Inside Steve's Brain - Leander Kahney [61]
After nine years working at Apple, the last few closely with Jobs, programmer Peter Hoddie ended up quitting, somewhat acrimoniously. Not because he was burned out, but because he wanted more control at Apple. He was tired of getting his orders from Jobs and wanted to have a greater say in the company’s plans and products. They had a fight, Hoddie quit, but later Jobs was contrite. He tried to talk Hoddie out of leaving. “You’re not going to get away that easy,” Jobs said to him. “Let’s talk about this.” But Hoddie stuck to his guns. On his last day, Jobs called him from his office across campus. “Steve was charming to the end,” Hoddie said. “He said good luck. It wasn’t, ‘fuck you.’ Of course, there’s a degree of calculation in everything he does.”
Lessons from Steve
• It ’s OK to be an asshole, as long as you’re passionate about it. Jobs screams and shouts, but it comes from his drive to change the world.
• Find a passion for your work. Jobs has it, and it’s infectious.
• Use the carrot and the stick to get great work. Jobs praises and punishes as everyone rides the hero/asshole rollercoaster.
• Put boot to ass to get things done.
• Celebrate accomplishments with unusual flair.
• Insist on things that are seemingly impossible. Jobs knows that eventually even the thorniest problem is solvable.
• Become a great intimidator. Inspire through fear and a desire to please.
• Be a great ingratiator as well as an intimidator. Jobs turns on the spotlight of charm when he needs to.
• Work people hard. Jobs heaps on the stress, but staffers produce great work.
Chapter 6
Inventive Spirit: Where Does the Innovation Come From?
“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”
—Steve Jobs, in Fortune, November 9, 1998
Jobs’s return to Apple has been characterized by one hit after another. He’s rarely made a misstep: except one big one. On July 3, 2001, Apple put its critically praised Power Mac G4 Cube on ice. Jobs had introduced the cube-shaped machine just a year before, to critical raves. An eight-inch cube of translucent plastic that popped CDs from its top like a toaster, the Cube was a smash hit with critics. The Wall Street Journal ’s Walt Mossberg said it was “simply the most gorgeous personal computer I’ve ever seen or used.” Jonathan Ive won several awards for its design. But it was not a hit with consumers. It sold poorly. Apple had hoped for sales of 800,000 the first year, but shifted fewer than 100,000 units. A year after its introduction, Jobs suspended production of the machine and issued an unusual press release.1 “The company said there is a small chance it will rein troduce an upgraded model of the unique computer in the future, but that there are no plans to do so at this time,” the release said. It appeared Jobs couldn’t bear to discontinue the Cube officially, but he wasn’t prepared to sell any more either. It was sent to a permanent product purgatory.
The Cube was Jobs’s baby: a beautifully designed, technically advanced machine that represented months, maybe years, of prototyping and experimentation. The Cube packed a lot of powerful hardware into a very tight space. It was fast and capable, and dispensed completely with one of Steve Jobs’s oldest pet peeves—an internal cooling fan. But aside from a few design museums, few were