Ordinary people share about our chance meetings with Steve Jobs

Publish date 12 November 2013
Ordinary people share about our chance meetings with Steve Jobs image

Everyone "knows" Steve Jobs, or at least thinks so - in the sense that everyone has seen him during the legendary iPhone and iPad performances. But what was Jobs like when he wasn't on stage, when he didn't change the story with Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, Johnny Ive and Tim Cook?
On the social network Quora, users share their casual encounters with him. Check out some of these cases selected by Business Insider: Mitchell Smith told Jobs he was going to ruin Apple. Before his return to Apple, it was obvious that the company was in trouble. Larry Ellison had mentioned a hostile acquisition of the company, but some of those who followed it thought that the rescue plan of the then CEO Jill Amilio might succeed. I wrote a fiery email to Steve Jobs at Pixar, asking him to find something else to do. I wrote to him, "Please don't go back to Apple, you'll ruin the company." Then he returned the answer with words he will never forget: "You may be right. But if I succeed, remember to look in the mirror and call yourself an ass instead of me."
Jobs's childhood friend pretended not to know him.
Jack Heringer was friends with Steve Jobs as a child in the early 1960s, but the two split up when they went to different schools. In 1976, they met in a store: He showed up, recognized me, and asked, "Aren't you Jack Heringer from school?" In that millisecond, the thing in my life happened that I regret the most. I replied, "Yes, I am ... and WHO ARE YOU?" I pretended not to remember him at all. I can't forgive myself since then!
Jobs is dating a woman who smoked at dinner, and he didn't particularly like it. William Mathis and five others met for dinner with Jobs in the early 1980s in New York: Dinner was over, and while we waited for dessert, Anne lit a cigarette (it was the early 1980s in New York after all), holding the cigarette aside and he blew the smoke away from the other people we were at the table. Steve, who was sitting next to Anne, showed no sign of bothering him. He just kept talking as briskly as he had all night. At one point, Anne left her smoking cigarette in an ashtray on the other side of the table across from Steve. He didn't look at the cigarette, but he must have seen him leave it, because without even looking at Anne or the cigarette, and without deviating from the subject he was talking about, he reached over, took the cigarette, and dropped it into hers. glass of water. I can still see the astonished looks of everyone except Steve, who continued to give lectures to the others.

The day Jobs argued at the box office of Whole Foods. Roy Pereira encounters Jobs while shopping for groceries for home: I came across Jobs at the Whole Foods store in Palo Alto. He was in front of me in line and paying at the cash register. It was the express box, and he wore his preserved polo. The story is from the beginning of the new century. A very rich, smart man was involved in this situation, arguing with the cashier about the exact change for his purchase. He insisted on receiving another quarter of a dollar change. The argument dragged on for a few minutes, holding his tail, so everyone behind him, myself included, got nervous.
Jobs admired Excel in 1985. Randall Edwards met with Jobs at an IT conference: I had to go back to work, so I left the hotel and went to another hotel nearby where my car was parked. I pushed the elevator button, the door opened and in front of me was ... Steve Jobs! I told him how much I liked his presentation and shook his hand. He asked me what I was doing and I told him I was an IT consultant. He told me about the amazing software that Microsoft was working on, called "Excel". He told me that it would be phenomenal and that I should look into it. I told him I would. I remember thinking, "Wow, what an asshole," but ... In the mid-1990s, after Jobs was kicked out of Apple and created NeXT, Ramin Firozie had an appointment with him: He came in half an hour late, he put his feet on the table and asked me what I had for him. I introduced myself and mentioned that several of the engineers were former Apple employees ... For the next half hour, he drew a tirade about Apple's arrogance, the quality of their products, and everything nasty you can think of. He said, "There are a lot of Apple people among you." I tried to step in and say we weren't connected to Apple (except that the demo was running on a Mac Powerbook) but it just didn't stop. I remember thinking, "Wow, what an asshole," and if he kept going, he kept going. … After a while he returned to the hall. I was sitting down. He stood in front of the whiteboard and began to write things down. I don't know how much time has passed, but he went on to outline exactly how the product can be launched, the strategy for its launch, how it should be positioned, what other parts will be needed and the features that need to be removed or added. It was the most amazing, useful, accurate and fun product management presentation I've ever seen. He had fully understood the product, the place, and what it could be used for.
In 2007, Jobs visited a competing electronics store near Apple. Mark Young remembers Jobs entering the Helio store in 2007, located in Palo Alto near the Apple store. Jobs had peeked into the store once, but the staff did not recognize him. Two weeks later, the same manager was in the store showing a demo of the amazing Helio smartphone to potential customers when it was interrupted by someone at the door. It was the same guy wearing a black polo and jeans. "You guys still don't get it, do you?" shouted the same guy from the store entrance. Then, before the manager could answer, he had disappeared again. The manager was obviously angry and told his clients, "Who is this guy and who the hell is he?" "This is the founder of Apple," customers replied. This guy's car broke down in front of Jobs' house. Tim Smith assumed that his car was in front of Jobs' family home, but tried to keep his composure: Steve Jobs got out of the house, sat in the car, and tried to start it while Smith's child was sitting in the back seat. Without success. ... The car didn't start .... Steve said something like "rotten garbage" and then got out of the car and went back into the house. And he was right about the car.

