I always was inspired by Steve Jobs.
In a way, that's a bit weird. I'm not much of a technology guy. I haven't used any recent Apple innovations. I used a Mac for a while in a job I had before coming to RER. I don't own an iPad, although I've thought about getting one. A friend of mine has three of them — one in his office, one in his home office and a third in his bedroom in case he gets an idea in the middle of the night, although why he couldn't “lug” the lightweight item from his home office to his bedroom is beyond me!
I'm even more old-fashioned when it comes to mobile phones. I don't own an iPhone or “smartphone,” sticking with an older model cell phone that I mainly use just for phone calls and occasional texting, although I'll upgrade when this one gives out. Even stranger to many who know me, I'm a huge music fan and own more than 1,000 CDs, but I don't even use an iPod, preferring to travel around with a portable CD player and a case of a dozen CDs, although I do sometimes listen to music on my computer. Actually I have an iPod a friend gave me, but I misplaced it ages ago.
I write this a couple of days after Jobs' passing, an event that moved me far more than I would have expected. As I said, I didn't use Jobs-related products, although I probably watched the “Toy Story” films when my son was young about 100 times. Jobs was one of the founders of Pixar, which created the films, for those of you who don't know.
But it was his spirit that I loved, that touched me as it touched so many. Dare to be different, dare to be inventive, look for a better way of doing things. He was an original thinker, a renegade, a visionary. Dare to trust your imagination, his whole soul seemed to shout out. Dare to believe you can make a difference.
Yes I've heard Jobs wasn't an easy guy to work for, that he could be cutting and demanding. But geniuses can be like that.
We all can't invent better computers or iPods or better phones, and we all can't come up with inventions that will transform the world. But you might come up with an idea to run a better rental business, or a new product that does a job better. And you might recognize an inventive spirit in your midst and keep an open mind about what that person wants to create. You or someone you know might come up with an idea so simple and perfect or efficient that you'll say “why didn't anyone think of that before?”
Jobs' view was that the best ideas weren't invented by him. His view was that the ideas were always there, but nobody discovered them.
There have certainly been a lot of original creations in this industry — original products and ways to run rental companies and many other things. Tier 4 engines and wellpoint pumps and aerial work platforms and trenchers and generators and hydraulic breakers and more. Software systems and telematic systems, inventive ways of using the Internet and so much more. As Jobs would say, it's just a matter of connecting the dots.
The innovators and inventers will continue and to anybody else who has come up with an original idea, I'm honored to be a witness to it.
That's my tribute to Steve Jobs.
Speaking of jobs — not Jobs — last month construction employers added 26,000 jobs according to new federal employment figures. Officials of the Associated General Contractors said the increase is the first significant boost of employment levels since February and reflects growing private-sector demand for nonresidential construction projects. Nonresidential building construction added 13,200 jobs in September, while nonresidential specialty trade contractors added 10,700 jobs.
Construction unemployment of 13.3 percent is still a lot higher than the overall rate of 9.1, but not as bad as the 17.2 percent rate of year ago. That may partly be because some construction workers have left the industry and found other work, but it still represents an improvement.
Hopefully it's the start of a positive trend and not just a blip on the screen.