Five years of my life and not seeing my family very much and stuff

UN DOCUMENTO FANTASTICO. Forbes pubblica la testimonianza resa da Steve Jobs, numero uno di Apple, lo scorso 18 marzo 2008 e ottenuta venerdì scorso dal giornale sulla base del Freedom of Information Act. Anche qui. Ci sono svariati punti salienti, davvero tanti. Per chi segue la storia di Apple, poi, è una vera miniera.

A me l'argomento interessa non solo perché ho scritto un libro, Emozione Apple, sulla storia e la strategia di questa compagnia. È davvero un documento che vale il vostro tempo, fidatevi. Altro che Inside Steve's Brain.

Legenda: Q= Questions, sono le domande fatte da uno dei commissari della SEC. A=Answers, sono le risposte di Steve Jobs

Nella parte di testimonianza qui sotto, Jobs affronta il tema di come mai si impuntò così tanto per farsi dare all'epoca 7.1 milioni di azioni sotto forma di stock options (letteralmente una montagna di azioni). Ecco il passaggio.

Money quote:

Q. Could you just tell me a little bit about the process of how this all came to be?

A. Well, it was a tough situation, you know. It wasn’t so much about the money, because a very small percentage of my net worth is from Apple.

Q. Okay.

A. But everybody likes to be recognized by their peers, and the closest that I’ve got, or any CEO has, is their Board of Directors. And as we’ve seen in the discussions of the past hour, I spent a lot of time trying to take care of people at Apple and to, you know, surprise and delight them with what a career at Apple could be - - could mean to them and their families. And I felt that the board wasn’t really doing the same with me.

Q. Right.

A. So I was hurt, I suppose would be the most accurate word, and, you know, the board had given me some options, but they were all underwater. They weren’t underwater necessarily because of our performance, but, you know, the bubble had burst in the dot-coms, and here I had been working, you know, I don’t know, four years, five years of my life and not seeing my family very much and stuff, and I just felt like there is nobody looking out for me here, you know.

Q. Right. Okay.

A. So I wanted them to do something and so we talked about it.