On losing a personal hero
It’s difficult to describe the rainbow of emotion that comes up at a time like this.
The news talking heads, the preponderance of Apple centric sites, the Internet in general is awash in send ups to Steve Jobs, who left this life yesterday. Many are poignant, touching, thoughtful. The aggregate information rush is — and will be for some time — overwhelming.
For me, Steve’s story — and the story of Steve’s Apple — are close to home. I never met the man personally, but his legendary vision, and the way he passionately believed in the work that he was doing, in what Apple was doing, that is to say, a belief that one could do amazing positive things that change the world — and be successful doing it — have been a model of how to approach work.
It was a couple of years after Steve came back to Apple, that I took the measured but daring step of quitting my full-time support job to go out on my own as a freelance Apple consultant — to embrace as my primary professional pursuit the notion of helping individuals and small businesses use this amazing technology. I was in my home office when I digested the news about the original iMac introduction, the original iPod introduction, and other cornerstone Steve Jobs moments. Creative Goose evolved not so much on the coat tails of Jobs, but as a water carrier on the ground for Steve’s visions of how technology can be harnessed.
I will, along with much of the tech world, miss Steve Jobs. His legacy of a thriving Apple Inc., his example on how to lead, his validation of “the crazy ones,” his embodiment of the “think different” principle, will live on. Through the Creative Goose consultancy, and through my own life choices in matters of work and technology, I will continue to carry Jobs’ water, his message, his vision, as best I can.
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