There’s been a lot of conversation about Steve Jobs passing on the ex-NeXT email list (the former employees of NeXT Computer, Inc.). I shared the following perspective in response to Steve sometimes being a harsh person to deal with. I think that in some ways, this harsh background was part of my training ground for being an entrepreneur. Given that this perspective has been helpful for me, I repost this set of thoughts here to thank my teachers, whether they were on the martial arts mat, or in the office.
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I’d like to share a whole different perspective- maybe that will be useful.
In 20+ years of studying Japanese martial arts, I’ve had a handful of sensei’s. Sensei is an informal term of appreciation of “teacher” (in my translation and understanding). The way that I interpret “sensei” does not mean “guru”. In some of the training situations that I’ve been in, I’ve gotten physically hurt in the interaction (broken nose, broken foot, separated shoulder, ripped up wrist, and others over 20 years of practice). Why, if I was getting hurt, would I ever go back? Its because the training was yielding something deeper for me in my development and accomplishment. In fact, I feel lucky, for the one time that my training was called upon in real life on the street, I made it out ok… but that was probably because of the pounding of preparation that I had in all of that time on the mat.
The key item, though, is that there was respect. I can’t tell you that I “liked” my sensei’s…. but in the midst of the punishment of the intensity of the situation, there was always respect.
When I think of my time at NeXT, which has shaped my life in a major way, I think to this notion- that there was at some level a type of respect that was always present. In striving for a greater goal, this was present (both on the mat, and in this case at NeXT). Certainly, I was farther away from the fire being in the field as an SE for NeXT… (although I can tell you of a few customer visits that were not the most pleasant of experiences… I’ll never forget the time that we were demoing to the Minister of Education of Mexico and Steve walks into the room and drops a hand grenade….)
I guess to sum it up, the reason that I feel gratitude for the experience of working with all of y’all, even in the crappy shitty times was this mutual development, mutual growth experience. What brought “color” to my experience there was not that I liked the experience… but that pushing that I’ve only felt the likes of on the martial arts mat (mainly the Aikido mat) was meaningful because it was so developmental…. a heady experience getting to “change the world” for a kid straight out of college… and to believe that it was possible then, enables me in my work to this day to daily make that charge yet again in my present day work.
Looking forward to connecting with y’all, and raising a glass to remember Steve together,
Kevin