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Steve Jobs’ secret inspiration: Wayne Gretzky
A lesson learned on a backyard rink in Brantford, ON may be responsible for the successes of the most innovative company in history.
When Wayne Gretzky was growing up, his dad Walter would make him trace the path of the puck as it floated around his TV screen. When they hit the world's most famous backyard rink, Walter made Wayne put that exercise into practice, teaching Wayne to anticipate caroms off boards and get in better position.
Drills included skating around Javex bleach bottles and tin cans, and flipping pucks over scattered hockey sticks to be able to pick up the puck again in full flight. Additionally, Walter gave the advice to "skate where the puck's going, not where it's been".
That advice followed Wayne as his career progressed, and became one of the biggest lessons in sports history. Big enough, in fact, that it found its way to none other than Steve Jobs, who used it as inspiration in Apple's product decisions.
In 2007, in fact, Jobs used the quote to cap off the launch of the iPhone - a product that, indeed, anticipated where the puck was going to be in a technology sense.
It's fitting that Jobs would invoke a sports reference, since so may sports ended up being impacted by Apple products. Major League Baseball, for example, cited fans' use of iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices to watch or listen to games live - something that was previously unheard of.
It would have been such a far-flung fantasy a couple of decades ago. And if it is not on an Apple device, then it is on one created because of it. It's what many players use, it's what fans use.
Apple devices are influencing other sports too. Football teams like the University of Colorado are quickly adopting iPads to use instead of bulky playbooks.
The mobility and accessibility (offered by the iPad2) are unmatched...layers being able to study practice and game film on planes, hotels with or without the Internet . . . they've never have been able to do it in any sport. There also will be the ability to do digital versions of playbooks, saving cost of printing scouting reports each week and all things that go with that.
Jobs' biggest influence on sports might have been from a hammer throw. Apple purchased a Super Bowl ad in 1984 to introduce the new MacIntosh. The ad changed the face of television advertising, put a premium on Super Bowl ads, and cemented Apple's name in the minds of sports fans the world over. Not bad for a 60-second spot.
That's not to say Jobs' influence was ubiquitous. Michale Oher, made famous in the movie "The Blind Side", found himself at a loss this week when news of Jobs' passing broke.
Follow Andrew McKay on Twitter @apmckay