Matt McCoy received a call from Steve Jobs when his computer broke. Matt McCoy was not happy with Apple's customer service when his MacBook broke, so he wrote several emails to Jobs: The next day I received a call from Palo Alto, McCoy wrote. Me: "Hello?" Opposite: "Hi, Matt. I'm Steve Jobs. I just wanted to tell you I got your email and we'll do anything to recover your missing hard drive. I said, 'Hey ... thank you!' they transfer you to my assistant and he will take over from here. We will take care of you. Wait. "Then the call was transferred to a man named" Tim. "I'm still not sure what Tim's last name was, and could it have been Tim Cook?
Jobs meets a man who hires people for Sun Microsystems. Bill Lee: I worked on my own in 1988 and had recommended a number of Steve candidates to NeXT Computer, which he later hired. I had previously worked at Sun Microsystems, where I also hired people to work for the company. In September of that year, Steve invited me to his office in Palo Alto for an informal interview. He was 45 minutes late. As soon as we entered his office and closed the door, he turned and said, "You hired people for the Sun, and the Sun hires damn people." "Well," I replied, "you hired those who didn't want Sun." Then he smiled broadly and exclaimed, "Shower!"
A man discovered that Jobs had had an email since 1989. Philip Remaker recalls: When I was studying at the University of Pennsylvania in 1989, some people in the NeXT sales department demonstrated the NeXT Cube. I noticed that NeXT's emails on their business cards were in the form firstname_nextname@next.com. I jokingly sent an email to Steve_Jobs@next.com, asking him if he read his own mail and expressing his admiration as a fan. Unexpectedly, he received an email: Yes, I do have an Internet address. Please help me by not spreading this fact indiscriminately .... Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you liked our little machine. All the best, Steve Jobs.
Jobs wears repair tools like everyone else. Andrew Gerber-Duffy remembers: They were at the Sony store in the mall. I can't remember what I bought. As I waited at the cash register, I saw Steve Jobs standing in front of me. He was wearing his preserved black polo and jeans. He was holding a projector. "I'd like you to fix that," he told the apparently bored cashier. To my surprise, the cashier didn't even know who the man standing in front of him was. "Okay," he replied, "in whose name should I write it down?" "Write it down on Steve," he said.
Jobs explains why he improved the food in Apple's dining room. Gavin Cook has worked for one of Apple's biggest customers. At an official meeting, he asked, "Hi Steve, how has the change in your dining room affected the company's culture?" ... that's what Jobs said ... "It had nothing to do with the company's culture! The things we were fed were sloppy!" "Almost no one ate there, and when employees left the company's campus, they left for an hour and a half or two, so there was less work. When they go somewhere to a restaurant and discuss the projects they work on, people hear different things. " A couple asks Jobs to resolve a dispute over how the Macintosh got its name. Bill Shepard's wife has long claimed that the name came from a student name contest: We contacted Steve and asked him if he could resolve this family dispute. Without the slightest sign of joking, he replied, "If I get one of your children." We offered him the dog, but he was not interested, after which my wife told him the story of the race. Steve said that Apple has a large marketing department that deals with things like choosing names for their computers, and that it was ridiculous to think that they would leave something like that to fifth graders.

Source: profit.bg