Livicated to Uncle Steve #BriefBoredom
Just got home from the gym and heard it in passing while listening to ESPN radio. I wondered why they were talking about innovators a lot and I finally put two and two together.
That’s when I went to the Apple website and saw t in black and white. I’m currently at a loss for words and I can’t really think of what else to say so I’ll just ramble on here ad wonder what’s next.
I’m currently perched in front of four Apple devices right now. That right there should tell you enough of how much impact the man had in the world. He made something that would ave been completely foreign to others and made it simple. Sure, the tech savvy will scoff and say that Apple’s are for dummies and that anyone can run it.
BUT! That was the whole idea.
Day after day at work, I see ladies and gentlemen of advanced age and skill set put together photo albums, take pictures with digital cameras, email their kids and grandkids, look up things on their iPad and use their iPhone with relative ease.
Now, this might not seem groundbreaking or advanced for you, tech elite, but for those that never had a chance to embrace technology, they’re on the cutting edge and they like it.
Steve Jobs made the impossible a little bit easier to reach. And empowered an entire generation to think different.
Even to the iPhone haters that reveled in the iPhone 4S announcement… think about this:
As you grasp your Android, how much harder did the Google engineers work because of iPhone 1? How much harder did they push themselves to make their interface easier to use? How much harder did they push themselves to innovate?
All those things were possible because Steve Jobs took the idea of smartphones to a mainstream market. Note that I didn’t say he INVENTED the smartphone, but he did make the idea more palatable to the America public.
Think about where you were at in 2006. I had an LG flip phone that barely lasted a day on a full charge and all it did was make phone calls. No text. No email. Nothing.
12 months later: I had an iPhone. I checked my email. I went on Facebook. I updated my blog and I was able to instant message a friend in Seattle to ask what she wanted from the Apple employee store.
Which leads me to my Uncle Steve moment.
It was 2008 and I was send to Cupertino for training. I had the opportunity to meet a number of people from all over the company and we got to learn about how to successfully facilitate a learning environment. I was eating lunch with a couple folks at Caffe Macs (Apple’s on-campus cafeteria) and we were clearing the table and heading back to the training center. As we were wondering where to put our trays, I mentioned out loud that I was gonna ask the next person I see. I turn around and who do I see but Uncle Steve, buying soup. Obviously freaked out, I asked the next person I saw haha.
That day made me understand one thing: Uncle Steve just wanted to be a regular guy. He OWNED the company (and in turn, the cafeteria), but he still stood in line to pay for soup like everyone else. Kind of a neat moment and something to put into perspective.
So, as I compose this blog post ON a Mac, IN Safari, and listen to ESPN Radio through an app in my iPhone, I can only imagine what else lies in store for us. When truly innovative and monumental people leave this world, I can only hope that 1) they knew Christ and that their place in eternity was set and 2) we can pick up the pieces and move on.
The world truly became a different place thanks to you, Uncle Steve. Thanks for taking a chance on a kinda weird kid from Ewa Beach that went into his interview wearing a really ugly sweater vest and used the top of my 12” Powerbook as a clipboard to fill out paperwork.
I’m still kind of numb about this, but in the end, we should all heed your words about connecting the dots. You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only see them when looking back. The faith that you have that one day, the dots will connect, is the force that keeps you going and trusting you heart.
Rest In Power, Steve Jobs.
