I had no intention of writing a piece in honor of Jobs.  A lot of people I have spoken to over the last 24 hours have been really effected by his death, but I didn’t have a strong initial reaction to it.  My response was, “that is too bad, he seemed like such a good guy”.

Upon further reflection, I have realized that he has had a profound effect on my life.  I never met the man, can’t say I knew much about him, couldn’t tell you how his products really work, can’t program a computer and don’t have an iPhone.  The only aspect of Steve Jobs I can write about it what I know and how he has changed my life.

CarFreeBrad.com has been made possible by Steve Jobs and apple.  I had been contemplating a blog for a long time before I actually started CarFreeBrad.com.  I have years of composition books filled with writing that can attest to the fact that I wanted to write on a regular basis.  From the first time I saw Doogie Howser M.D. in the opening scene with him writing in his electronic journal, I wanted to do that.  I wanted to turn on my computer everyday and write about the first things that came to my head and let it flow.

For years, that vision was buried deep in my life under school, sports, work, and the future.  When I finally started to write everyday, the vision was still buried beneath a thick layer of technical complications.  I knew a blog was the outlet that would be perfect to achieve my vision but I had no idea how to make it a reality.  I have the technical skills and ability to figure it out, but didn’t have the time or the patience to dedicate to it.  I wanted to turn on my computer and write.  Not program, format and edit layouts before even getting to the writing.  I was frustrated and on the verge of letting this vision fall by the wayside.

Then I got my first Mac!  It’s a MacBook and it opened up a whole new world to me including iWeb. iWeb made it possible for someone like me to start this blog, get it up, running and published in almost no time at all.  Within a few days of discovering iWeb, CarFreeBrad.com was up and I could finally turn on my computer each day and just write.

Eventually I did shift CarFreeBrad.com to WordPress but it was my experience with my Mac and iWeb that made it possible for me to shift to and use WordPress.  For me, that is Steve Jobs legacy.  He took technology and seemed to ask “what can this do to help people really do things?”  He has made the creative power of computing accessible to the millions/billions of people just like me who have plenty to say but don’t have the ability to navigate the tech side for a variety of reasons.  Be it video, websites or blogs he has brought creative expression in the digital age back to the people by allowing content to drive the engine not technical knowhow.

No matter how good or bad my content may be, there are others who will change the world with their content that has been made possible by the vision of this man and for that I’m forever grateful.