Steve Jobs was one of America's greatest innovators and this was seen in the company he left behind before he died. Apple is currently one of the largest manufacturers of mobile terminals in the world, but it is not doing worse in the PC industry either. Apple earns three quarters of the profit of the entire mobile phone manufacturing industry and in Q4 2011 it set a new world record in terms of smartphone sales. Steve Jobs worked very hard to bring Apple to where it is now and many stories have been heard about him and below you have 9 which you probably haven't heard of until now.
- Steve Jobs imagined that he would be the CEO of companies worth billions of dollars - I was just thinking, in my career I could be the CEO of two or three billion-dollar companies.
- When he was asked what percentage of the market share of a segment of the industry he would like to gain with a product launched by Apple, he said that he wanted it all - When somebody asked him what kind of market share he wanted, Steve was famous for saying, "I want it all. I want 100 percent."
- He knew how to appreciate the people who worked hard for the development of a product - The long hours [working on the Macintosh project] were mitigated to some extent by Steve being very generous with bonuses. I also have an Apple Hero medal. People were recognized for contributions. He was very good at doing that.
- He knew how to appreciate the value of the work performed by an employee - Walking back from lunch one day, I said, Steve, you paid me $1800 for the Apple II, and it's getting to be more and more popular, and I really think I ought to have a royalty on that. I ought to get, like, a dollar a unit, because $1800 wasn't all that much. He never hesitated. He looked at me and said, "You're very good. But if you knew how many we thought we were going to sell in the next two or three years... You're not that good." What do you say to that? He was absolutely right. How many millions of those things did they sell? You can't ask for royalties after you've delivered the work, so it was totally stupid and naive on my part. And he was a really incredible negotiator.
- He did not have very well developed social skills - My belief is that he wanted interaction, but he was too young to really know how to ask for it. So I'd take a day or two to prepare, then go back to his office and say, "Steve, when you came by the other day, I wasn't able to tell you these things, but this is why I did what I did." He'd look at all of it and say, "OK, that's fine. That's great. Keep going.”
- He knew when to be understanding - Steve invited 10,000 of his closest friends to the Apple III kickoff party – at Disneyland – and the computer started having intermittent problems. It would black out and come back on. Everybody was blaming it on my thermal management. Finally we realized it was the circuit board. It was the last one that Apple laid out by hand before the computer made sure the lines were straight. Steve called me into his office one day, and I was expecting to get fired because of all these Apple III problems. Instead of that, he said, "This was a big problem, and I'm really unhappy about it, but I'm not going to fire you. I want you to join Jef Raskin on his Macintosh team." That was the closest I ever came to getting fired.
- He did not like complicated things and would leave nervously if a product was not to his liking - Steve was a really good motivator – of groups. He wasn't necessarily good one-on-one. He wanted to see what was going on, so he'd come up behind with no warning and say, "What's that piece of crap?" I'd start trying to explain, "Well, I had to take this into account and also this..." and get all tongue-tied. He'd just get disgusted and walk away. A lot of people took that as a negative criticism of what was being done, and then they would change it, and then they'd get fired.
- He gave nonsensical answers to emails - When the iPhone came out, I sent Steve an email saying, "Why don't you just buy your own communications satellite to have a worldwide cell network. AT&T has the iPhone in Vermont, and we use Verizon. His response was: "Thank you, Jerry."
- He often talked about the past - Mary Ellen and I went to California – it must have been 10 years ago. We went to the annual meeting, unannounced, and sat in the fourth row. The executive staff came onstage and they sat on their little stools, going through their business. Steve looked over at us and he did a double take. I thought, Well, that's really nice. He recognized us. At the end of the meeting, when they asked if there was any more business, Steve said, "I have some business." He said, "I just want to acknowledge Jerry Manock." And he told of our contribution, being on the Macintosh team. Everybody stood up. It was a standing ovation. He didn't have to do that.
