I think Steve Jobs fired me about five
times the first time Steve fired me was
actually probably the most traumatic
because I thought it was going to be the
last time I would ever work with him and
he called me into his office or into a
conference room I should say and his CFO
was sitting there and he looked at me
and he said I'm gonna cut off my
contract with you I think the work
you're doing is terrible and we're just
gonna stop it right now so that's it
you're fired and and of course I was
taken you know I was emotional I was
much younger I didn't cry but I was very
I was on the verge of it and I didn't
really know what to do so I said okay
well you know you owe me $35,000 and so
we'll I'll arrange you know for you he
goes I'm not gonna pay you that because
your work wasn't worth it and I and I
was just kind of taken aback so I left
the room and I called my mentor who was
a man named Regis McKenna and Regis said
to me well if you want to get paid by
Steve Jobs you're gonna have to have
something over him and I said I I don't
have anything over Steve Jobs you know
that Regis and he said no you do and I
said what is that he goes your
relationships with the business press
and I said oh I get it
so I went back and I got in a meeting
with Steve because I was friendly with
his CFO she got me a meeting I walked in
there to the meeting which he took which
was amazing
and I said Steve you owe me $35,000 I
need that money I have a startup company
I need to make payroll and I want you to
give me a check for what you owe me and
he said he said I'm not going to do that
and I said I said you have to do that
and he said why and I said well just so
you know Steve I get about 30 or 40
phone calls a week from the business
press that we've made relationships over
the last couple of years asking me what
kind of a guy you are to work with and I
currently tell them very nice things and
he wrote me a check immediately and then
he hired me back Steve got angry with
everybody that worked with him he was
very impatient he had a vision of what
it was that you were supposed to be
accomplishing it and if you didn't do it
fast enough or you didn't do it right
enough he definitely got angry he threw
things at people nothing heavy but he
threw wads of paper at people swore at
people criticized their clothing he did
all those things so so what it did to
certain people is it it caused us to
push
even harder and and try to be even
better but for some people it destroyed
them fortunately for me I was one of the
first types and I am forever grateful to
him actually for the experience because
now I am so much better at what I do
then I would have been without him
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