The Real Mona Lisa: Why I Loved Steve Jobs

I’m reading a book about da Vinci that I picked up at a museum in Rome right now. Timely, because until Wednesday of this week I was convinced Leonardo had been reincarnated. His second life name was Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs was my undisputed business hero.

I loved Steve Jobs.

I love Apple.

I have loved Apple since I first got an SE30. I loved them when I got a Newton that didn’t work. I loved them when I got a Macintosh Duo to help run my company on day 1 in 1994. It was so cool. It was a laptop in a desktop. With two hard drives. When you pulled the laptop out, you had all your files. It received faxes. It sent faxes. It let me see my faxes on a laptop screen from a hotel room in Calgary. In 1994! Or even if I was in Edmonton. In 1994! Heck, it worked in Winnipeg. Halifax. Florida. In 1994!

I love Steve Jobs. He was adopted. So am I.

In 56 years, Steve Jobs reinvented the computer industry. Twice. Reinvented the music business. Created the app industry. Reinvented the movie business with Pixar. Reinvented the mobile phone business. Reinvented the art of product design. Blew up the art of marketing. Made black turtlenecks hipper than a white Jimmy Dean tee.

All one guy.

One guy who was once exorcised from his own company. Remember John Sculley? Of course you don’t. He was the half-baked CEO who kicked Jobs out of Apple.

Why not just kick Santa out of the North Pole, the Queen out of the Palace, or take Lombardi’s name off the Super Bowl trophy?!

John Sculley once married his boss’ daughter at Pepsi, just to get ahead, and then bragged about it in a book after he divorced her.

I loved Steve Jobs. I can’t believe he was only ten years older than me.

I am going for a run now with my Walkman blaring some tunes by Adele, Katy Perry, and finally the Beatles! It will be a tribute run to Steve Jobs. I loved Steve Jobs.

I call my iPod my Walkman. I know Steve Jobs didn’t invent the Walkman.

I loved Steve Jobs.

Oh – I forgot about the Nike+, the mouse, GUI, touch screens. All Apple.

Rumours are that Steve Jobs wasn’t a nice person. In his mid-twenties, with a reported net worth of $100 million, he fought an ex-girlfriend over a few thousand a month for child support.

But he was my business hero. That doesn’t forgive him. But it does qualify my adoration.

Steve Jobs inspired me. I loved Apple when you hated Apple. I loved Apple when Microsoft bailed it out with $150 million. Now, it is the second most valuable company in the world, even after all you said it would go down. And I love that.

Not because I’m right, but because it proves when you’re ‘in the weeds’ (all you former waiters and waitresses know what that means), you can fight your way out.

A good lesson for all businesses, students, families, countries, politicians.

I loved Steve Jobs because he inspired me. Helped me. Entertained me.
Reassured me. Motivated me. Empowered me. Enabled me. Enriched me. Scared me.

Now he’s left me.