(Image source: Bloomberg/Silicon Valley Archives)

BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN


Steve Jobs. Innovator. Visionary. Genius. Joker.

Wait -- what?

Check this out. It’s a letter from 1976 posted by Bloomberg and penned by Silicon Valley ad man Mike Rose. It reads, in part, “This joker is going to be calling you.”

The joker was a young Steve Jobs, who apparently approached Rose for help printing the Apple I computer manual. AppleInsider notes...

“Then an unknown, Jobs still displayed some of the same characteristics that would eventually become known around the world. Jobs's secretive nature was noted by Rose, who noted that Jobs ‘wouldn't trust’ him.”

As it turns out, the Jobs/Rose partnership wasn’t meant to be: Jobs wasn’t paying what Rose wanted -- but the letter is a fun look at a young company that would become one of the world’s most valuable. Bloomberg’s Leslie Berlin says...

“The note is wonderful in part because it reveals how much Silicon Valley has changed in 35 years. ... Today, someone in Rose's position might well ask for a piece of the action -- payment in the form of a small bit of stock, perhaps?”

Can you imagine? Talk about a big oops. In that note Rose also refers to jobs’ partnership with Steve Wozniak -- saying the two sound “flaky.” HyperVocal says the note is a nice reminder.
 

“Apple didn’t become Apple overnight. It’s been a long, 30-plus year journey full of successes and failures for the company. Before Steve Jobs became one of the most recognizable CEOs on the planet ... before anyone had an inkling that he would change people’s lives with his technological creations and innovations, Jobs was a 21-year-old college dropout operating a fledgling computer business out of a garage.”