Steve Jobs Has No Problem Telling You What He Thinks

[MacRumors]

Steve Jobs' penchant for bluntness is legendary.

In 2006, Disney bought Pixar for $7.4 billion. This made Steve Jobs the Mouse's largest shareholder and gave Jobs a seat on the Disney board of directors.

According to Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World of ESPN, a book about ESPN (which is owned by Disney), at the first board meeting after the acquisition, the president of ESPN thought it would be a good idea to introduce himself to the newest Disney board member:

"I am George Bodenheimer," he said to Jobs. "I run ESPN." Jobs just looked at him and said nothing other than "Your phone is the dumbest f**king idea I have ever heard," then turned and walked away.

John Gruber at Daring Fireball notes the phone in question is this one -- a phone on which ESPN and Disney wound up losing $135 million.

Earlier this year, two shareholder advisory firms questioned Jobs' position as director at Disney, noting that he missed more than 75 percent of Disney board meetings for three out of the past four years.

Article Link: Steve Jobs Has No Problem Telling You What He Thinks

 

[adztaylor]

Surprised he used that many words.

 

[mrtune]

I read the quote and just started laughing when thinking about the look he probably had on his face when Jobs said that to him.

 

[Skika]

Well, can't blame Steve Jobs for being awesome.

 

[Sixtafoua]

Isn't espn on the apple tv now? Idk, maybe I'm wrong, but I remember seeing some sort of sports related thing on the apple tv...

 

[-tWv-]

That phone was a horrible idea, I never even saw anyone with one, total failure

 

[iansilv]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_8 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E401 Safari/6533.18.5)

That phone was a really stupid idea.

 

[macnerd93]

ha ha ha I wish I could have been a fly on the wall, When he said that. . There is no one like Steve Jobs, he's the main reason for Apple's success, when he returned Apple was 90 days from bankruptcy, look at it now its surpassed Microsoft in May 2010 in terms of revenue its a great time for Apple.

I know some people think its harsh, but no one gets anywhere being too soft on people or things let slip over time.

Forever

 

[chrmjenkins]

Steve Jobs is like a kid that doesn't have any regard to social norms when talking to adults, but with good ideas.

 

[rtdunham]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_4 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8K2 Safari/6533.18.5)

It's MLB.com
I watch all my team's games on it. It has its flaws, but i love it. I wish there was a corresponding NFL app.

 

[Elven]

Steve Jobs, not giving a flying fk to social norms.

And we love him for it!

 

[PineappleBoots]

I would have immediately disbanded that phone had Jobs told me it was anything less than "awesome." He's like a tech God, listen to him, you'll succeed.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

And with that kids, not a single was given that day.

Earlier this year, two shareholder advisory firms questioned Jobs' position as director at Disney, noting that he missed more than 75 percent of Disney board meetings for three out of the past four years.

Yes ladies and gentlemen. The CEO of the worlds most valuable tech company was too busy to attend board meetings about theme parks and childrens movies. I think he deserves a pass; just this once.

 

[macnerd93]

And with that kids, not a single was given that day.



Yes ladies and gentlemen. The CEO of the worlds most valuable tech company was too busy to attend board meetings about theme parks and childrens movies. I think he deserves a pass; just this once.

ha ha I have to agree what would a Board of directors even discuss thats of relevance to jobs lol, Hannah Montana merchandise ha ha XD LOL

 

[Erwin-Br]

Looks like Steve has some mental problems as well. Seriously, all the other guy did was introducing himself?

 

[nagromme]

Sounds like a story that evolved over time... from a very, very similar reality! For instance, Maybe Jobs also nodded slightly first.

Of course, taking one excerpt of the instance makes for a more extreme, and thus better, story!

 

[nateo200]

Looks like Steve has some mental problems as well. Seriously, all the other guy did was introducing himself?

Maybe a bit rough and totally arrogant but not the typical fake "diplomatic" BS of everyone else!

 

[Shrink]

Looks like Steve has some mental problems as well. Seriously, all the other guy did was introducing himself?

Well, at least he is sort of a jerk. An amazingly creative and talented jerk - but a jerk nonetheless.

But when you have a bazillion dollars, you get to be a jerk.

Excusing his behavior by pointing out that he is a genius is ill-considered.

Being a genius is not an excuse for being an *******. (See: Bobby Fischer)

 

[wordoflife]

That's kinda surprising to hear from Steve

 

[WalkingSnake]

And with that kids, not a single was given that day.

Yes ladies and gentlemen. The CEO of the worlds most valuable tech company was too busy to attend board meetings about theme parks and childrens movies. I think he deserves a pass; just this once.

While I agree with the point, do people really think that theme parks and childrens movies are ALL Disney does? Its one of the largest media conglomerates in the world.

 

[dudeabiding]

Number one, why would anyone believe that Jobs said that at that moment? Is it on tape or is it someone's recollection?

Does Jobs come across as a jerk much of the time? You bet. Is he a control freak? Seems likely. Do you believe being a powerful person should equate to being a nice person? It shouldn't.

Did he take a company from a little niche to become a major player, against all odds? Yes.

Does he need to go to Disney meetings? If Disney doesn't mind that he misses some/many, why should anyone else? Is Disney doing well financially? That's all it cares about, not Jobs' attendance record.

Bottom line is I probably wouldn't want to be in a room with him, let alone work for him. But the same would hold true for many other CEOs and other business leaders. They don't have to be nice, they have to turn a profit.

 

[levitynyc]

I remember wanting to buy that phone...

 

[pyro008]

Yes ladies and gentlemen. The CEO of the worlds most valuable tech company was too busy to attend board meetings about theme parks and childrens movies. I think he deserves a pass; just this once.

Yeah...I'm sure the Disney shareholders really care about how well Apple is doing.

Does he need to go to Disney meetings? If Disney doesn't mind that he misses some/many, why should anyone else? Is Disney doing well financially? That's all it cares about, not Jobs' attendance record.

"Doing well financially" is meaningless. The real question is: are they attaining their potential maximum? Would they be doing better if Jobs were replaced by someone who actually came to the meetings? Companies don't say: "F it, we're making a profit, we don't really need to try unless we start taking losses..."

 

[0dev]

Jobs was right. I mean look at that phone. Even back in 2006 I wouldn't buy that.

That said, Apple was partly responsible for the ROKR, so he can't really criticise other people's crappy Motorola deals.

 

[benthewraith]

Jobs snubbed Gates right before the rise of the Microsoft era. Don't know what was said though.