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An Insider's Take on Steve Jobs

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the quite-a-bit-of-new-money-to-go-with-it dept.

Jerry Rivers writes "Business Week has an interesting, if short, interview with Edgar Woolard Jr., the man who brought Jobs back to Apple in the dark days of 1996. "Old money" Woolard offers some interesting insights into the man behind the iMac and the iPod, including his take on Jobs' 'five special characteristics' that make him the success that he is."

7 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Great interview. by jcr · · Score: 4, Informative

    People have been talking for years about how Steve "schemed" to replace Amelio. Woolard makes it very clear what really happened.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  2. The Five Characteristics by vmardian · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the article...

    1. Incredibly creative and has great vision.
    2. Absolute perfectionist.
    3. Great ability to attract outstanding people to work with him.
    4. If he respects you, he will interact with you and modify his ideas
    5. The damn guy knows how to make money!

    --
    PowerLevel.com - A next generation marketplace for virtual items and services
  3. Re:The fifth quality is true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Just for the record, his salary was never $1. It was $1 + a $100 Million corporate jet, thus putting him on the top of a "most overpaid CEO" list.

  4. Re:Jobs is like Caesar by Reaperducer · · Score: 2, Informative

    What he did get was more stock options.

    From TFA:
    "I tried my best to get him to take stock options that would have been worth $500 million, but he said no. He didn't want the people of Apple to think he was just there for the money."

    --
    -- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."
  5. Re:Reminds me of a joke by Lehk228 · · Score: 1, Informative

    and Chuck Norris is greater than either of them. your point is?

    --
    Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  6. Re:The fifth quality is true by SgtChaireBourne · · Score: 4, Informative
    No. That's what the marketeers would like you to believe, though. Here's how it is:

    1. Two years ago [1995], the company hired an outside consultant, Craig Smith, to devise a strategic plan to direct Microsoft's corporate giving in ways that guarantee the greatest return to the company. ... "Bill Gates is not so much a philanthropist as he is a Virtual Philanthropist. Of the $73.2 million that Microsoft donated to charity in 1995, $62.1 million, or about 85 percent, was in the form of free software."

    2. "Billg's personal $100 million goes to health initiatives over ten years, while $421 million of Microsoft's money goes, over a mere three years, to support MS-friendly development and 'educational' initiatives." ... "let's not forget the five, count 'em, five, vanity puff-pieces appearing in the New York Times this week glorifying Billg's generosity, one of which he wrote himself."

    3. the software tycoon's global philanthropy exercises carry a hidden agenda to persuade beneficiary governments to reverse policies promoting the use of open source software.
    --
    Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
  7. Gag me... by porcupine8 · · Score: 2, Informative
    An interesting interview overall, and this guy certainly seems to know what he's talking about... But this line:

    I think the synergies will escalate dramatically.

    made me throw up a little.

    --
    Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.