The Groundbreaking Apple

It is widely known that Apple opened up the era of personal computers. In 1983, Apple earned 980 million dollars, and the 28-year-old Steve Jobs took 284 million, becoming the youngest among America’s 40 richest people.

Jobs was so proud of his achievement that he underestimated his competitors. In 1984, when Mac first came out, a news reporter asked Bill Gates, “How soon will you port Mac Excel to Microsoft PC?” Gates replied, “It’ll probably take some time---” But Jobs interrupted, “It won’t happen even after we die.”

Jobs passed his overconfidence to his employees. Every time Microsoft launched a new Windows system, Apple held a staff meeting to expose its flaws and talk about how much it was behind Apple products. However, every new version of Windows came closer to Mac. Some Apple employees began to wonder how many people would still pay double to buy Apple products when the difference was only 5%.

Apple fans didn’t look at it this way. They said, “Windows and Mac may have 95% of similarities. But that’s just like a transsexual woman and a real woman. They may be 95% the same. But the 5% difference is what we care about most.”

Even so, Apple began to lose market share when Wintel (Windows + Intel) PCs left Apple behind the dust.

Jobs knew he needed someone to revive Apple’s sales and marketing, so he went to John Sculley, who had been president of Pepsi and helped Pepsi beat Coca Cola for the first time in history. Jobs persuaded Sculley to lead Apple with a question that later became a famous quote, “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”

Unexpectedly, Sculley and Jobs didn’t get along when working together as CEO and vice president. Jobs blamed Sculley for the continuing drop in the Macintosh sales (merely 2,500 units in March 1985). When Sculley learned that Jobs intended to remove him and take his place, he decided to take the matter to a board meeting in May 1985. He knew all the board members thought of Jobs as a inspirational motivator but not enough of a day-to-day manager to be CEO. As Sculley expected, the board members all supported him and backed up his decision to dismiss Jobs from his positions as vice president and the leader of the Macintosh Division. Jobs was so upset about it that he took long vacations after that and submitted a resignation letter in December 1985. He was basically forced out of the company he had co-founded!

Without Jobs around, Sculley became the unequivocal head of Apple. In the next few years Apple’s laser printers and desktop publishing software enabled Mac to monopolize the publishing industry in America. In 1989, the Macintosh sales increased from 300,000 to 3,000,000. Apple became the hottest company on Wall Street and Sculley the highest paid manager in Silicon Valley.

Sculley kept looking for new product ideas. He recruited a psychologist, Dave Nagel, to be vice president of Apple’s Advanced Technology Group. The group was interested in speech recognition. So was the Mac III Product Team, led by Hugh Martin. That was how Dave and Hugh decided to contact me in 1990.

I flew to Cupertino, California to meet them. As I arrived, it was very pleasant to see the evergreen scenery and ever-bright sunshine. Perhaps because people would naturally eat less and move more in warm weather, everyone I saw in Silicon Valley looked slimmer than those in Pittsburgh.

Apple employees welcomed me with friendly smiles. They all looked optimistic and confident. Most of them seemed very young.

The two vice presidents were older. Hugh was a middle-aged man. His eyes sparkled when talking about the prospect of Mac. Dave was older than Hugh. He had a white beard and a smile that reminded me of Santa Claus. He invited me to dinner.

“You know, Kai-Fu,” said Dave. “The first GUI (graphical user interface) was developed at the Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), but it didn’t result in a successful product. It was Apple that made GUI useful to many people. So you see how Apple inventions influence people.”

“We are doing Mac III and would like to incorporate speech recognition in it,” he added. “Kai-Fu, don’t blame me for copying Steve Jobs by asking you this question: do you want to spend the rest of your life writing useless research papers, or do you want a chance to change the world?”

His clever revision of the Jobs quote directly spoke to my heart. To me, there was nothing more enticing than making a difference in the world. At that moment, my heart decided for me: I was going to join Apple!

My only concern was how to submit my resignation to Professor Reddy. I was afraid of disappointing him. Would he try to make me stay? How would I respond if he did?

I took a deep breath before going into his office.

“I’m sorry to surprise you with a decision I just made,” I said slowly, using my most cautious tone. “I’ve thought about it for quite a while. Apple asked me to work for them to put speech recognition into their products. I consider Apple a very cool company, and I like what I’ve seen of their technology. So,” I paused a few seconds and finally said, “I’d like to go.”

“Oh?” Professor Reddy seemed to be taken by surprise. He was speechless for a minute. Then he seriously looked at me. “Have you really thought it through?” he asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“That’s good,” he said in an understanding tone. “Not everyone should always stay in the field of research. If you think working for Apple can further develop your talent, then you should go. Do a great job!”

Every time I made a choice, Professor Reddy respected it and supported it like a loving father. Every time I felt his best wishes for me to realize my dreams. When I turned around to leave his office, I felt like crying. At this moment, I heard his voice.

“Kai-Fu, are they giving you good enough resources?”

I turned back to reply, “Yes. They’ll let me join a strong team. They’ll let me hire some young people. They’ll let me work on the research I want to do.”

My mentor nodded, with an encouraging smile.

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【法奶日報www.lulijen.com 2013.5.22. 刊出，第9903號】

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