~ The Biography Of Steve Jobs ~

[MysteRy]

Sayings

Anecdotes
"Telling a Steve Jobs story": Silicon Valley's favorite topic of discussion

The night before our interview, Jobs and his kids sat down for their first family screening of Pixar’s 2004 release "The Incredibles." After that, he tracked the countdown to the 100 millionth song sold on the iTunes store. Apple had promised a prize to the person who moved the odometer to 10 figures, and as the big number approached, fortune seekers snapped up files at a furious rate. At around 10:15, 20-year-old Kevin Britten of Hays, Kans., bought a song by the electronica band Zero 7, and Jobs himself got on the phone to tell him that he’d won. Then Jobs asked a potentially embarrassing question:

"Do you have a Mac or PC?"

"I have a Macintosh... duh!" said Britten.

Jobs laughs while recounting this.

Source: Newsweek, Jul 25, 2004

[MysteRy]

Sayings

Anecdotes
"Telling a Steve Jobs story": Silicon Valley's favorite topic of discussion

As the conversation went: "I hear you’re not really one to give autographs, but I just gotta ask....will you sign my iPod? It’s fine if you don’t want to. I’m not normally one to even ask for autographs".

Steve: *chuckling* "it’s quite alright. You heard that about me?? well I wouldn’t say that I don’t like giving autographs, I guess I was never comfortable with the idea solely taking credit for something, which is to me what an autograph might imply. To be honest, I think I’m the last person who should sign something. A writer signing a book I can understand, but I think if anybody within our company should sign something, it should be members from our R&D team and all the others responsible for product innovation. It’s unfortunate that they all can’t receive the same level recognition. But I suppose it’s easier this way though?... you would need a pretty big iPod to fit all those signatures".

Source: Mac Rumors, Dec 19, 2011

[MysteRy]

Sayings

Anecdotes
"Telling a Steve Jobs story": Silicon Valley's favorite topic of discussion

In 2007, Mayer was offered an offer he couldn’t turn down from RIM who wanted to sponsor his Summer tour. Mayer had no reservations about saying yes but decided to give Jobs a call just to give him a quick heads up and let him know that the RIM contract would require him to use RIM products exclusively. Thankfully for him RIM only made smartphones!

So Mayer calls up Jobs who, believe it or not, praises RIM for the work they do and casually mentions that he’ll send Mayer an iPhone "to at least play with on the bus."

"I accepted the offer with Blackberry, and in the months leading up to the July 29th release date, the iPhone became the most desired item on the planet. Everybody wanted one, and nobody had yet to see one in person. It was mythical. That day I was playing an ampitheatre in Indianapolis, and sometime in the afternoon the production office got a call over the radio that a sales associate from the local Apple Store was standing at the outermost gate of the venue with something addressed to me. A few minutes later someone knocked on my dressing room door and handed me an Apple Store bag. Inside was an iPhone, and taped to it was a card; it belonged to Steve Jobs, CEO, 1 Inifinite Loop, Cupertino, California. Handwritten on the backside of the card was one word: ‘Enjoy!’"

Source: Edible Apple, Oct 20, 2011

[MysteRy]

Sayings

Anecdotes
"Telling a Steve Jobs story": Silicon Valley's favorite topic of discussion

One time, Steve and I sat in Dr. [Edwin] Land’s conference room at his office on the Charles River that he used after he was fired from Polaroid. I sat there listening while these two geniuses discussed where great inventions come from.

Pointing toward the center of the empty conference table, Dr. Land said, "I didn’t invent the Polaroid camera, it’s always existed, just waiting to be discovered." Steve replied, "That’s right. I knew long before we built it exactly what the Mac was. It always existed. I never had to ask customers what they wanted. If it’s something truly revolutionary, they won’t be able to help you." All of Steve’s visionary products have always existed, they were just waiting for him to discover them.

Source: John Sculley interview, Business Week, Oct 6, 2011

[MysteRy]

Sayings

Anecdotes
"Telling a Steve Jobs story": Silicon Valley's favorite topic of discussion

Years ago, I heard the back-story on Apple’s switch to Intel first-hand from some folks on the IBM side of things, and what I learned was that Steve Jobs agonized over this decision and waited until the morning of the keynote before pulling the trigger on this move.

He actually went into that day with two keynote presentations prepared: one for a PowerPC-based product line, and one for The Switch.

When he pulled out The Switch presentation, the IBM team was absolutely as stunned as the rest of the world, as was the P.A. Semi team who had been separately assured by Jobs that their dual-core PowerPC part would find its way into Apple portables.

Source: Wired, Oct 2011

[MysteRy]

Sayings

Anecdotes
"Telling a Steve Jobs story": Silicon Valley's favorite topic of discussion

I once forwarded an email from Steve Jobs to a friend, adding a snarky comment.

Steve’s reply informed me that I’d replied, not forwarded.

Steve was extremely cool about it. He said he’d been emailed FAR worse things accidentally. And many not so accidentally...

