Thanks for everything, Steve

Update: We published this article several weeks ago when Steve Jobs stepped down from his day-to-day position at Apple. And today, so many of us here at Intuit, and especially the Apple team, were saddened to hear about his death. I thought I’d repost this article with my thoughts about Steve’s contribution to our world. I’d love to hear from you in the Comments area. I was reminded to day of one of my favorite quotes from Steve: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” So I wish that for you and all your creative adventures.

If you’d like to send thoughts and memories to the folks at Apple, they’ve created an email address: rememberingsteve@apple.com

Here are some links to articles from SFGate.com you might be interested in. Personally, I get a little choked up seeing the early pictures of Steve and Woz.

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Hi everyone,

I’m still heads down on a project, so it’s been quiet here on Little Square. But with the huge announcement from Apple yesterday, I wanted to take a moment and see what you think about Steve Jobs leaving as CEO. Love him or not, I think we can all agree it’s the end of an era.

You bought QuickBooks for Mac because you want to use your Mac for your business, and like you, I’m a huge Apple fan. That’s one of the reasons the last three years of working on the QuickBooks for Mac team has be the highlight of my career. When I joined this team, I was like the Bee Girl who found her people in the Blind Melon video! (Oh dear, am I showing my age with that?)

Living here in the Bay Area, I’ve seen Steve walking down the street barefoot in downtown Palo Alto and out biking with his family. He’s not just the leader of a company whose products I love. He’s also a part of my community, my neighbor. I was terribly sorry to hear about his ill health, and wish him all the luck in the world in his post-Apple CEO life.

There’s been a huge amount of press over his announcement yesterday. I personally saw my Facebook and Twitter feeds explode with thoughts, well wishes, and opinions on what this means for Apple. Here at Intuit, we’ve been sharing with each other some of our favorite Steve-isms, and I wanted to share them with you as well.

“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your  thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once  you get there, you can move mountains.”

“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of  course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. The design of the Mac  wasn’t what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was  how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have  to really grok [understand] what it’s all about. It takes a  passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up,  not just quickly swallow it. Most people don’t take the time to do that.”

From my perspective, under Steve Jobs’ leadership, Apple has created a technology  that has had huge impact on our lives. Even if someone doesn’t use a Mac, they may have an iPhone or a phone with iPhone-influenced features. Everyone’s kids seem to have some version of iPod on their birthday wish list. And look at Windows…how many Apple-like features have emerged over their last few OS versions?

So I’m wondering what your thoughts are about Apple during the Steve Jobs years and the years to come. What do you hope to see happen? What are your thoughts about his influence? I’d love to hear from you.

– Shelly, Managing Editor, Little Square

P.S. I’ll be posting links to articles and other media I think are interesting on Twitter and Facebook. If you have anything you’d like me to forward to other QuickBooks for Mac folks, just let me know.