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Happy 60th Birthday, Steve Jobs. Wish I Could’ve Met You. - Technology Market - Nairaland

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Happy 60th Birthday, Steve Jobs. Wish I Could’ve Met You. by Nobody: 1:16pm On Feb 25, 2015
The Apple founder and former CEO would’ve been 60 today. Marking the occasion only reminds us of what we lost and the chance I missed.

There are already some teenagers who are only now starting to realize who Steve Jobs was
There are already some teenagers who are only now starting to realize who Steve Jobs was. He’s been gone for almost four years, but he remains a presence — a touchstone for gadget nerds and those who like to think differently.

The decisions he made when he founded Apple and then ran it again until mid-2011 resonate to this day. Even the newest products like the Apple Watch were, in part, imagined by Jobs.

My regret over my missed chance with Jobs reminds me of how I often wish I had gotten to meet one of my idols: Charlie Chaplin. He was still alive when I was born and died when I was 13. At the time, I hadn’t even developed a fascination with, arguably, the world’s first globally famous human being.

It wasn’t until my late teens that I “discovered” Chaplin and his remarkable achievements in the world of cinema. He defined film comedy and filmmaking for generations to come. The more I read and the more I watched his classic films, the more I wished I’d been more aware, paid more attention to him when he was alive and found a way to meet the great man — just once.

I had, I would say, one real opportunity to meet Jobs, but I didn’t act on it, not realizing just how truly limited those opportunities would be. Of course, I didn’t always recognize Jobs’ genius.

Jobs’ aura
Until I started attending Apple product launch events in the mid-2000s, I didn’t really get Steve Jobs. I had been using his products on and off since 1985 and was an early Mac SE30 devotee, but I had no feeling for Jobs back then. To be fair, I didn’t even know who Bill Gates was then, either.

When I joined PC Magazine in 1991, I switched to PCs and started to view Apple as a second-class citizen. Jobs was already years removed from Apple. We tracked NeXT but saw Jobs as more of an eccentric than an innovator.

However, when I finally saw him in person,

I couldn’t get over the electricity coming off this balding, rather bland-looking dude
I couldn’t get over the electricity coming off this balding, rather bland-looking dude. When he talked about products, you could not look away. He had a way of speaking so that you absorbed almost every word — certainly all the key ones he wanted you to.

One chance
With each subsequent event and Apple developers’ conference, I hoped for a brief meeting with Jobs. I’m not ashamed to admit that I like to be close to greatness. Shaking the hand of a powerful, influential, dynamic and/or genius individual is memorable. It will send little sparks of energy up through your arms. You will remember the moment. You will tell your children.

The closest I ever came, though, was having a greatly diminished Jobs shuffle by me and then hang in the corner of an Apple demo room right after one of his rousing product unveilings. I almost didn’t notice him at first: a gaunt figure standing in the corner, surrounded by handlers holding water bottles who were clearly seeking to protect and support him.

I wanted to approach, but thought better of it.

Another chance never came.

With Jobs’ death in October 2011, I found myself going back over past stories and accomplishments and, as I did with Chaplin decades earlier, reading his biography (Chaplin’s was an autobiography, Jobs’ was by Walter Isaacson). It all simply reinforced what I had come to realize over the last decade: Steve Jobs was an extraordinary individual, one of a kind. It would have been special to meet him, talk to him, know him even a little bit as his friends and associates did.

Today, I wonder what Apple would be like if, at 60, he was still at the helm. I suspect the company and products would not be much different. CEO Tim Cook, whom I have met more than once, is still, by and large, doing things the Apple way. Even so, if Jobs were still alive to enjoy this day there would be that tantalizing possibility that I could meet the fascinating and irascible man … just once.


source: http://gblweb.com/2015/02/25/happy-60th-birthday-steve-jobs-wish-i-couldve-met-you/

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