Source: Lee Unkrich, @leeunkrich, Twitter, Oct 11, 2011

[MysteRy]

Sayings

Anecdotes
"Telling a Steve Jobs story": Silicon Valley's favorite topic of discussion

Pito showed Steve a clunky, character-based, primitive spreadsheet, but all of the elements of the future were there: there were formulas at the bottom of the spreadsheet, rather than integrated in the cells; it was multi-dimensional; and the user could instantly call up different views of the same data set.

Immediately, Jobs wanted Back Bay for the NeXT. "He kept getting more excited; he was the most excited person in the room," remembers Pito.

Back Bay fit right in with Steve’s vision, says Allen: "Right from the start, he was looking for something new... It might have been better financially for his company to get 1-2-3 [ported to the NeXT], but that would have compromised his vision.... [Back Bay] was attractive because it was a new kind of spreadsheet."

A few days after the decision [to port Black Bay to the NeXT platform], Steve Jobs sent a huge bouquet of flowers to Cambridge. "It was like he was wooing us," says Lynda. "It must have been three feet tall!"

Source: Simson Garfinkel on Lotus Improv, 1991

[MysteRy]

Sayings

Anecdotes
"Telling a Steve Jobs story": Silicon Valley's favorite topic of discussion

He found this one really great black turtleneck which he loved – I think it was Issey Miyake – so tried to buy another one and they didn’t have any more. He called the company and asked if they would make another one, and they refused. So he said: ‘Fine, how many do you have to make before I can buy them?’ So they made them – I think he has a closet full of them.

Source: John Lasseter, The Financial Times, Jan 29, 2010

[MysteRy]

Sayings

Anecdotes
"Telling a Steve Jobs story": Silicon Valley's favorite topic of discussion

He was running NeXT Computer. I was a young pup consultant who had to tell him his baby was ugly. My elder colleagues made sure I spoke first so he wouldn’t be offended.

After he heard my story, he stood up and did his pitch for the NeXT OS. Just like he always did when he introduced the Macintosh, iMac, iPod, iPhone or iPad – he electrified the crowd with his vision and enthusiasm. For a moment, I thought every fact I collected and put together over the previous two months were from never-never land.

Steve then walked over and thanked me for doing a good job and he said he understood it was time to move on.

Source: David Chao, Fortune, Oct 6, 2011

[MysteRy]

Sayings

Anecdotes
"Telling a Steve Jobs story": Silicon Valley's favorite topic of discussion

Like many people, out of college I wasn’t sure what I wanted — or more specifically, how to get where I wanted to be. This was a "pre-i" world: no iMac, no iTunes, no iPhone. Gil Amelio was CEO of Apple, a company producing beige boxes and stock value losses. And Steve Jobs was quietly heading companies that would soon define their industries: NeXT (soon to be Apple OS X), and Pixar.

He was a bit of a hero of mine. So I wrote a letter. Sure, email existed at the time, but a letter seemed more real. I wrote about how I grew up with a Mac Plus, about my experience at our alma mater Reed College, and about my hopes for my life. I explained that I knew he wasn’t going to give me my magical dream job, or any job for that matter. But I wanted to let him know that he was an example to me of how to live one’s life -- to take chances, work hard, and never compromise on yourself. After dropping the letter in the mailbox, I promptly forgot about it, never thinking it would ever get past the gates.

Several months later, on a rainy Sunday afternoon, I got a call. It went exactly like this:

"Hello?"

"Hello. May I speak with Lucas Haley?"

"Speaking."

"Hi. This is Steve Jobs."

At this point I was ready to call bull on whichever friend was prank calling me. I barely caught myself in time, remembering that I hadn’t told anyone about the letter. This couldn’t be anyone but Steve Jobs. The sudden realization strengthened my suspicion that I hadn’t said anything in an awkwardly long time, and I blurted out a weak "Can ... can I help you?"

Steve Jobs and I spoke on the phone that afternoon for over 20 minutes, about college, about work, about chasing dreams, and about how he couldn’t give me a job but here’s the name of someone who could. It was all very surreal, and immediately upon hanging up it felt like it couldn’t have happened.

Source: Lucas Haley, FOX News, Oct 6, 2011

[MysteRy]

Sayings

Anecdotes
"Telling a Steve Jobs story": Silicon Valley's favorite topic of discussion

Steve had no idea who Herb Caen was, much less the tremendous clout he had with hundreds of thousands of Bay Area followers who religiously read his "Baghdad by the Bay" daily columns. One mention in one of Herb’s "three dot" columns could make or break your social life or even your career. So, I introduced Steve to Herb.

Herb said, "It’s a great pleasure to meet you at last," and Steve’s only reply was, "how come the Chronicle is such a bad newspaper?"

"It used to be a good paper," Herb said with a twinkle in his eyes. "Why, what would you consider a good newspaper?"

This certainly got Will Hearst attention. "Hopefully, the Examiner," he laughed.

"I only read the San Jose Mercury," Steve said. "It covers the greatest industry in the Universe like no one else."

"But Steve," Will interjected, "The Mercury is in Silicon Valley so of course they cover technology more."

Source: David Bunnell, Cult of Mac, May 4, 2010

[MysteRy]

Sayings

Anecdotes
"Telling a Steve Jobs story": Silicon Valley's favorite topic of discussion

Just as my vision turned into a painful blur, Steve turned to Andrew and asked, "What makes you think a dull PC guy like yourself can appreciate an elegant machine for artists like the Macintosh?"

