When Steve Jobs passed away earlier this year, some believed that he would be a strong contender for TIME’s Person of the Year. However, no one has ever gained that title posthumously, and that streak now continues this year. Still, Jobs was given a “fond farewell” in the magazine by friend John Lasseter. The Pixar Chief Creative Officer, who met Jobs in the 1980s, remembers the Apple and Pixar co-founder “almost as a brother.” Jump ahead for some more quotes from the brief piece.
Talking about Steve Jobs’ approach with the creation of the iPhone, Lasseter writes:
I was fortunate enough to go down to Apple many times and see the early development of his products. One time Steve said, “You know, everybody has a cell phone, but I don’t know one person who likes their cell phone. I want to make a phone that people love.” That was the foundation of what became the iPhone.
On a more personal note, Lasseter notes that when Jobs was planning on returning to Apple, the tech genius was respectful of his friend’s opinion:
…Apple bought NeXT, and Steve sat me down at Pixar and asked my permission to go back to Apple. He didn’t want to do it without our blessing. He said he wanted to go back because the world would be a better place with Apple in it. That was incredibly touching to me, and it showed that Steve cared about people. He knew that his products and technology could improve people’s lives.
It warms the heart knowing that Steve cared deeply about Pixar and similar to his approach with Apple, the quality of the animation studio’s output was ever-important to him.
Steve Jobs died over two months ago, but I still get the chills thinking about it. Simply put, Pixar would not be what it is today without him. He believed in John Lasseter and the other employees at the then-fledgling studio, which went on to become a critical darling and a box-office cash magnet.
Read John Lasseter’s full farewell to Steve Jobs here.
Source: TIME
