A short YouTube monologue by Larry Weidel recounting a personal encounter with Steve Jobs on the sun deck at Aspen Mountain. Weidel describes buying and engraving a batch of iPods as Christmas gifts (mentions ~240 megabytes storage and 5th-generation iPods that had come out in October) and approaching Jobs to say thanks; Jobs responded appreciatively. The piece uses this anecdote to urge viewers to offer sincere thanks and positive reinforcement to others and ends with a call-to-action to share stories and subscribe.
Questions this video answers
iPods (fifth generation).
About 240 megabytes.
He says they "come out in October."
"December 205" (as spoken in transcript).
One December, I was at the top, I walked into the sun deck top of Aspen Mountain, went in for lunch and lo and behold, who was there but big Steve Jobs. He was there with his family, probably extended family, about 12 of them, plus or minus about 12. They were getting a little holiday trip in there. And so what jumped out at me, I immediately thought about the fact that I just bought a bunch, couple dozen of the new ipods. Very cool looking new iPods, about 240 megabytes of storage, put video on them, fifth generation, they'd come out in October, this was December 205. And I just bought the Christmas gifts in advance and had them all wrapped up and I had them engraved. It was the first time, I think it was the first year you could get them engraved because they had that shiny aluminum back or silvery looking shiny thing, get their names engraved. That was going to make it special. And I, they were so cool. I knew everybody's going to like them. Except of course my mom never figured out how to use it, but she got one anyway. So, anyway, so I see Steve and I go, hey. Introduced himself, I'm Larry and thanks, he said. I told him the story, told him how impressed I was with him and that it solved my gift giving problem for the year. Really appreciated it. Now of course I, I didn't know he was at a critical point in his life. A year and a half ago he'd had his, one of his first surgeries. He looked at the picture of the health. To me, his wife was a little bit suspicious. But they settled down once they realized it. Just wanted to chat him up and compliment him on great product they put out there. And so we sat and we talked for a few minutes. But you could really see smile on his face, relaxed. It's kind of like you became an instant. Now, of course they're not going to invite me to come spend the afternoon skiing with them, but it's like you kind of became instantly okay and somebody worth relaxing around and talking to for a few minutes. Why? Simply because I went out of the way and it was a spontaneous thing. You know, you do have that, that fleeting second where you say maybe, maybe I shouldn't bother them. Maybe he's here with his family, doesn't want to be. Shut up. And if you've got something positive to say to them, you don't want to be, oh, you're the greatest. You know that type of stupidity. But if there's something great that they did, people love positive reinforcement. It's hard to do Great things. Hard to make a positive, hard to come up with a good product or service. And when you, when you do one, you know, over the years, Apple, they weren't that many years away from removed from bankruptcy where he had to come back and save the company. Now they were putting out these incredible things. I think he had a little role in that. So just one human to another saying thanks. Way to go, man. Appreciate it. And this made a direct hit on him and you could tell it made his day. Folks, you can take Thanksgiving, you can take Christmas. It doesn't cost anything. And you can make a difference in other people's lives all year long by taking the time to say thanks. If you have to go out of your way, don't come up with some excuse not to say it, say it. That ain't not going to come again. Everyone, no matter how much of a big shot they are, appreciates it. You can put a positive impact into their day. And even someone as famous as Steve, see, Steve's no longer with us. The chance to do that's gone. But while he was here, I let him know I appreciated what he had done. Folks, take that time. It's a way you can add a little something positive to other people, no matter how big they are. But you know what? It makes you feel awfully good too, to be able to do that for another human being. Take the time to say thanks. If you got some stories, you've been through some, you got some examples along that line, share them with the group. That's what the comment thing is for. And come over and see us on Widel on Winning and take a look at our other material we have on Winning in you're interested. And also feel free to subscribe to these videos if you haven't already. Sa.
