 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
Sage Advice From Apple's Pioneer
by Randy Barrett
Commencement speeches tend to be forgettable -- the final windy words graduates suffer before receiving a coveted diploma. But Stanford University graduates got a dose of unexpected straight dope June 12 from Apple CEO and college dropout Steve Jobs, who riveted the crowd with a simple message: Follow your instincts and do what you love.
Jobs recounted his brief stint at Reed College before dropping out for financial reasons and lack of focus. Rather than leave, Jobs stayed and sat in on classes he would not have taken otherwise in the hope that he would find his calling.
"It wasn't all romantic," he said. "I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the 5-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it."
A single calligraphy class changed the arc of Jobs' life, and computer history. "I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great," he said.
"None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me, and we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them."
Jobs recounted the rise of Apple and his firing at the hands of a hostile board. Initially devastated, Jobs later realized he was free to follow his creative and business muse once again.
"I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me," he said. "The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again."
So he went on to start NeXt and a company called Pixar. Pixar created "Toy Story," the first computer-animated movie, and Apple, ironically, bought NeXt. You know the rest.
"Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick," Jobs said. "Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle."
Open Source, And Open Road
Former Treasury Department Chief Information Officer Drew Ladner has joined the "open source" software company JBOSS as general manager of its new government group.
Ladner has opened an office for the company in Washington and is looking forward to rejoining the private sector. "I wanted to dive into an opportunity area that was innovative and had a highly disruptive business model," he said.
Freely available open-source "middleware," software that connects two otherwise separate applications, was it, he said. JBOSS gives its software away and then makes money through large support contracts. The company already has scored work with the Navy and National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
"Open source is not about free software, it's about a new software-services biz model," said Ladner, who spent 18 months at Treasury before leaving in mid-2004.
Ladner said he enjoyed his time in government and achieved specific goals at Treasury, including building an e-commerce engine, improving security and codifying an information technology governance plan for the agency. "It was pretty demanding but a lot of fun," he said.
When he is not marketing software services to the government, Ladner enjoys ripping through the beautiful Virginia countryside on his Ducati Monster motorcycle.
Washington Firm Sprouts Manhattan Tentacles
The Washington-based Venable law firm has announced that it will absorb Heard & O'Toole, a 12-attorney practice based in New York City.
In the "eat what you kill" world of corporate law, Venable was clearly impressed with the client list of the principals, Stephen Heard and Edmund O'Toole. Venable management described the firm's case load as "outsized."
"Over the course of his illustrious career, Steve Heard has built a tremendous practice," Venable partner Benjamin Civiletti said in a statement. "We're pleased to be teaming with someone of his caliber."
Heard & O'Toole specializes in securities, product liability, insurance, environmental and other civil litigation, including cases for Japanese and Canadian clients. The firm also handles white-collar criminal defense work and investigations, and it currently represents clients in four investigations by the New York state attorney general's office.
Venable intends to build its New York practice in the next few years to include bankruptcy, marketing and intellectual property. The firm currently represents Yahoo, Verizon Communications and Viacom, among other companies.
Another Rung Up the Ladder
The Information Technology Industry Association (ITI) has promoted Josh Ackil and Ann Rollins to vice president positions.
Ackil is now VP for government relations, and Rollins is VP for trade and technology policy. "Both Ann and Josh have exemplified the excellence that ITI strives to achieve," CEO Rhett Dawson said in a statement. "In addition to achieving results for our member companies, they have both demonstrated their commitment to the organization by recruiting new members, which is vital to ITI's existence and growth."
In other news, Russell Hanser has joined the staff of Federal Communications Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy as acting legal adviser for wireline competition issues. Pete Belvin will now focus on media issues.
Quote of the Week
"I don't want to lie any more. I don't want to feel guilty any more. So let me tell you flat out: There are too many blogs I like and too many people I like to make 'keeping up' [reading them] a reasonable expectation, any more than you should expect me to keep up with Pokemon characters or Bollywood movies."
* David Weinberger, in a post to his Joho Web log. Weinberger is a marketing guru, author and radio commentator.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
