喬布斯不為人知的另一面

喬布斯不為人知的另一面

The relationship between journalists and Steve Jobs could often be fraught, but there were always a handful of reporters he liked and trusted. They included John Markoff of The New York Times; Steven Levy, formerly of Wired magazine (he’s now at Medium); Walt Mossberg, the longtime technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal (he’s now at Re/code); and Brent Schlender of Fortune. They had all been on the technology beat seemingly forever, and they had known Jobs for decades.

史蒂夫·喬布斯(Steve Jobs)與記者之間的關(guān)系常常糟糕，不過也有一些記者，一直受到了他的喜愛和尊重。其中包括《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》的約翰·馬科夫(John Markoff);曾供職于《連線》雜志的史蒂文·列維(Steven Levy)，現(xiàn)在他在Medium;長期在《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》(Wall Street Journal)寫科技專欄的沃爾特·莫斯伯格(Walt Mossberg)，現(xiàn)在他在Re/code;以及《財(cái)富》(Fortune)雜志的布倫特·施倫德(Brent Schlender)。他們好像一直都在跑科技口，都和喬布斯打了幾十年的交道。

As Schlender writes in “Becoming Steve Jobs,” the forthcoming book he co-authored with Rick Tetzeli, he first met Jobs in April 1986, eight months after the Apple co-founder had been ousted by John Sculley, then Apple’s chief executive. Jobs, who had started a new company called NeXT, was 31. Schlender, who had just joined The Wall Street Journal’s San Francisco bureau, was 32.

施倫德在與里克·特策利(Rick Tetzeli)合著的新書《成為喬布斯》(Becoming Steve Jobs)中寫道，他第一次遇到喬布斯是1986年4月，八個(gè)月前蘋果公司的這位聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人被時(shí)任CEO約翰·斯卡利(John Sculley)趕走了。當(dāng)時(shí)，喬布斯創(chuàng)辦了一家名為NeXT的新公司，時(shí)年31歲。施倫德則剛加入《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》的舊金山分社，當(dāng)時(shí)32歲。

During the next quartercentury, Schlender conducted “more than 150 interviews and informal conversations” with Jobs. He wrote cover stories for Fortune about Apple, some of which Jobs liked, and some of which he hated. On occasion, he visited Jobs at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. What began as a subject-journalist relationship evolved into something deeper — “a long, complicated and mostly rewarding relationship,” as Schlender characterizes it in the book.

在接下來的四分之一個(gè)世紀(jì)里，施倫德和喬布斯有過“超過150次采訪和非正式談話”。他為《財(cái)富》撰寫過關(guān)于蘋果的封面報(bào)道，其中一些讓喬布斯喜歡，另一些則讓喬布斯厭惡。有時(shí)，他前往喬布斯位于加州帕洛阿爾托的家中拜訪。最初采訪對(duì)象和記者的關(guān)系，變得更加深入，成了“一種漫長、復(fù)雜，但大體有益的關(guān)系”，施倫德在書中這樣形容道。

So it is not a huge surprise that Schlender — and his friend Tetzeli, a former Fortune deputy managing editor — would see Jobs in a different light than most. (Disclosure: I worked with Schlender and Tetzeli during my decade at Fortune.) After Jobs died, they write, the coverage reflected “stagnant stereotypes.” On the one hand, “Steve was a genius with a flair for design,” whose powers of persuasion were such that he could convince people that the sun rose in the west and set in the east. On the other hand, he was also “a pompous jerk,” who humiliated employees and “disregarded everyone else in his single-minded pursuit of perfection.”

所以，施倫德和他的朋友特策利(前《財(cái)富》雜志執(zhí)行副主編)對(duì)喬布斯的看法與多數(shù)人不同，也不太出人意料了。(我承認(rèn)，我在《財(cái)富》的十年里，曾與施倫德和特策利共事。)喬布斯去世后，他們寫道，報(bào)道反映了“僵化的印象”。一方面，“史蒂夫是一個(gè)有設(shè)計(jì)品位的天才”，他的說服力很強(qiáng)，以至于能讓人相信太陽從西邊升起，在東邊落下。另一方面，他也是一個(gè)“自負(fù)的混蛋”，羞辱同事，“偏執(zhí)地追求完美，無視其他任何人。”

It is Schlender’s and Tetzeli’s contention that Jobs was a far more complex and interesting man than the half-genius/half-jerk stereotype, and a good part of their book is an attempt to craft a more rounded portrait. What makes their book important is that they also contend — persuasively, I believe — that, the stereotype notwithstanding, he was not the same man in his prime that he had been at the beginning of his career. The callow, impetuous, arrogant youth who co-founded Apple was very different from the mature and thoughtful man who returned to his struggling creation and turned it into a company that made breathtaking products while becoming the dominant technology company of our time. Had he not changed, they write, he would not have succeeded.

