What Steve Was

I got my first Mac back in 2004. It was the first Mac Mini. I was a PC user until then. The experience of buying a Mac, opening the packaging, setting it up and saying hello was an over-the-top out-of-this-world sort of experience. For the first time in my life, I had been treated royally. And above all, I couldn’t understand why.

Steve took out the notion of classes between people. He treated each and every customer equally. Whether it’s the high-end Mac Pro or an entry level Mac Mini, Apple made you feel you deserved to be treated better. And I believe Steve was behind this.

The entreprenual spirit behind Steve Jobs was always present. He wasn’t around to build a company so he could sell it. He didn’t build Apple with an exit strategy in mind. He built it because he loved creating wonderful things, and so he did.

I still remember having the first iPhone in hand just weeks after launch and while I knew I was holding something much bigger in my hand, I was amazed at how less it could do at the time. It was a product that said no to a big pile of features. And what it did, it did well. He shipped something that wasn’t ready, but he did ship so he could improve.

It amazes me how Steve changed the world. Steve will surely be missed. I’m honored to have lived in this era. The world sees few independent and creative thinkers like him. And I believe it will be long before we see another.

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