Fast Company has today published a sizeable excerpt from Becoming Steve Jobs ($12 Amazon, $13 iBook), the upcoming book about the Apple cofounder’s’ life and his mannerisms. Unlike previous efforts, Apple is openly promoting this book and many executives, CEO Tim Cook included, have participated in interviews. This has yielded some very in-depth, intimate and interesting stories.
Following the story of Cook offering to give Jobs his liver, Cook is quoted as saying the Isaacson book did the late CEO a ‘disservice’. In very similar words to how Cue described the (unrelated) film about Jobs at SXSW, Cook says ‘The person I read about there is somebody I would never have wanted to work with over all this time’.
“The Steve that I met in early ’98 was brash and confident and passionate and all of those things. But there was a soft side of him as well, and that soft side became a larger portion of him over the next 13 years. You’d see that show up in different ways. There were different employees and spouses here that had health issues, and he would go out of his way to turn heaven and earth to make sure they had proper medical attention. He did that in a major way, not in a minor, ‘Call me and get back to me if you need my help’ kind of way.
Cook also recalls how Jobs would call up his mother on the pretense of finding Cook, but in reality just wanted to talk to his parents about convincing Cook to have more of a social life. ‘Someone who’s viewing life only as a transactional relationship with people…doesn’t do that’.
The excerpt also features Eddy Cue, who says Jobs ‘worked his ass off’ even in the final years, seemingly wanting to be treated as a normal person, not sick. As time went by, Jobs prioritized marketing, design and product introductions as to how he spent his time. Succession planning began in 2004 but was accelerated by Jobs’ declining health.
This also ties in with Apple University, which is a way to teach future company leaders about the decision making process of original Apple. Cook says that Jobs became more open to explaining his thought-process about things he had done.
“Steve cared deeply about the why,” says Cook. “The why of the decision. In the younger days I would see him just do something. But as the days went on he would spend more time with me and with other people explaining why he thought or did something, or why he looked at something in a certain way. This was why he came up with Apple U., so we could train and educate the next generation of leaders by teaching them all we had been through, and how we had made the terrible decisions we made and also how we made the really good ones.”
Jobs also focused on the new spaceship headquarters, according to the book. Cook says Jobs always wanted to imbue ethical values into the company, something which Cook has amplified since his death.
This belief in Apple as a special place—as a company as magical, perhaps, as an iPad—was something Steve shared with Cook and was certainly part of the reason he urged the board of directors to sign off on Cook as his successor. “This was a significant common thread we had,” says Cook. “I really love Apple, and I do think Apple is here for a bigger reason. There are very few companies like that on the face of the earth anymore.”
On August 11th, Cook says Jobs called him to decide that he was going to be the next CEO. For context, Jobs died two months later, in October. The direct anecdote from this quote has been recalled before, but the excerpt does a good job of capturing Cook’s mixed feelings.
“He says, ‘You make all the decisions.’ I go, ‘Wait. Let me ask you a question.’ I tried to pick something that would incite him. So I said, ‘You mean that if I review an ad and I like it, it should just run without your okay?’ And he laughed and said, ‘Well, I hope you’d at least ask me!’ I asked him two or three times, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’
Cook describes how he thought Jobs would act as chairman for much longer than two months, with in-depth discussions about the arrangements. He says he saw Jobs ‘getting better’.
Eight weeks after Steve told Cook he was making him CEO, things took a sudden turn for the worse. “I watched a movie with him the Friday before he passed away,” Cook remembers. “We watched Remember the Titans [a sentimental football story about an underdog]. I was so surprised he wanted to watch that movie. I was like, ‘Are you sure?’ Steve was not interested in sports at all. And we watched and we talked about a number of things and I left thinking that he was pretty happy. And then all of a sudden things went to hell that weekend.”
You can read the full excerpt over at Fast Company. Becoming Steve Jobs will be released on March 24th. You can pre-order from the iBookstore now or Amazon starting at $12.
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Hehe, “lever”.
Wasn’t the Isaacson book told through Steve Jobs? And that’s a disservice?
The Issacson book is told through Issacson using information he gathered from various sources going beyond Steve Jobs, himself.. I believe the only control Steve had/wanted over the book’s was the cover, not the content.
It’s so sad how he spent his whole life controlling everything, then when he’s dying, he trusted someone else to tell his story and removed himself from the deciding that ONE time … and he gets stabbed in the back as a result.
Damn,
The upcoming movie should have been based off of this book. The emotional sentiments would have put the humanity of Steve jobs into the movie and portrayed him in a way he deserves to be remembered.
