Heath Brownsworth

I absolutely refuse to write Steve Jobs obituary or predict the demise of Apple Computer. Nor do I intend to list out Mr. Job’s and Apple’s countless innovations and claim that I saw any of them coming. Had that been the case, I would not be writing this blog post. However, as I reflect on this week’s events on a scorching Southern California morning, I will share with you the moment that I learned the news. They are called ‘flash bulb’ memories. My first was in 10th grade Spanish class when, Mr. Fisher, our principal announced that the Space Shuttle Challenger had suffered a ‘catastrophic failure’. The sights, sounds and smells of that moment are as vivid today as they were 25 years ago. There have since been other flash bulb memories, the last of which occurred this past Wednesday afternoon, August 24th, 2011.

I was meeting with our Partners, Amazon Web Services, in Seattle, SEA22.5.790 to be exact. We were just finishing the last presentation of the day. I was taking notes in Evernote on my iPad (ironic). The CNN notification dialogue popped up: Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple. Others in the room, most of whom were also on iPads or MacBooks (Apple dominates, even in Seattle), were getting the exact same news. There was of course a sense of disbelief, but then the coolest thing happened. Everyone started sharing the lessons that they had learned from Steve Jobs. I won’t speak for others, but for me the lesson is this: all you have to do is build cool products that work. Profoundly simple, yet amazing complicated. The essence of Steve Jobs.

Heath-