Many in the tech world are remembering Steve Jobs, who passed away one year ago. GigaOM wrote a post with reasons to remember Steve Jobs while Mashable covered that “Remembering Steve Jobs’ Death Ignites Twitter Philanthropy”.
I remember Steve Jobs not because of the reasons the tech sites do, not because I am an Apple Fan girl (I am tech agnostic – I love all technology!), but because Steve Jobs gave me a gift that keeps on giving. Here is my tribute to Steve Jobs:
Tribute to Steve Jobs-
I remember primary school was a challenging experience for me (because I wanted to just start working), but I kept moving forward and gained important skills. Now as a mother I see a different side of the way people learn and realize that not everyone can go on the same path when it comes to formal learning. I have a child who is very bright but an out of the box thinker.
I spent many years frustrated on how such a bright kid could resist formal learning. Steve Job’s background per Wikipedia:
“Jobs’s youth was riddled with frustrations over formal schooling. At Monta Loma Elementary school in Mountain View, he was a prankster whose fourth-grade teacher needed to bribe him to study.
…Jobs then attended Cupertino Junior High and Homestead High School in Cupertino, California.At Homestead, Jobs became friends with Bill Fernandez, a neighbor who shared the same interests in electronics. Fernandez introduced Jobs to another, older computer whiz kid, Steve Wozniak (also known as “Woz”). In 1969 Woz started building a little computer board with Fernandez that they named “The Cream Soda Computer”, which they showed to Jobs; he seemed really interested.
…Following high school graduation in 1972, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Reed was an expensive college which Paul and Clara could ill afford. They were spending much of their life savings on their son’s higher education. Jobs dropped out of college after six months and spent the next 18 months dropping in on creative classes, including a course on calligraphy. He continued auditing classes at Reed while sleeping on the floor in friends’ dorm rooms, returning Coke bottles for food money, and getting weekly free meals at the local Hare Krishna temple. Jobs later said, “If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts”
My tribute to Steve Jobs is to highlight him as a great example to show other parents that out of the box thinkers may not follow traditional educational paths, but they can still reach success in their own way. Parents can support the exceptional talent of their little out of the box thinkers by helping them find their educational path. And while that path may be very challenging for all involved – it is worth the journey.
This is also to explain why I (and my dear husband) have been very busy lately. We are helping one of our children through their journey. Even though there are some days where the obstacles seem too big to overcome, I always think back to Steve Jobs. Which makes me smile and know we have our own little game changer in the works.
This is also a warning for the bullies that make fun of quirky smart kids. I want to tell them to get a life and fair warning: Hey bully – that quirky smart kid you are making fun of may be the next Steve Jobs, inventing devices or businesses that you will be standing in line for.
See WBTW’s tribute to Steve Jobs around his death roughly a year ago.
Beth Blecherman started her career in application development then Senior Manager, Computer Process Integrity, for Deloitte. After senior management she took on family management blogging as her career 2.0. She is a Co-Founder of the Silicon Valley Moms Group, a collaborative of mom blogs across the country, and their first international blog Canada Moms Blog.
Blecherman founded her personal blog, TechMamas.com, as a platform to discuss technology and gadgets for families. Beth vlogs with other female tech bloggers at Gadgetspin.com. She also consults with companies on blogger outreach and social media strategies and speaks at conferences on parenting, social media and technology. TechMamas.com was chosen as one of the Nielson Power Mom 50 influencers. On Twitter as @TechMama she was chosen as one of the 25 Influential Moms to Follow on Twitter and BizTechDay’s 25 Influential Business Women in the Bay Area. Beth is on the Board of Advisors for MommyTech at CES.
