amdavidson

Steve

posted on 2011-08-25 at 12:15 AM - amd.im/jdGu

During my time at Apple, I met Steve Jobs a single time.

It was during the development of the iPad 2 and I was going over some 3D scans of the aluminum housing. Our screens were splashed with colorful charts and graphs and we were discussing next actions when a hush came across the room, as rooms are wont to do when billionaire, visionary CEOs enter the room.

He peruses the room and wanders past our table noticing the colorful scans. "That looks like real engineering work. What are you guys working on?"

I clammed up, unable to process what was happening. Fortunately one of my coworkers was not a stammering buffoon and was able to tell him that we were working on the latest iPad 2 machining.

"I just got one of those. It's great. Keep up the good work", and with that he walked away.

It was just a couple sentences but it was greatly inspiring. Steve is known to be a harsh critic who pushes for perfection in his products. A compliment, however small was inordinately encouraging.

Before that point I had never spoken with Steve, and I suppose I still haven't. In some way though, I think that most of us there were working to appease these rumored demands from our esteemed executive officer. We all were pushing to get products out the door that would meet with his approval. I think that a great deal of that is ingrained in the culture, Steve wasn't calling us to tell us that our products needed to be better. Yet the perception was always that we needed to do better, that Steve would accept nothing less than perfection. To paraphrase John Gruber, this is Steve's greatest achievement.

I hope that culture persists. I hope that Tim can keep all the employees steeped in a desperate desire to constantly improve. If the company can keep that feeling alive. I think it'll do just fine.

Thanks for building a great company Steve. I hope it stays the way you're leaving it.