施倫德和特策利認(rèn)為，喬布斯遠(yuǎn)非一半天才一半混蛋的慣常形象，而是一個(gè)遠(yuǎn)更復(fù)雜而有趣的人。兩人的書中用了很多筆墨嘗試勾畫出一幅更全面的形象。他們的書之所以重要，還在于他們也提出，盡管形成了刻板印象，但巔峰時(shí)期的喬布斯和事業(yè)剛開始時(shí)，并不是同一個(gè)人——在我看來他們的論述很有說服力。共同創(chuàng)立蘋果的那個(gè)稚嫩、魯莽、傲慢的年輕人，與危難之時(shí)回歸蘋果的那個(gè)成熟、多思的男人之間，有很大的不同。他回到自己締造的公司之后，將它轉(zhuǎn)變成了一家能夠造出懾人心魄的產(chǎn)品的企業(yè)，這家公司已經(jīng)成為了我們這個(gè)時(shí)代主導(dǎo)的科技企業(yè)。他們寫道，如果他沒有轉(zhuǎn)變，可能就不會(huì)成功。

For Schlender and Tetzeli, the crucial period was the most overlooked part of Jobs’s career: The years from 1985 to 1997, when he was in exile from Apple and running NeXT. As a business, NeXT was a failure. Begun as a company that was going to bring affordable yet superior computers to the higher education market, it eventually had to abandon the hardware side of the business and become a pure software company. The point that is normally made about NeXT is that when Jobs returned to Apple, he brought with him the NeXTSTEP operating system, which became the foundation for a new generation of Macs and was a critical component of the company’s revival.

在施倫德和特策利看來，這段關(guān)鍵的時(shí)期是他職業(yè)生涯中最被忽視的部分。從1985年到1997年，那時(shí)他被蘋果放逐，于是轉(zhuǎn)而經(jīng)營NeXT。作為一家企業(yè)，NeXT并不成功。這家公司的目標(biāo)是將出色但廉價(jià)的電腦，推向高等教育市場，但最后不得不放棄硬件業(yè)務(wù)，成為了一家純軟件公司。關(guān)于NeXT人們經(jīng)常談到的是，喬布斯回到蘋果之后，將NeXTSTEP操作系統(tǒng)帶了過來。這個(gè)系統(tǒng)成了新一代Mac的根基，也成了公司起死回生的關(guān)鍵因素。

Every bit as important, though, was that Jobs brought his core group of executives with him to Apple, and they stayed with him for years. At the same time he was running NeXT, Jobs also owned Pixar, the animation studio he bought from George Lucas. It took years before Pixar came out with its first full-length movie, “Toy Story.” During that time, he saw how Ed Catmull, Pixar’s president, managed the company’s creative talent. Catmull taught Jobs how to manage employees.

不過，同樣重要的是，喬布斯把麾下一群核心的高管也帶到了蘋果，他們追隨喬布斯很多年。與此同時(shí)，他也在經(jīng)營NeXT，而且他同時(shí)也擁有從喬治·盧卡斯(George Lucas)手中購買的動(dòng)畫工作室皮克斯(Pixar)。皮克斯花了很多年，才推出了第一部全長電影《玩具總動(dòng)員》(Toy Story)。在那段時(shí)間，他了解了皮克斯總裁艾德·卡特姆(Ed Catmull)管理公司創(chuàng)意人才的方式。是卡特姆教會(huì)了喬布斯，要怎么管理員工。

When Jobs returned to Apple, he was more patient — with people and with products. His charisma still drew people to him, but he no longer drove them away with his abrasive behavior and impossible demands. He had also learned that his ideas weren’t always the right ones, and he needed to listen to others.

喬布斯回到蘋果后變得更有耐心了，對(duì)人、對(duì)產(chǎn)品都是如此。他的個(gè)人魅力仍然能吸引人來到身邊，但是不再會(huì)用粗魯?shù)呐e止和苛刻的要求把人攆走。他也明白了，自己的想法并不總是對(duì)的，他需要聽取別人的意見。

Perhaps the most important example of this was the App Store. Jobs had initially opposed allowing outside developers to build apps for the iPhone, but he did a quick about-face once he realized he was wrong. The App Store has been hugely important in making the iPhone perhaps the most profitable consumer electronic device ever.

這種轉(zhuǎn)變最重要的例子或許就是App Store。喬布斯最初反對(duì)讓外部開發(fā)者為iPhone開發(fā)app，不過在認(rèn)識(shí)到自己錯(cuò)了之后，就迅速改變了立場。iPhone能成為有史以來利潤最豐厚的消費(fèi)電子產(chǎn)品，App Store起到了巨大的作用。