Archive for August, 2011

It’s no secret that Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple’s chief executive yesterday. I’d completely forgotten that he’d been on medical leave since mid-January. I sincerely hope that he’s in both good health and spirits. I was just reading Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth Revisited yesterday while on the bus and read where Gerber quoted Theodore Levitt in that, “Creativity thinks up new things. Innovation does new new things.” Apple was and always has been creative, but it wasn’t until Jobs took the helm again in 1997 that the company became the business dictionary definition of innovative. Four years later, in 2001, the very first iPod was announced among a growing sea of other MP3 players. I had my own MP3 player at the time and had long-since been a Windows PC guy myself, but it wasn’t until seeing and holding one of these iPods in person when I knew that this product was going to revolutionize the technology and business world. I bought an iPod for myself and shortly after I bought one for my wife. Shortly after that, I purchased shares of common stock in Apple, Inc., and I paid a little over $20 each back then.

In 2004, and after having been encouraged to wait for a couple years, my wife bought me a 14″ iBook. I’ve been an exclusive Mac user ever since (worth noting that my family’s very first computer was an Apple IIGS Woz Edition, circa 1984). There are 4 Apple computers in our house, two iPhones, a handful of iPods and a pleasant looking stock portfolio, with AAPL shining at the top of that list.

It wasn’t until late last night, after putting our daughter to bed that I hopped on Facebook and saw where people were talking about Steve Jobs resigning as CEO. CNN.com confirmed what I was hoping to be a sick rumor. While my jaw didn’t necessarily hit the floor, a flood of thoughts came rushing through my head. My first inclination was to log in to my Ameritrade account and put in a sale order to cash in all of our Apple shares. That thought dissipated as quickly as it came on. I’m no investment guru, but have stood by a simple mantra that I heard years ago when I first purchased my own shares in a company: Invest in companies that you know and love. Just because Steve Jobs is no longer going to be the face of Apple (although I’m sure he still will be, unofficially, for years yet to come), I’m sure the Board will keep him on as Chairman and as an employee. While Tim Cook might not be the same pitch man as Jobs, he’s done one hell of a job on the operations front as far as Apple’s retail stores and supply for product launches. Cook has Jobs’ blessing, and that has to be worth it’s weight in platinum iPads. My two cents: let Cook sustain the business as it is today. Let Jonathan Ives run keynotes and product launches. As a consumer, I firmly believe that Ives can keep Apple’s face sexy, creative and innovative. Watching Cook deliver a keynote or product launch is up there, for me, like watching a presentation on podiatry (no offense, podiatric professionals).

In the aforementioned CNN.com article, Mike McGuire, analyst at Gartner said, “One of the most important things that Steve Jobs did in Apple 2.0 is rebuilding the culture.” And other articles I’ve since read talk to the culture of Apple, the foundation of which Jobs laid, which will hopefully carry on for years to come. It reminds me of another chapter (or two) in The E-Myth Revisited, where a common paraphrased theme is: your business is not to sell a product or a services. It’s to sell your business. Love or hate Apple, you know that they’re an innovative company the delivers consistent products and results. For me, Apple has recreated and embodied the business ethos of consistency, quality, reliability, innovation and sexy. I “bought” Apple as a company when I saw the iPod in person. I have proudly been an “Apple Fan Boy” ever since. And I will continue to be a die-hard Apple fan with or without Steve Jobs, so long as the company gives me reason to be.

I feel I have absolutely no reason to sell a single share of Apple stock. In fact, I just might drive over to the local Apple retail store this evening and buy something, just to show some love and support.

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I do the majority of the work for my day job in Microsoft Excel. One thing that chaps my ass since upgrading to OS X 10.7 Lion is that Apple has assumed that I no longer need those helpful little arrows that I once used to horizontally scroll through my Excel spreadsheets. I need to move left or right, one cell at a time in Excel. I’ve been left with the horizontal scroll bar, which allows me to quickly move left or right by many columns, but I need to scroll once cell (with one click of the arrow) at a time. Where, o’ where did you go little horizontal scroll arrows in Excel?

If I go into Preferences > View, I can check/uncheck “Show horizontal scroll bar”, but that’s not what I need. I need my arrows back!! Does anyone know how I can get the horizontal scroll arrows in Microsoft Excel in Lion?

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