2003 Steve Jobs.Steve on Returning to Apple
Speaking to Stanford business school students in 2003, Steve recalled his internal struggle, seven years earlier, over whether to return to Apple.
在 2003 年对斯坦福商学院的学生讲话时，史蒂夫回忆起七年前他是否应该回到苹果公司的内心挣扎。
I’m working away at NeXT, working away at Pixar, reading the rumors in the papers that Apple is going to buy a company, this other company, for their operating system. And one of our guys said, “We should sell NeXT to them. We’ve got a much better operating system.”
我在 NeXT 工作，在 Pixar 工作，阅读报纸上的传闻，苹果要收购一家公司的消息，这家公司是为了他们的操作系统。我们的一位同事说：“我们应该把 NeXT 卖给他们。我们的操作系统要好得多。”
And I said, “Forget it. It will never happen.”
我说：“算了。这永远不会发生。”
So this is one of those cases where, when you hire the right people, they don’t always listen to you in key moments in time. So this person, being very smart, didn’t listen to me. And he went over and talked to Apple and said, “You ought to buy NeXT.” And they were interested.
所以这是一个这样的案例，当你雇佣了合适的人，他们在关键时刻并不总是听你的话。这个人非常聪明，没有听我说。他去找了苹果，说：“你们应该收购 NeXT。”他们对此很感兴趣。
Then he comes back and says, “They want to talk to us.”
然后他回来并说：“他们想和我们谈谈。”
And I was like, “No. Go away. You’re making this up.”
我当时想，“不。走开。你在瞎编。”
He did this twice. Finally I said, “OK. Fine. Let’s talk to them.” I couldn’t believe it. They really were interested. And so we ended up selling them NeXT.
他这样做了两次。最后我说：“好吧。没问题。我们去和他们谈谈。”我简直不敢相信。他们真的感兴趣。于是我们最终把 NeXT 卖给了他们。
And the CEO running Apple at that time made it clear he didn’t want me around, which was fine. And so I stayed on just as a consultant to him, to try to help him a little bit, because the management team he was inheriting from NeXT was actually quite a bit better than the one he had at Apple. And so I was trying to make sure these people didn’t get totally crushed.
当时管理苹果公司的首席执行官明确表示，他不希望我在身边，这很好。于是我就留下来给他当顾问，试图帮他一点忙，因为他从 NeXT 继承下来的管理团队实际上比他在苹果的团队要强得多。所以我试图确保这些人不会被彻底击垮。
And … I have to be careful what I say here. Let me just say that you need a license to drive a car, but you don’t need a license to be the CEO of a company. And maybe you should need one.
而且......我必须小心谨慎。我只想说，开车需要驾照，但当公司首席执行官不需要驾照。也许你应该需要一个。
Anyway, so I was pretty much out of the picture. Then one of Apple’s board members called me. I had never met this person. And he said, “Look, I want your straight scoop on what you think of the CEO here.” And I thought, “I don’t even know this person. Whatever I tell them, they’ll probably go tell the CEO, and then I will be persona non grata, and I will not have a chance to help my team not get crushed by these other folks there.” And I thought a lot.
无论如何，我几乎已经不在这个圈子里了。然后，苹果的一位董事会成员给我打了电话。我从未见过这个人。他说：“听着，我想听听你对这里的首席执行官的真实看法。”我心想：“我甚至不认识这个人。无论我告诉他们什么，他们可能会去告诉首席执行官，然后我就会成为不受欢迎的人，我将没有机会帮助我的团队不被那边的其他人压垮。”我想了很多。
And then I thought, “You know, this is a director of a company that I started and that I loved for many years—and still do to some extent. And so how can I not tell them the truth?”
然后我想，“你知道，这是我创办并且深爱了多年的一家公司——在某种程度上我仍然爱着它。那么我怎么能不告诉他们真相呢？”
So I spilled out my guts—and never heard from him again. And so I figured, fine. I was spending my days at Pixar and having a great time. It was springtime, going into summer. And six years ago a few weeks from now, I got a call back from him [the director], and he said, “We are going to dismiss our CEO, and we would like you to come back and run the company.”
所以我倾诉了我的心声——再也没有听到他的消息。于是我想，算了。我在皮克斯度过了美好的时光。那是春天，快要进入夏天。六年前的这个时候，我接到了他的电话[董事]，他说：“我们要解雇我们的首席执行官，我们希望你回来管理公司。”
And I said, “I can’t do that. I’m the CEO of Pixar. It’s a publicly traded company. We have all these wonderful employees. We have these shareholders. And I can’t go be CEO of another public … I can’t desert them. So I can’t do this. I’ll help you any way I can, but I can’t.”
我说：“我做不到。我是皮克斯的首席执行官。这是一家上市公司。我们有这么多优秀的员工。我们有这些股东。我不能去当另一家上市公司的首席执行官……我不能抛弃他们。所以我做不到。我会尽我所能帮助你，但我不能。”
He called back a few days later and he said, “We’d like you to come back as an interim leader and help us find a new CEO.”
他几天后回电，说：“我们希望你能回来担任临时领导，帮助我们找到新的首席执行官。”
And I said, “Well, I have to think about that.” And I was thinking about it and called up a friend of mine, a really smart guy, a good friend I’d known for a long time that works at another company in the industry. And I probably woke him up in the morning, about eight o’clock one morning, and I was telling him about my struggles about, should I, could I do this? Should I not? And this and that …
我说：“好吧，我得考虑一下。”我在思考这个问题，并给我一个朋友打了电话，他是个非常聪明的人，我认识很久的好朋友，在行业内的另一家公司工作。我可能在早上八点叫醒了他，我跟他讲述了我在挣扎的问题：我应该这样做吗？我能做到吗？我不应该这样做吗？等等……
And finally, he interrupted me after about four minutes and he said, “Steve, I don’t give a shit about Apple. Why are you telling me all this?”
最后，他在大约四分钟后打断了我，说：“史蒂夫，我对苹果毫不在乎。你为什么要告诉我这些？”
And I said, “Oh, OK. I’m sorry.” And I hung up the phone.
我说：“哦，好吧。我很抱歉。”然后我挂断了电话。
And I realized: You know, I do give a shit about Apple.
我意识到：你知道，我确实在乎苹果。
And that’s kind of what crystallized it for me. And so I went back there as an interim CEO.
这就是让我明白的事情。因此，我作为临时首席执行官回到了那里。
And I was terrified because I was afraid our Pixar employees and shareholders would feel like I was deserting them. And that’s why I went back just as an interim CEO. I only planned to stay ninety days. But Apple was in a pretty tough situation, and the candidates it was attracting for the CEO job, they were not so good. And I almost hired one, and at the last minute I just said, “I can’t do this to these guys.”
我感到非常害怕，因为我担心我们的皮克斯员工和股东会觉得我在抛弃他们。这就是我为什么以临时首席执行官的身份回来的原因。我只计划待九十天。但苹果当时处于相当困难的境地，而它吸引的首席执行官候选人并不好。我差点就雇了一个，但在最后一刻我说：“我不能这样对待这些人。”
I just thought, “Well, it will take another ninety days to find somebody.” And that turned into a year. And I decided right up front that I was just going to act like I was the permanent CEO, because they didn’t need a caretaker. This thing was in intensive care. It was about ninety days away from bankruptcy. It was in pretty bad shape.
我只是想，“好吧，找到一个人还需要九十天。”结果变成了一年。我一开始就决定要表现得像是永久的首席执行官，因为他们不需要一个看护者。这件事处于重症监护状态。距离破产大约还有九十天。情况相当糟糕。
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