"Well, Steve," Andrew chuckled, "I didn’t used to be so dull. Before PC World, I edited the Whole Earth Catalog, and I’m still a Dead-Head."

"Look," I volunteered, "Andrew actually went to the Dead concert in Egypt and we were both at the US Festival–this IBM thing is just something we fell into and gosh, you can’t blame us, it’s been quite an amazing trip."

"Oh, yeah, and I suppose you both dropped acid on your way to Cupertino this morning?"

We all laughed at Steve’s joke.

Source: David Bunnell, Cult of Mac, Apr 20, 2010

[MysteRy]

Sayings

Anecdotes
"Telling a Steve Jobs story": Silicon Valley's favorite topic of discussion

Watching Steve dial the number I gave him, I could feel my heart pounding as I hoped to hell Uncle Pat was high in the sky somewhere over the Pacific on his way to some country like Cambodia where telephone reception wasn’t so good. Unlikely as might seem, though, McGovern was once again at his desk.

"You must be a lousy businessman," Jobs began, "You paid $16 million for Wayne Green’s magazines and yet you want me to pay you to have David and Andrew produce a magazine for Apple."

I couldn’t hear everything McGovern said but he was talking loudly enough in an excited voice that I did hear, "don’t believe everything you read in the Chronicle."

"You’re investing in Micro80 but not Macworld!" Steve shouted back, "Micro80 looks like yesterdays leftover oatmeal. If you want to publish Macworld you need to belly up to the bar!"

And then he hung up. I was dumbfounded.

"Don’t worry, David," Jobs laughed, "McGovern will come around and we’ll still have a magazine."

Source: David Bunnell, Cult of Mac, Apr 23, 2010

[MysteRy]

Sayings

Anecdotes
"Telling a Steve Jobs story": Silicon Valley's favorite topic of discussion

Steve walked in dressed in a beautiful pinstriped, double-breasted suit with a white shirt and red tie. Right away, there was a problem — Steve didn’t like the images we had chosen for the Mac screens. Aware that he might bolt any moment, Andrew and I worked feverishly to fix them — putting up exactly what Steve said he wanted. Meanwhile he stared at Mosgrove, and said, "Are you one of those type of photographers who takes dozens of photos hoping one of them will turn out okay?" Will just looked at him and shrugged.

"Take a picture of this," Steve said, holding up his middle finger. We stared in disbelief. Someone must have keyed his Mercedes again, I remember thinking.

Crazy as it was, the "computer gods" were with us that day. Somehow we got our Steve Jobs photo and it is a classic, but if I wasn’t a nimble thinker it would never have appeared. A couple weeks after the photo shoot, Steve called to say, "Gee, David, I’ve changed my mind, I don’t want to be on the cover of Macworld."

"Too late," I lied, "the cover is already at the printer and we can’t change it."

In reality, a few pages were at the printer, but not the cover, and we could have changed it if we really wanted to, which, of course, we didn’t.

Source: David Bunnell, Cult of Mac, Apr 26, 2010

[MysteRy]

Sayings

Anecdotes
"Telling a Steve Jobs story": Silicon Valley's favorite topic of discussion

Here in Palo Alto, Steve Jobs isn’t just an icon, he’s also the guy who lives down the street. I first met Steve years ago at a backyard pool party. I was so flummoxed by the off chance I was breathing in his DNA, I could barely say a word. I am sure I made a winning first impression as I stumbled over my own name when we were introduced. I watched as he swam in the pool with his son. He seemed like a regular guy, a good dad having fun with his kids.

The next time I met him was when our children attended school together. He sat in on back-to-school night listening to the teacher drone on about the value of education (wait, isn’t he one of those high-tech gods who didn’t even graduate from college?) while the rest of us sat around pretending having Steve Jobs in the room was totally normal.

[…] It was at Halloween not long after when I realized he actually knew my name (yes, my name!). He and his wife put on a darn scary haunted house […]. He was sitting on the walkway, dressed like Frankenstein. As I walked by with my son, Steve smiled and said, “Hi Lisen.” My son thought I was the coolest mom in town when he realized The Steve Jobs knew me. Thanks for the coolness points, Steve.

From then on, when I saw him holding his executive meetings in our neighborhood, I didn’t hesitate to smile and say hi. Steve always returned the favor, proving he may be a genius, but he is also a good neighbor.

In time, things changed. The walks were less frequent, the gait slower, the smile not so ready. Earlier this year when I saw Steve and his wife walking down our street holding hands, I knew something was different. Now, so does the rest of the world.

While Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal and CNET continue to drone on about the impact of the Steve Jobs era, I won’t be pondering the MacBook Air I write on or the iPhone I talk on. I will think of the day I saw him at his son’s high school graduation. There Steve stood, tears streaming down his cheeks, his smile wide and proud, as his son received his diploma and walked on into his own bright future leaving behind a good man and a good father who can be sure of the rightness of this, perhaps his most important legacy of all.

Source: Lisen Stromberg, Aug 29, 2011