Five years ago, I met Steve Jobs. It was just after Premiere Magazine named him and John Lasseter the most powerful men in Hollywood. I spotted them after they addressed the company at an annual meeting, and on a lark, I asked them if I could get a picture with them. They both graciously agreed.

For someone that I only met once, Steve Jobs has had a pretty big impact on my life.

In 1986, he acquired then-unknown computer graphics company, Pixar, and personally bankrolled it for years. Why? Because he believed in the dreams of Pixar’s founders when no one else did, that it would someday be possible to use computers to bring a story to life. Without him, I’m not sure if the industry I work in, let alone the company I work for, would even exist today.

With his return to Apple, he brought forth the iMac — a line of computers so easy to use that my mom feels completely comfortable using one to email her friends and video chat with my baby.

And then in 2007, with the advent of the iPhone, I suddenly had a new hobby that brought me … well, if not fame and fortune, new friends and some extra spending money. It also gave me something to start blogging about. Sure, I blog more about baby stuff and short films now, but it all started with a little dice rolling app for the iPhone.

Heck, even in the past year, part of my day job was to help support a certain iPad project at work. What all of these things have in common is that they all happened because one man had the faith and vision to support the teams to bring them into the world.

So for all the good that you have bought to my life, thank you Steve Jobs.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 at 10:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.