Take a closer look

Thank you for signing up to receive these notes. I'm Leslie Berlin, founding Executive Director of the Steve Jobs Archive and a historian of Silicon Valley.

We have so much to tell you about, but I want to start by sharing one of my favorite images from our collection. It's Steve in 1984, spotting a new Macintosh in the wild.

Steve's friend Jean Pigozzi, who calls himself a "serious amateur photographer," took the image and told me the story behind it. Although Jean did not work in tech, Steve invited him along to a software conference in New Orleans. One evening after the event, as they were walking down O'Keefe Avenue looking for dinner, Steve—a notoriously fast walker—pulled to a halt. Someone in a store window was working on a Macintosh.

He had to take a closer look. How was this person using the Mac? Steve is so curious, so lasered in on trying to understand, that he is bent nearly double.

As I zoom in on the image nearly 40 years later, I'm struck by its 1980s details: the woman's perm and overstated shoulder pads; the wired telephone on the wall; the way calculators get top billing in the store name ("Calculator and Computer Center"). And look, tucked in the corner at the far right of the frame—that's a pile of computer boxes and an advertising poster from Apple's chief rival at the time, IBM.

This is Steve at a pivotal moment. He's about to turn 29. Apple, which he co-founded and chairs, has recently become one of the youngest companies ever to reach the Fortune 500. The Macintosh has been met with rave reviews. He is on top of the world.

And he has no idea that it's all about to change.

No idea that while the Mac will revolutionize computing, it will also struggle for sales; no clue that he is months away from being fired by Apple, or that he will spend the next 11 years helping launch Pixar and NeXT; no hint that he will eventually return to Apple and find it on the brink of bankruptcy, then work for the rest of his life to turn it into the most valuable company in the world.

We see this in Steve's future, but all he knew in this fleeting moment on a New Orleans street was that somebody was actually using this product—one that he had poured his heart and soul into. And that was enough to stop him in his tracks.

Until next time,

Leslie