Why the hell would a film or documentary be made which he was the perpetual good guy with nary a flaw mentioned? The guy wasn’t a saint – nobody is. But you’d be quite happy with a film in which the leader was portrayed as such? This isn’t North Korea my friend :)
He his always remembered as a “hard person to deal with” so nobody here is saying that he didn’t have any flaws, but for once it would be really great to see the good side of him that obviously exist.
People who were really close to him loved him and still respect him. Now what we see in documentaries and movies it’s the same repetitive old stuff.
Yeah I understand that, but you don’t get biopics of people who are just “nice”. Ray. Walk the Line. The Theory of Everything. Lincoln. The Imitation Game. Get on Up. All biopics featuring flawed geniuses. You will struggle to find a biopic of anyone who isn’t flawed because nobody is perfect.
The fact that Steve Jobs has been the subject of quite a few biopics is actually testament to his enduring popularity as opposed to anything else :)
Like I said. He his always remembered as a “flawed genius”. So I really don’t get your point here.
That’s not new to anyone. What people want to know now is more about his private life, that he always kept it that way…private. The more “human side” of him. That would be new. Including all ups and downs Apple related or not.
His biopics are always incompleted and feel repetitive because of that part that is missing and fortunately now Tim Cook and others are trying to show to the public. It will be much more easy to understand now why we was so hard to some people and really great to others and not a tyrant that people always tend to portrait him like he was the devil in person.
@ Aunty Troll: I understand what you are saying, and no one wants biased reporting, but two things:
– We already have “biased reporting” now, in that everyone thinks Steve was an ogre from hell, when the reality is quite different.
– I completely disagree (and I don’t think you could possibly prove), that bio pictures necessarily are balanced portrayals of dark and light.
Every bio picture I have seen and most written biographies are overwhelmingly positive. They typically go far out of their way to portray the individual as a decent human being no matter who it is and no matter what they have done. The de-emphasize the bad qualities and strongly emphasise the good qualities. This is the way it always is and always has been IMO.
Nixon was a monstrous criminal for example, but when he died all we got were teary tributes that mentioned the “flawed but devoted” individual. His crimes were re-cast as unfortunate, but well-meaning mistakes. This is just one example. The rare documentaries that takes an antagonistic approach, even against a former tyrant, are unpopular and usually disappear quickly.
I wish some of this softer part of Steve would have come out before he died.
What is an Apple Watch, or what was supposed to be the the Apple Watch? Apparently Apple wants it to be the merger of a clock, a fitness tracker with a smart watch. It is too early to know if the goal was reached, but the path may be right.
There are three types of “wearables”, the cited above. In terms of Smart Watches for iPhone, reliable the only one we have is the Pebble, which remains increasingly popular. The premise of this watch is basically notifying the user. The plastic model can currently be found for $ 79, the metal one for $ 179.
In the field of Fitness Trackers, those that measure the heart rate, such as Apple Watch, we can mention the Fitbit appears, which can be found for about $ 249. Prices for these types of device are usually expensive. And reading dozens of reviews the conclusion is that most of them are frustrating. The Fitbit delivers what it promises and also receives notifications, it is not excellent, but good.
Despite the good functioning, there are rumors that say the Fitbit wristband is causing skin irritation. Another problem is that many buyers have complained that the sensor that measures the heart beat forces the user to tighten the strap and place it in specific location on the arm to get a more accurate measurement, and it is impossible such arrangement for the entire day. The said device is considered among the best currently on the market for its cost and benefit. It’s not perfect, but as said before, it all works. Even being a good device, you can see a lot of discomfort and doubts.
The Apple Watch displays time, notifications, works as a fitness tracker and even as a mini smartphone, it can make and receive calls, send and receive messages. The price is not salty if we add all the devices that would be needed to do the same things that the Apple Watch does. If we add the new Pebble Time, a good gadget for fitness tracker and a standard good watch the purchase would not be less than $ 700 and yet still miss some functionality, convenience.
We can also account for the quality of the material used in the device produced by Apple, far superior. Just to mention unparalleled touchscreen with Retina Display with force touch, now compare this with the Pebble’s screen. Not only the Apple Watch material is amazing, but its design is also above the competition. Nothing compares to the refinement of Apple’s sensor in terms of quality and comfort.
The villain in Apple Watch remains the battery, but Apple has managed to soften a bit this with the reservation mode. If Plato was fond of technology he would say that Apple Watch is the other half of your iPhone. Nothing in the market will be more integrated and complement one another.
Am I missing something here? Has this comment got anything to do with the article in question?
I got carried away, the point is that Apple Watch it is worth because it simplifies all wearable on one device. Oh no, I posted my comment at the wrong article… I’m sorry. Please moderator delete it.
soft or not, well, the results of his “jobs” at Apple and Pixar is what counts.
If it wasn’t for his death, Millions of others would die. In 10 years you’ll understand this.