, for example, he surprised me with his strong disapproval. He explained what the world is like from their point of view, how demanding their jobs are during the digital revolution and how they will get out of it.
Steve's qualities were evident when Apple opened its first brick-and-mortar store. It was in Washington, DC, near where I live. First, as a proud father of his first son, he introduced the store to journalists. I commented with certainty that there would only be a handful of such stores, and asked what Apple even knew about such a sale.
He looked at me like I was crazy and stated that there would be many more stores and that the company had spent a year fine-tuning every detail of the store. I poked him with the question of whether, despite his demanding duties as executive director, he personally approved such small details as the transparency of the glass or the color of the wood.
He said of course he did.
Prochazka
After undergoing a liver transplant and recovering at home in Palo Alto, Steve invited me to catch up on the events that had transpired during his absence. It ended up being a three-hour visit, during which we went for a walk in a nearby park, although I was very concerned about his health.
He explained to me that he walks every day, sets higher goals for himself every day, and that now he has set the neighboring park as his goal. As we were walking and talking, he suddenly stopped, not looking too well. I begged him to come home, that I didn't know first aid and was completely imagining the headline: "Helpless journalist leaves Steve Jobs to die on the sidewalk."
He just laughed, declined, and continued towards the park after a break. There we sat on a bench, discussed life, our families and our illnesses (I had a heart attack a few years before). He taught me how to stay healthy. And then we went back.
To my great relief, Steve Jobs did not die that day. But now he is truly gone, gone too young, and a loss to the whole world.
Source: AllThingsD.com
Ondra, I really like the article and I hope there will be many more great ones.
I can't help but think it's a compilation of short articles that have appeared several times... no added value.
Ondro, it's good, not everyone read those short articles, like Jemny. I liked it too. ;)
I agree with Jemny. It is a summary of already published articles, nothing new..
The same article already appeared about 14 days ago at a competitor, but that doesn't matter, not everyone reads everything and everywhere, so I approve the publication of the article.
The compilation of the previous article is not the same as the translation of Mossberg's article, which was published in the Wall Street Journal.