The Weirdest Part of Remembering Steve Jobs

I still remember where I was when I heard Steve Jobs had died. I likely read the news via Twitter on my iPhone 4, but it felt like a gut punch. I never met the man, never spoke to him, and at the time wasn’t really in the tech journalism world.

It felt like losing someone I knew personally. I know it’s strange, but using my 12-inch PowerBook G4 the previous five years, it felt like Jobs had personally given me the tool that would change the trajectory of my life.

I was a Compaq Presario kid, then Dell. But when I saw a PowerBook for the first time in college I knew I had to have one. I didn’t know what it did, or how I would use it, but I needed it. I still regret selling it to this day, but hope to reclaim it by some miracle. The box still sits in a closet:

I taught myself iMovie, GarageBand, then bought Final Cut Express HD to do some “serious" video editing. Fast forward to today and I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say my life would look very different had I not gotten my first Mac in 2005.

Maybe this is only true of founder CEOs, but it felt like Steve Jobs made my PowerBook. I know that’s an oversimplification, and there are thousands of people responsible for the hardware, software, manufacturing, etc. But still, it felt like Jobs and his creation opened the door to many opportunities I hadn’t previously known.

I can think of a few other brands where the founding CEO feels intertwined with what they make. Airbnb feels very much like Brian Chesky’s creation, and Facebook feels inextricably tied to Zuckerberg. But it will be interesting to see if John Ternus, who is supposedly getting very hands-on with Apple’s product roadmap, comes a little closer to that same feeling.

I am very thankful I stumbled upon that PowerBook when I did, it’s taken me to places I never thought possible. Thanks, Steve.