I worked at Apple from April of 1999 through July of 2011. I’ve never written publicly about that experience, but I wanted to share a little moment that will always be with me, even though it’s not of any great significance.
After leaving my job at Apple, I dropped in for lunch one day. I was exiting the main building, Infinite Loop One, and just ahead of me was Steve Jobs, walking with the usual spring in his step that never seemed to go away even as he started looking more frail. Bumping into Steve was a surprisingly common occurrence for such a large company as Apple.
Steve was heading towards a car parked next to the curb with its door open, waiting for him. The car was idling. A family was standing near the Apple sign outside the building, a common site for people to take photos on their pilgrimages to Apple.
Talking about Steve Jobs, I read this story back when he passed away and was recently inspired to find it again. I love the tone of the story: the family that doesn’t even recognise the CEO of the company they are admiring; the fact that Steve takes so much care to get the photo right, even though he’s probably very busy; and the fact that the family’s default photography device is the iPhone. I think it sums up Steve Jobs and Apple very well and (relating to the video posted earlier) in a way it’s pretty firm proof that Steve really did change the world.
