Here's my Steve Jobs story. What's yours?

In the mid-1980s I knew a young woman who had a lot going for her. She was an Ivy League graduate and had a good job in California as a journalist, writing feature articles on the entertainment industry for a popular magazine. One day I ran into her at a gathering at friend's house and she mentioned that something exciting was about to happen. A friend had set her up with a unique opportunity. She was going to have a blind date with Steve Jobs.

Jobs was already a legendary personality, although nowhere near what he would later become. But partly because his career had not reached its true high points yet, he was something of an enigma. He was well-known, but what he actually did wasn't clear. (It never would be completely clear.) But to actually socialize with him was a chance not to be missed. 

Several months passed before I saw my friend again. Of course, I could not restrain myself from asking about her date with Steve. I didn't just ask about it, I demanded to know the details. And she was quite willing to tell me. In fact, she hoped that I would be able to give her some insight on the experience. 

"It started off well enough," she said. "We met at his office, and then we were going to dinner. He introduced himself and we spoke for a moment about the mutual friend who had arranged the date. Then he referred to my work. He said, 'Since we've never met, it seemed like a good way to get ready for our meeting would be to look at the magazine where I gather you work. So I got the current issue and read it cover to cover.'"

My friend said that was very thoughtful of him. She told Jobs that she was eager to hear his impression of the magazine.

At that point he looked her straight in the eye and said, "Well, that magazine is the biggest piece of garbage I've ever seen in my life. Since I'm sure you're an intelligent woman, I can't understand how you can have possibly anything to do with something like that. If that's your choice, I'm very pessimistic about any connection happening between us. But since you're here, we might as well have dinner."

The evening ended early. 

The thing that struck me about this story was not so much Jobs' apparent rudeness. Maybe he would have seen it as just "being honest." But what I noticed was how Jobs' comment to my friend was very similar to what he said to John Scully, the Pepsi executive whom Jobs recruited to Apple.

According to several sources, Jobs asked Scully, "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your career, or do you want to change the world?"

My takeaway from this? For Jobs, one's work and one's life were inseparable. To devalue one was to devalue the other, which to him was incomprehensible and even offensive. 

Just for fun, think about how you would describe your work (that is, your life) to Steve Jobs. What exactly would you say that very blunt and impatient man who saw himself as changing the world? And what do you imagine he would have said in response? 

There's going to be a new surge of interest in Jobs on the fourth anniversary of his death. A new and apparently very negative biopic is about to be released. Here are some recent articles:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3258888/The-new-Steve-Jobs-biopic-travesty-says-ex-Cold-Ruthless-Obsessive-No-FAR-worse-denied-father-child-ROTTEN-CORE.html

http://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-co-founders-allies-take-aim-at-hollywood-over-steve-jobs-1444000308