Chapter 55 Section 1 "All Stories Are True"

For this book, we interviewed many former Apple directors, ex-executives, and employees who have worked at Apple for many years.The more people we interviewed, the more one pattern became apparent: Most of the people we interviewed did not wish to release their names.Many times, these people talk about Jobs in interviews, and they always have endless words, but when it comes to whether to be named, they suddenly keep secret, and they don't want to say a word other than saying "No" or waving their hands and shaking their heads. Even after leaving Apple, many people seem to be very afraid of Jobs.It's no wonder that Jobs often reacted violently, unexpectedly, and even somewhat "nervously" to the media's interviews and reports, as well as comments from the outside world.

In February 1982, Jobs appeared on the cover of "Time" magazine, and the cover article was written by Michael Moritz, a San Francisco reporter of "Time" magazine.Jobs obviously liked Moritz's writing. In order to promote Apple, he made an exception and allowed Moritz to interview the company for a long time. Top-secret meetings within the company, including Macintosh design discussions, opened the door to Moritz. Unexpectedly, this seemingly "officially authorized" cooperation lasted only a few months and broke up unhappy. In January 1983, "Time" magazine selected "Computer" as the Person of the Year. For this special issue of Person of the Year, Moritz specially wrote an article introducing Jobs based on the accumulation of interviews in the past few months.When the article was sent to the editorial department, the editor of Good Deed added a lot of gossip to Moritz's article, mainly about Jobs' refusal to admit that he had an illegitimate daughter.

As soon as the article was published, Jobs flew into a rage.He rallied the entire Apple workforce almost immediately, where he hurled insults at those who leaked their private lives to the media.Then, angry Jobs called Moritz's home phone himself.Fortunately, Moritz was not at home in those few days, and I felt sorry for his phone. In the recorded message, several words of Jobs swearing at the United States and even threatening Moritz were recorded.Since then, Jobs has banned Moritz from stepping into Apple's doorstep, and banned Apple employees from speaking with Moritz. Soon, the book "Little Kingdom" written by Moritz based on the interview records was officially published, and more private life that Jobs did not want to be known to outsiders, including taking LSD when he was young, fooling around with hippies, renting a house with his girlfriend, etc. Stories are made public.This time, Moritz really became the number one person on Jobs' "Media Nemesis Wanted List".By the way, this is Michael Moritz, who was moved by the entrepreneurial heroes in Silicon Valley because of interviewing Jobs and Apple. Later, he joined the army, joined Sequoia Capital, and started a venture capital business in Silicon Valley. He became a well-known bigwig in the venture capital circle of Silicon Valley.

Obviously, Jobs hopes to control the outside world's perception of him by himself. No matter what kind of person Jobs was, he wants the media to shape himself into an image he likes.For many years, Jobs seldom gave interviews. Most of the time, the public could only see the boss Joe who pointed out the future and looked down upon the crowd at product release conferences.But the more he controlled it, the more gossip and anecdotes about Jobs would fly in the sky. Almost all tabloid reporters who made up random stories and professional writers who painstakingly searched for the truth were regarded as enemies by Jobs.

Back then, when Jobs started his second venture at NeXT, Rich Karlgaard, a reporter from Forbes magazine, wrote an article criticizing the shortcomings of NeXT computers, which turned into a hornet's nest.Jobs knew the content of the article before the magazine published it. He called the magazine and threatened the magazine to withdraw the manuscript. "Forbes" magazine didn't care about Jobs, they insisted on publishing.So poor Karlgaard became Jobs' punching bag.Jobs called and told Karlgaard: "Don't go out by bicycle at night, be careful not to be killed." When Karlgaard talked about this later, he said helplessly: "Americans love Jobs, so do I, although I You shouldn't like him at all."

