Pushing the Mac Team
The Mac team was Apple’s elite and Jobs let everyone in the
company know it. He gave team members medals, took them
to restaurants, served them freshly squeezed orange juice each
morning, surprised them with cash bonuses, and provided them
with first-class plane tickets. He even put a video arcade and a
piano in the lobby, so they would feel at home.
At the same time, Jobs was a strict taskmaster. He routinely
stood over team members’ shoulders, asking questions and fid-
dling with their work. When he did not like what he saw, he
yelled and criticized until changes were made. He fired team
members whose work did not live up to his standards. If he was
harsh, it was because he believed that the Macintosh was going
to change computing. He envisioned it as a revolution in a box.
Jobs insisted that the Mac be the most technologically advanced
computer of its time.
He was adamant that
it be half the size of
other computers and
extremely easy to
operate. It also had
to have a graphic
user interface, mul-
tiple fonts, support
sound, drawing, and
painting, and a have
a mouse, which was
a brand-new inven-
tion that he had
heard about. Such a
machine had never
been built before.
Jobs rewarded the
Mac team but also
strictly scrutinized
every step of their
work.
Down but Not Out
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