Many things have been said about Steve Jobs. Sometimes we have known anecdotes of his daily life in the office or how he always wore a uniform. Or those days when he was so hungry that he traded glass bottles for food. But never about how the founder of Apple he played it to his own company when paying for his lunch and that of other co-workers.
And, to tell the truth, this was a very simple trick when it came to paying in the cafeterias and restaurants of the old campus of 1 Infinite Loop.
Steve Jobs invited, but not as you think
When I ate with Steve Jobs, he would insist on having me, which I always thought was a little weird. Even if we were together and he ordered something quick and already made like sushi and I ordered a pizza that was made in the wood oven, he would wait for me at the register for 10 or 15 minutes. I felt very uncomfortable.
In the end, I told him, “Really, I can afford it myself, so please don’t just stand there waiting for me.” And he said, “Scott, you don’t understand. Do you know that to pay we have to swipe our employee card and that’s deducted from my salary? I only get paid $1 a year! Every time I swipe it, it’s a meal.” free!” This was the billionaire taking a chance on the company he founded, a few dollars at a time.
The anecdote was told by Scott Forstall for Wired a few years ago and recovered by John Gruber in his Daring Fireball. AND It is a sample of the funny character and at the same time clever by Steve Jobs. The two shared a great friendship from their time at Apple, until Jobs passed away ten years ago. For a while, there were many who saw Forstall as a spiritual successor to Jobs and a possible CEO of the company, until he was fired over the Apple Maps fiasco.
Anecdotes like this make us miss the genius more than ever. An everyday Steve Jobs, who on a day-to-day basis took advantage of the company he founded, saved and catapulted to world fame.
Why Steve Jobs only earned $1 a year
Many will wonder how it was possible for the CEO of a company like Apple to earn only $1 a year. seems crazy, a wasted opportunity to earn more money. But to Steve Jobs it made all the sense in the world.
When Jobs returned to the company he helped co-found in 1997, Apple was just weeks away from bankruptcy. Accepting that salary was uno way to tighten your belt and meet the challenge with moral authority. Apple could not afford to pay its new CEO millions of dollars while laying off numerous employees.
The $1 a year salary was another way of saying he wasn’t at Apple to make more money, because he already had it.
Jobs did not need the money. He was already a millionaire thanks to Pixar and NeXT, which was acquired by Apple and placed him as the head of the company. But he did receive a package of shares that later made him a billionaire.
It should be noted that, from 1997 to 2011, Steve Jobs received 14 dollars in concept of salary. But his shares went from $17.5 million to more than $2.2 billion. It’s not bad at all.
Image | Chris Liverani
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