In 2005, the writer William Simon published a biography of Jobs, which was almost the one with the most complete collection of materials, the most serious writing, and relatively objective and fair evaluation.However, this biography annoyed Jobs again because it had not been "officially authorized" by Jobs.This time, there was no need to even threaten to make a phone call, because at that time Apple’s iTunes store had already started selling audiobooks and other books. Jobs directly notified the iTunes store to unconditionally block John Wiley & Sons Publishing Company, which helped William Simon publish the book. (John Wiley & Sons), all of the company's books were immediately removed from the iTunes store.This public case was not settled until 2010, and the iTunes store resumed sales of the company's books after five years of banning John Wiley and Sons Publishing Company.

Knowing these backgrounds, it is not difficult to understand why so many people are afraid of being interviewed by name.Since Jobs couldn't accept professional media making irresponsible remarks about him without authorization, he couldn't tolerate his former colleagues or friends being interviewed behind his back.But it is hard to say whether this almost domineering and outrageous style of public opinion control is a real good thing for Jobs himself. Will the public accept all the information that is "authorized" and "approved" by Jobs himself?Could it be true that the once real leader Joe could really be packaged into a so-called "perfect" image by Jobs himself?Beginning in 2008, the terminally ill Jobs "officially authorized" former "Time" magazine editor-in-chief and biographer Walter Isaacson (Walter Isaacson) walked into his life, collected materials, and wrote an "official biography" he recognized. Published in 2012—perhaps, this is Jobs' last "packaging" of his life.

Jobs packaged himself as the best CEO in the world, but more people said that Jobs was an out-and-out tyrant in management. Jobs packaged himself as a wise man who knew people well, but more people said that Jobs always regarded people as fools and idiots, and even his friends who had fought side by side often became discouraged and left him. Jobs packaged himself as a technology-savvy innovator, but more people said that Jobs basically didn't understand any technology. Jobs packaged himself as a master who leads the trend of product design, but more people say that without the help of the real master Jonathan Ivey, Jobs is nothing.

Jobs packaged himself as an eloquent and influential star, but more people said that Jobs was bored to death in life, had a perverse personality, and even ordinary people had few hobbies. Similar sentences can be listed indefinitely.There seems to be endless contradictions in Jobs.It is easy for us to find a real example to prove how unreliable Jobs is in a certain aspect, but conversely, we can almost immediately find an equally real example to refute it. Jobs is like a pool of undulating clear water under the spotlight. Every observer shines on Jobs with a color he likes, and then labels the light and shadow he sees as "real Jobs" to the public.But the public soon discovered that the images seen by each observer were so different, and in many cases even vastly different.

But fortunately, there is actually only one real Qiao Gang leader.This real Joe is not the Joe that Jobs himself hoped the public would mold him into, nor is he sent by those tabloid editors who don’t gossip or die, nor are they those who have read a few stories about Jobs’ success. The article in the heart of Joe's gang leader is worshiped by fanatical fans. We had the pleasure of interviewing an executive who was Apple's vice president before and after Jobs' return.His assessment of Jobs is the most pertinent and convincing we've ever heard.He said: "Jobs was originally a black and white person. His personality is the most binary of all I have ever met. In Jobs's mind, every person or every project is either world-class. Yeah, it's either shit, there's no transition in between."

That's right, if you superimpose the images of Jobs in different ways seen by every observer, then Jobs is a person who is both black and white. From every angle, two extreme personalities shine brightly on him.He will be perfect at times like a great man, and at times like a rogue, with no transition in between.He often uses a black and white way of thinking when looking at other people and things. The other party is either top-notch or worthless, and there is no transition in between. The former executive also told us: "The best description I've ever heard about Jobs is, 'All the stories are true.' You've heard stories about Jobs, and they're full of contradictions You've heard of Jobs' madness, you've heard of Jobs' wisdom, you've heard of Jobs' masterpieces, and you've heard of failed products... But in a word, all stories are true. Because Jobs was a Contradictory people." All stories are true, because Jobs was a conflicted man.