Last week was a great week.
Lots of reasons, but perhaps one of the best was I met a hero – and I wasn’t disappointed. Well I almost was, read on and I'll share with you why.
I attended a dinner where the Guest of Honour was Sir Jonathan Ive.
If you don’t know who he is, take a peep at this Wiki article and you’ll see why I was so excited.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about events like this it is; don’t wait until the end to meet the star.
It will be a bun-fight to get near the main guest because, buoyed up by a glass of wine, the procrastinators suddenly want to say ‘hello’ before the evening ends.
I made my move right between the amuse-bouche and the starter.*
*Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.
I weaved my
way to his table, said hi, shook hand and made a request.
Now this is where things didn’t go exactly according to plan.
I’d just bought a new iPhone 6, which was in my pocket, (along with a fine-tipped black Sharpie pen).
The request was simple, ‘Sir Jony, I’m a big Apple fan. I’ve just bought a new iPhone and was hoping you would be kind enough to sign it?’
Guess what he said..?
‘No…’
Well,
you could have knocked me down with an Android. And I would have been gutted, had it not been for the brilliant sentence which followed.
‘No Michael, I’d rather not. Here’s why. There were over two thousand people involved with the creation
of the iPhone. It would be wrong for me to put my name on something which is such a massive team effort.’
Wow! If he’d left it at that I would still have been a tad disappointed but I would have understood his reasoning. But then this
happened…
Jony added, ‘But what I can do is draw a picture on the back for you - if you’d like me to?’
YES! I’d love that! I had to stop myself from screaming as he proceeded to customise my iPhone with a quirky one-off cartoon.
Jony Ive is undoubtedly incredibly talented.
He was described
as, the ‘Most Influential Person in British Culture’, by the BBC.
He’s on the Time Magazine ‘100 Most Influential People In The World ‘list.
And last year he was awarded a Gold Blue Peter badge! Boom.
But Jony’s all about team. He’s modest. He’s humble. He’s the man.
