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Unless your name is Jenny (from the football cheer squad), I\u2019m not sure what you were doing after school in junior high. My guess is, whatever it was, it wasn\u2019t at Hewlett-Packard\u2019s corporate offices. If it was, you were probably waiting for your over-worked father to get out of a lecture he was giving to a gaggle of young technology bucks. So, while you were sitting outside on your skateboard, chewing Big League and rewinding your Walkman to the latest single from Vanilla Ice, in the back of your dad\u2019s lecture sat Steve.
Steve Jobs has become more of a household name than Betty Crocker. His innovation rivals that of that other \u201capple\u201d guy (Newton) and his ideas have been in more pockets than the Swiss Army. It is not just a clever idea, that was implemented near-perfectly, that led to the success of the largest publicly traded company in the world. It was passion, vision, and a reckless abandonment for the expected that created what can only be explained as \u201cThe Jobs market.\u201d
Anyone who is anyone has Apple\u2019s iPod, let alone has heard of it. If you haven\u2019t, please put down your Discman and walk outside. It\u2019s a product that not only created, but also capitalized on technology that filled a gap consumers had yet to realize. They say that with some people, you give them an inch and they take a mile. With Steve, he found a niche and created a market.
As much as we\u2019d like to think that technology of this nature would have eventually come along, I shiver at the thought of how long it would have actually taken. I mean, they gave Kanye a week and all he was able to muster up was \u201c808s & Heartbreak.\u201d I digress. Steve Jobs saw it first, acted out and gave us the mindset to think (and create) outside of the expected.
Ahem…Cue Apple\u2019s eerie, Matrix-esque 1980\u2019s Macintosh commercial:
Steve created a Jobs market. With his passing, we respectfully look back on all that he did. Be cautious, however. In order to honor a man whose one relentless vision was forward thinking, it\u2019s our responsibility to take the baton and use what he taught us to create ideas that the junior high versions of ourselves could have only imagined.
Through his vision, Steve gave the world so much more than just new technology. Steve handed us a setting. A frame of mind. A utensil for creativity. A paintbrush. It\u2019s because of his innovation, his vision, and his seeming obsession with forward movement that we, here at Gravity Jack, are able to spend each day pursuing a passion undeniably influenced by Steve Jobs.
So here\u2019s to you, Steve. Wait…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ok, now we\u2019re set.
Here\u2019s to you, Steve.
Thank you for your vision, your drive, and your undeniable sense of style that seemed to say, \u201cYeah, you thought turtlenecks were out. You also thought the Motorola RAZR was the future.\u201d Touch\u00e9, good friend. We\u2019re, truly, forever indebted to you.
-Jack<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"