During the iPhone 4 leak, I somehow, through no real grift of my own, found myself in possession of Steve Job's phone number. It went directly to his desk phone.
My first thought was, "Steve Jobs has a desk phone?"
It seemed like the kind of phone number you hang on to, so I wrote it down on the back of a business card and threw it in a desk drawer. But I never called.
I mean, what would I say to Steve Jobs? Just picking up the phone and saying hello to me would probably cost him a few thousand dollars' worth of time.
Would I thank him for his work? Could I come up with a question that would make him think I was smart? Did that even matter?
Would I ask for a job?
I never could come up with a good reason to bother him.
Tonight, I'm looking at that phone number on that card. I'm going to call it and—if it's real and if I can summon the nerve—I'm going to leave Steve a message.
"Thanks for never taking any shit from anyone. Thanks for doing so many things right. Thanks for putting so many ideas in my head, thanks for showing me that I can have a family and still make my mark on the world. Thanks for inspiring so many people who have made the world more interesting.
"Thanks for being such an ornery, inspiring son of a bitch. Thanks for showing that's the way to do it."