Return to the Little Kingdom_ Steve Jobs and the Creation of Apple - Michael Moritz [91]
In an industry where salesmen like to boast of, and if the opportunity presents itself practice, cocksmanship, Markkula was Mister Squeaky Clean. He preferred to curl into the lap of his own family, was uncomfortable with small talk, was punctilious and level-headed, and played his cards close to his chest. He managed his financial affairs quietly and borrowed money to buy stock before Intel went public. One of his colleagues, Richard Melmon, said, “He wasn’t one of the boys. A lot of people couldn’t stand him. He wasn’t a hell raiser. He was a fussy fellow who always had to know the answer even when he didn’t.” Peeved when a vice-president of marketing was appointed over him, Markkula surprised his workmates and left Intel. He retired to the warmth of Cupertino, muddled about his house, watched his two young children grow, splashed about in his swimming pool, installed garden sprinklers, built cabinets for his stereo system, strummed a guitar, and learned the ins and outs of oil and gas shelters. His body still had the trim look of the high-school gymnast and he openly admired Jerry Sanders, the flashy founder of Advanced Micro Devices, who, unlike most semiconductor executives, said he liked the expensive things of life. Markkula’s taste leaned toward the conspicuous, like the prominent watch he wore on his wrist and the gold-colored Chevrolet Corvette he drove to Jobs’s garage.
Markkula talked to Jobs and Wozniak, inspected the computer, and was enthralled by the gadgetry. “It was what I had wanted since I left high school.” He also sought Don Valentine’s counsel in a two-story wooden office building in Menlo Park set around a courtyard and studded with the discreet brass nameplates and thin lettering that were sure signs of the presence of several venture-capital firms. Valentine and Markkula chatted about Apple’s prospects in an office brimming with advertisements, prospectuses, and Lucite blocks that commemorated some of the venture capitalist’s more visible coups. It was also decorated with sepia photographs of the Sundance Kid and a sign that read ANYBODY CAUGHT SMOKING ON THE PREMISES WILL BE HUNG BY THE TOENAILS AND PUMMELLED INTO UNCONSCIOUSNESS WITH ORGANIC CARROTS.
Bolstered by his chat with Valentine, Markkula offered to give Jobs and Wozniak advice about how to organize Apple. They got together in the evenings and over weekends and Markkula gradually became more enchanted with the business. He talked matters over with his wife, promised that he would give Apple only four years of his life, and eventually told Jobs that to help pay for the development and introduction of the Apple II, he would underwrite a $250,000 bank loan: an amount less than one tenth of his net worth. Markkula called McKenna, said he was about to invest in Apple, and asked him to tolerate Jobs and Wozniak. Jobs, Wozniak, and Holt all trooped to Markkula’s house and in a cabana alongside the swimming pool spent several evenings mulling over Apple’s future shape and prospects. In return for investing in Apple, Markkula wanted to own a third of the business, though distributing the shares caused some ill-feeling when Wozniak questioned whether any company would be prepared to pay Jobs what he himself was earning at Hewlett-Packard. Markkula rose to Jobs’s defense and Wozniak was taken aback. “He had a lot of confidence in Steve. He saw him as a future executive, as a future Mike Markkula.” Holt listened to the conversations and, with the practical bent of a Revolutionary Socialist, decided he would fare well if he wound up with one tenth of the shares Jobs received. Holt also harbored some doubts about Markkula. “He had a certain arrogant bearing and the subtle self-confidence of those people who have a lot of money and believe that somehow or other they have a birthright to it. I was suspicious.” Holt was also suspicious that Markkula would help draw up a business plan and