“Hi. My Name Is Steve Jobs”
“Hi. My name is Steve Jobs and I run a little computer company called Apple.”
Apple? What kind of a name is “Apple” for a computer company, Crockett wondered.
“This was in the mid 70s as I recall,” he says. “I’d recently designed and overseen the construction of my GPI Publications in Northern California’s Cupertino where we created such music magazines as ‘Guitar Player,’ ‘Keyboard’ and later ‘Drums and Drumming,’ ‘Bass Player’ and ‘Frets.’ Mr. Jobs asked if I had any spare office space.
“I need to get a room where a few of us can get away without being bothered every five minutes,” he explained.
Crockett says, “I did have a spare room at the end of our building, showed it to him and he said it was perfect. Cool. Some extra income, too. All I’d have to do is draft a rental agreement and get a deposit. A rental agreement? Something in writing? You bet; you know how flaky computer companies were.”
Three times Jobs lost the agreement, and “I told him he couldn’t move a chair in until I had a signed one in my hand,” Crockett recalls. “A couple of weeks went by without a peep. One day I was holding a meeting with all my key editors when the door to my office burst open and in rushed this tall, skinny, very intense Steve Jobs.
“Where’s another copy? I’ll sign it right now.” Pretty much interrupting the nine-person staff meeting.
“Steve,” Crockett said, rather shocked. “Make an appointment with my secretary.”
“I haven’t time. We’ll do it now!” said Jobs.
“No, we won’t,” and Crockett took Jobs by the shoulders, turned him toward the door and marched him out to the secretary’s desk, he remembers. “Make an appointment.”
Jobs did, and the pair ultimately worked everything out. Jobs, Steve Wozniak and another man now had their first satellite office. And Crockett had a renter.
“Two things strike me now that Steve’s gone and I’m running EditorsEdit.com,” Crockett says. “One, I’m probably the only guy who ever ushered Steve Jobs, ultimately the Steve Jobs, out of his office, and, Two, I should have taken Apple stock instead of the hundred bucks a month rent.”
Crockett founder and lead editor of Editors Edit may be reached at www.editorsedit.com.
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