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The Jobs Legacy

Walt Mossberg: Jobs will be remembered like Ford, Edison

Marketplace Staff Oct 6, 2011
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The Jobs Legacy

Walt Mossberg: Jobs will be remembered like Ford, Edison

Marketplace Staff Oct 6, 2011
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Steve Chiotakis: People around the globe are paying tribute to the man who led Apple to be one of the most successful companies in the world. Steve Jobs died yesterday at the age of 56 and news of his death has people reflecting on his contributions.

Walt Mossberg is personal technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal. He’s written a lot about Jobs over the years, and he’s with us now from suburban Washington. Walt, good morning.

Walt Mossberg: Good morning, Steve.

Chiotakis: Aside from the obvious — what are we talking about years from now as far as Steve Jobs is concerned?

Mossberg: I think his work and his philosophy will be studied for decades and decades and decades. Some years ago, when he did a joint interview with Bill Gates at a conference that I run, the video of that interview was used and continues to be used in business schools.

And you know, I think he is a historic figure, and just like people study Ford or Edison, they’ll be studying Steve Jobs.

Chiotakis: That was the “All Things D” conference, right?

Mossberg: Right.

Chiotakis: We hear a lot about his charisma, and his personality — he had a firely personality is what some people would describe. Did you get that sense from him?

Mossberg: You know, he could be very soft in speaking, and funny and gentle. He could also be tough and rude and blunt. And he used both of those personae to advantage, whenever one was to advantage whenever one was called for, and not the other.

Chiotakis: He would call you at home and discuss some of the columns you’ve written about Apple, right?

Mossberg: Well, he would call me at home and discuss different things — but some of the calls were him wanting to make what he called “comments” about some of the columns. He wasn’t the only CEO that called me to complain, but he had a particular way of doing it. I always knew he was calling to complain and not calling for some other reason, because he would start the call by saying, “Walt, I’m not calling to complain.” And that basically meant he was calling to complain.

Chiotakis: Walt Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal. Walt, thank you so much.

Mossberg: I’m happy to have been able to do it.

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