Just over 16 years ago, Steve Jobs was interviewed for Bob Cringely’s TV series “Triumph of the Nerds.”
Only parts of the interview were used on TV and the hour-long interview has been lost ever since — until now.
Recently, the interview footage was found in the director’s garage, has made into a movie: “Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview.”
When Steve Jobs died on Oct. 5, an overwhelming amount of responses from around the globe showed the phenomenal impact this one man’s life had on the world.
Yet, many people did not know how Jobs created and grew Apple into the powerhouse it is today.
Throughout the interview, Jobs talks in depth about every step he took to get involved in technology.
He started with telling a story about when he was 12-years-old and contacted the CEO of Hewlett-Packard personally and landed a summer job there that same year.
Jobs explained step-by-step and year-by-year how he and his co-founder, Steve Wozniak, created their first computers and how he did whatever it took to make Apple as successful as possible.
Apple’s history is not perfect, far from it, and Jobs honest and passionate interview reveals a great deal of insight into the history of a company that has changed the world forever.
As the documentary progresses Job’s demeanor slowly diminishes and his true personality comes forward.
Jobs came off as a truly brilliant being.
Some of his explanations were given through very technical jargon, but Jobs almost always gave a metaphor to better explain himself—even this added to his character.
In addition to talking about the business, he spoke about some of the personal sides of his endeavors, like becoming rich.
“I was worth over $1 million when I was 23, and over $10 million when I was 24 and over $100 million when I was 25,” Jobs said in the interview. “It wasn’t that important because I never did it for the money.”
In 1995, when this interview was conducted, it had been 10 years since Jobs was forced to leave Apple, and he had since started another computer company called NeXT.
Even though it had been years since he worked for Apple, he still spoke about the company with such love and devotion, along with a deep sadness at the catastrophic state the company was in at the time.
Jobs also talked about the future of the company and of technological advancements, like the internet.
At this point in time, he was very worried about Apple and did not believe there was a way out of the downward spiral the company was in.
Jobs believed that when he left Apple, they were 10 years ahead of any other computing company technologically, but in the 10 years that he was not at the company, they only advanced about 25 percent.
In that time, other computing companies, like Microsoft, had caught up and exceeded Apple.
He spoke about the internet like a true visionary.
While it was still only a concept at this time, he believed it would someday become the center of communication and business.
Clearly, he was right.
This movie shows Jobs in a light that most people have never seen him in. It is very interesting to hear him explain the company that has effected so many people.
“Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview” will be showing at The Magnolia Theatre Wednesday and Thursday at 7:15 p.m. and 9 p.m.