Steve Jobs I Knew

Much has been written about how Jobs was a genius, and has had a tremendous impact on various industries and billions of lives since he left Apple as head of Apple in August. He was a historical figure equal to Thomas Edison or Henry Ford, and paved the way for many leaders in many other companies.

He did exactly what the head of the company should do: he hired and inspired great people; relied on the long term, not the short term; made huge bets and risked big. He always insisted on creating products of the highest quality and on creating things that would delight and inspire their users, rather than mediocre products, like most IT directors or cellular operators. And he knew how to sell. God, how he could sell.
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He lived at the intersection of technology and the humanities, as he liked to say.

But, of course, there was a more personal side of Steve Jobs, and I was granted to see her part, because I spent hours talking with him, while he was in charge of Apple for the past 14 years. Since I am a columnist, not a reporter who is paid for describing the companies' business, he was more comfortable with me about things he wouldn’t discuss with other journalists.

Even after his death, I will not violate the personal nature of these conversations. But I will tell a couple of stories that will show you a person, as I knew him.

Phone calls

I did not know Steve at the beginning of Apple’s life. I was not involved in technology review. And I saw him only once, not for a long time, somehow between his permanent work in the company. But a few days after his return to the company in 1997, he started calling me home on Sunday nights, for 4-5 weeks. As a reporter with experience, I knew that in part he tried to flatter me and drag me to the side of a company in the balance whose products I had previously recommended to my readers, and now I advised to avoid it.

But still in these calls was something else. They turned into 90 minute large-scale “not for records” colloquial marathons, which revealed to me the stunning latitudes of this man. Now he is talking about the radical ideas of the digital revolution, and then about how disgusting the company's current products are, how disgusting the color, angle, curve or icon.

After the second such call, my wife expressed her dissatisfaction with the interference he had in our life on our day off. And everything suited me.

Later, he sometimes called to complain about some of the reviews or parts of them, although, to tell the truth, I was very pleased to recommend most of the products for the average technically unskilled user for whom I write in my column. (Perhaps this was due to the fact that they were also his target audience). I knew that he would complain because he started every call with the words: “Hi, Walt. I do not complain about the column today; I just have a couple of comments, if you don't mind. ” I usually did not agree with his comments, but this was also normal.

Product Show

Sometimes, but not always, he invited me to look at some of the “big” novelties before the whole world saw them. Perhaps he did the same with other journalists. We met in a huge conference room with several of his assistants, and he insisted that even with such private meetings all the gadgets were covered with matter, so that he could take it off with a sparkle in his eyes and passion in his voice, like a showman, whom he was. After we sat for a long time and discussed the present, the future and, in general, gossip in the industry.

I still remember the day he showed me the first iPod. I was shocked that a computer company created a division for music players, but he explained to me without any details that he saw Apple as a company of digital products, and not just a computer. It was the same with the iPhone, the iTunes Music Store and later with the iPad, which he invited me to see at his home, as he was very sick at that time to go to the company's office.

Slides

As far as I know, the only technical conference that Steve Jobs regularly attended, the only event that he did not control was the D: All Things Digital conference, where he appeared constantly for unprepared interviews on stage. We had one rule that he was very worried about: we do not allow the use of slides, which were his main tool.

Once, about an hour before his appearance, I was informed that he was backstage and prepared dozens of slides, even under the condition that I reminded him of our “no-slide” rule a week before. I asked his two main assistants to tell him that he could not use the slides, but they refused, and said that I would have to do it myself. I went off stage and told him that the slides were going home. It is well known that he could break out in a rant, refuse to go on stage, and he tried to argue, but after I insisted, he simply said: “OK.” And we went to the stage with him, and he, as always, was the favorite public speaker.

Ice water in hell

At the 5th Conference, D suddenly agreed to come to their first extended joint interview on stage: two “sworn enemies”: Steve and the brilliant Bill Gates. But everything almost went downhill.

Earlier that day, before Gates arrived, I had a tete-a-tete conversation with Jobs on the stage and asked him what it was like to be the main developer on Windows, because iTunes was already installed on hundreds of millions of Windows computers by that time.

He said: "It's like giving someone ice-cold water in hell." When Gates later arrived and heard about this comment, he was naturally furious, because My partner Kara Swisher and I both promised that we would try to keep the whole process up to the mark.

At a meeting before the interview, Gates told Jobs: "Well, it looks like I'm a representative of hell." Jobs calmly handed Gates a bottle of cold water that he had with him. The ice was broken, and the interview was triumphant, both participants behaved like first persons. When it was over, people in the hall applauded standing, and some even crying. (Interview Interview: Part One , Part Two )

Optimist

I do not know how Steve talked to his subordinates in the dark years of Apple in 1997-1998, when the company was in the balance, and he had to turn to the sworn enemy - Microsoft for help. Of course, he had a nasty poisonous side, and I am sure that it turned out once, somehow inside the company and when communicating with partners and suppliers who tell true stories about how difficult it was to make deals.

But I can honestly say that in many conversations that I had with him, there were notes of optimism and confidence in both Apple and the digital revolution as a whole. Even when he talked about how difficult it was for him to persuade representatives of the music industry to allow him to sell digital music, and complained about competitors, at least with me, he always spoke calmly and far-sightedly. Perhaps I was honored by this, because I'm a journalist, but it was still nice.

Sometimes in our conversations I criticized decisions of record companies or telephone operators, and he, to my surprise, categorically disagreed with me and explained to me how the world looks from their point of view, how difficult it is for the era of digital decay, and how they will come to their senses .

This quality was clearly seen at the time of opening the first Apple retail store. It happened in the vicinity of Washington, not far from my house. He gave a press tour for journalists, and was proud of how his father was proud of his firstborn. I said that, of course, there would be few stores, and asked him what Apple knew about retail.

He looked at me as if he was crazy, and said that there would be a lot of stores, that the company spent a year in the process of creating the external and internal appearance of the store, using the layout somewhere in a secret place. I was mockingly asking if he was personally involved, excluding his participation, as the head of the company, in choosing, for example, the transparency of the glass and the color of the tree.

He replied that, of course, he accepted.

stroll

After a liver transplant, in the process of recovery at his home in Palo Alto, Steve invited me to talk about the changes in the industry that had occurred during his illness. The meeting turned into a 3-hour visit, discharged by a walk to a nearby park, which we carried out despite my worries about his painful condition.

He explained to me that he walked every day, and every day he set a more distant goal for himself, and that today his goal was a nearby park. We walked and talked, as he suddenly stopped, not looking very good. I begged him to go home; not that I knew anything about cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but I vividly imagined the headline in my head: "A helpless reporter let Steve Jobs die on the sidelines."

But he laughed and refused, and, after a short pause, continued on his way to the park. We sat on a bench, talked about life, our families and our illnesses (a few years before I had a heart attack). He gave me a lecture on how important it is to stay healthy. And then we went back.

To my infinite relief, Steve did not die that day. But now he has finally left us, too young, and this is an incredible loss for the whole world.

UPDATE:

Walt Mossberg on a walk in the park with Steve Jobs