I have never met Steve Jobs.  I’ve read a lot of stories about him though – some good, some bad, some insane and hard to believe.  And now that Steve Jobs is gone forever, I’ll never know how he really was as a person.

So how do you get to know Steve Jobs?  We can learn from the experiences of others.  So let’s look at some first-hand encounters of meeting Steve Jobs, recently shared on Q&A service Quora.

A crappy car

Tim Smith recounts how his Sunbeam Alpine sports car led him to the Jobs’ driveway.  His girlfriend at the time lived in the same neighborhood as the Jobs.  After attending a party at his girlfriend’s house, he was making his way home when the Sunbeam brokedown right in front of the Jobs’ driveway.  No one was home and his fears of being accused of being a stalker was diminished – until 15 minutes later two cars arrived – the Jobs have arrived!

No one paid attention to him but as he was packing his stuff, he heard someone asked if the car was Italian or British.  He answered British, not letting the person he was talking to know that he knows who they are.  Smith was talking to none other than Laurene, Steve’s wife, who offered him a beer and called someone who could fix his car.  Weirdly enough, a posh couple arrived in a black car, and the man in the tuxedo looked at his car.

By then, Steve made his way to the driveway, asking what was going on.  The posh mechanic asked someone to crank up the car but since Smith was engaged in a conversation with Laurene, Steve got behind the wheel and tried to crank it up.  In the end, the car didn’t start up, he used the Jobs’ phone to call AAA, thanked them numerous times, and went on his way.  After a few days, he dropped a sixer on the Jobs’ door with a note to say thank you once again.

I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you

Michael Chang was an intern at Apple in 2010 when the following took place.  It’s not unusual for people working at Apple to see Steve walking around the premises. Some would act nonchalantly while others dreaded his presence, full of fear for their widely recognized boss.

For Chang, his encounter happened in an elevator.  He was already in the elevator when Steve walked in before the door closed.  He was wearing an intern badge, which Steve noticed immediately and asked him what he was working on.  During the orientation, interns were warned not to talk about what they were working on.  So there he was, contemplating on whether to tell Steve what he was working on and risk getting in trouble for not following instructions, or just tell the Apple CEO that he was not allowed to discuss that.

He chose the latter and stated, “Sorry, but I’m not supposed to tell you.” Steve flashed a smile, chuckled a little, and stepped out of the elevator.

Fine line between crazy and genius

While working at NeXT, Tomas Higbey was in the break room with two of his colleagues, minding their business, when Steve walked in and started making a bagel.  Everything was normal until Steve asked, “Who is the most powerful person in the world?”  Higbey answered Nelson Mandela to which Steve replied, “NO!…you are all wrong…the most powerful person in the world is the story teller.”

At this point, Higbey was thinking that Jobs was crazy, when the Apple founder went on to explain “The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come and Disney has a monopoly on the storyteller business. You know what? I am tired of that bullshit, I am going to be the next storyteller.”  After that, Steve walked out with his bagel.

An idiot in the mirror

Right before Steve returned to Apple, there were rumors that Larry Ellison,  co-founder and chief executive of Oracle, wanted to take over the company.  Others were against this but some were more afraid of Steve’s return, as they saw it as the end of the company.  Many Apple watchers were hopeful that then-CEO Gil Amelio’s turnaround plan would work.

At the time, Steve was at Pixar and Michell Smith wrote an email to him imploring “don’t come back to Apple, you’ll ruin it.”

Michell received a reply from Steve stating, “You may be right. But if I succeed, remember to look in the mirror and call yourself an asshole for me.”

Food for thought

What do you do when you see a famous person with his family walk in a busy restaurant operated by non-native people speaking poor English?  Just sit down and watch the events unfold before your eyes.

That’s exactly what Anurag Wadehra did when the Jobs family entered the Saravana Bhavan, a South Indian vegetarian restaurant in Sunnyvale.  Wadehra was with his wife and daughter having dinner and all they could do was admire how patiently Steve and his family waited to be served.  The Jobs got a crappy table, encountered painstakingly slow service, but he did not throw a fit, call for attention or pull the “Do you know who I am?” card.  After the meal, no one came to their table to give them their check, so Steve did the next best thing and just left money on the table and left the restaurant.

So what do these stories tell you about Steve?  He is a person who can be nutty at times verging on full-blown crazy, can be a pompous ass when he wants to be, humble, and have a good sense of humor.  As for his negative attributes, Steve may not be a saint, he throws a fit here and there, but hey, who doesn’t?  We all have our days.

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