Alt, John Sculley looks back on firing Steve Jobs: 'I have tremendous admiration for him'
By Chris Ziegler 
posted June 8th 2010 12:20PM
posted June 8th 2010 12:20PM
[Image via Mac History]
Alt, posted June 8th 2010 12:20PM
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John Sculley, what a first class idiot! Steve Jobs the man the legend! Just think how different things could of been?
@Johnswfc
I agree with you Sculley is/was a moron.
@impulse462 are you quite sure?
I doubt Steve Jobs would be the man he is today if he had not been fired back then. After all it forced him to try other things.
@Johnswfc Strange - "In an interview with The Daily Beast, Crisp recalled how undisciplined Jobs and the original Apple crew could be—enough so that they didn’t shrink at defacing the home of David Rockefeller." Hmmm - sounds like Jobs was a GREAT CEO at the time. . . your hindsight is amazing. . .
Remember, at the time, Apple was floundering. The Mac had no market and no apps; the only place the IIe was successful was in schools, the IIgs flopped. . . and Jobs was alienating everyone around him.
You might actually read the article. . .
@Johnswfc I don't want to be a grammar police or something but I'm sick and tired.
could of been = wrong way
could have been = right way
@Johnswfc
I think Microsoft would still be writing code for Apple machines and Windows would never see the day of light. Or maybe Microsoft would have become the software division for Apple. LOL!
@Johnswfc - I think you're having the reaction most would to this. But I also think it's the wrong reaction.
Jobs was immature as a leader at the time. I really think his being fired and being away from Apple put him in a better state of mind/place to come back when he did and not only save a dying company, but make it the very best tech company on the planet.
@mmalsed some may say Steve Jobs is still as "undisciplined" as he was back then. That's what drives him.
@robott
"A grammar police"? 'Police' is plural.
Muphry's Law strikes again!
@Johnswfc
It's far from a foregone conclusion that Apple would have thrived in those years with Steve Jobs on board.
@justjc
Ok, you're probably right maybe Steve did need a little discipline I guess to get things back to normal and it sure worked out.
@mmalsed Just because it's an article doesn't make it factual
@Zhuzhu
...and once again, because it's "Murphy's Law", not "Muphry's Law".
@mmalsed you should read too
it was only some stickers to advertise their business
@manofchao5 Defacing is still vandalism is still defacing is still vandalism is still against the law and faces fines (in California) of up to about $10,000 - stickers are covered under California Penal Code 594 (as are felt tipped permanent markers, aerosol paints, etc.)
@jaffreywali And just because they quote several very prominent persons, including a well known CEO of several companies and a well known VC doesn't mean they're telling the truth - but they have quite a bit of motivation to BE truthful or else they could face slander charges. . .
On the other hand, I do remember those days and how Sculley was seen as a savior and actually got things running again after Jobs did stall the company.
Personally, I think his time outside of Apple focused him significantly. His time developing NeXT was HUGELY beneficial and got him working on things that made Apple what it is now.
@Zhuzhu LOL - It's Murphy's law!
@robott
you managed to pick that up instead of all the OMFGLUULZZZZ454 that go on...
@rlopinNot to be confused with Murphy's law.
Muphry's law is an adage that states that "if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written". The name is a deliberate misspelling of "Murphy's law".
It's cool they have this thing called google. It's like some sort of all knowing mind you can ask questions and get links to answers, you might benefit from it.
@thisNthat
wow u idieot he meant it as a joke geez don't you understand internet humur?
Why does your link go to a Google Image Search result of an image on a German website?
@MobileAppDeveloper Doh! Missed the source link.
It may not have been an entirely bad move for Apple in the long term. Steve needed a kick in the ass. When he came back, he was a changed man ready to bring Apple back from near death.
@MobileAppDeveloper .. True. If he didn't get fired then there would be no NeXT and Pixar. Couldn't imagine life today without OSX and movies like Toy Story.
@taligent
You can't imagine life without Toy Story? LOL? WTF? Your life sounds sad.
@GeneralThade Are you kidding, Toy Story is awesome! Pixar is something that I've spent years of my life pursuing.
Can everyone please get off Jobs' dick? It's not like he cured cancer or something. Jesus.
@Big Wizz I am far from a fanboy. In fact, I own zero Apple products, but you can't ignore the fact that he came back and revived a halfway defunct company.
@Big Wizz .. He took Apple from near bankruptcy to the second biggest company surpassing IBM, Google and Microsoft. That would kind of make him the best CEO in the country right now, no ?
And you do what exactly .....
@Big Wizz
this is an engadget alt column about jobs and sculley and apple in relation to business. what did you think people would be saying in here? you wandered in here like a troll wandering into macworld and complaining.
why don't you get off jobs?
@taligent
Actually, Microsoft took them from near-bankruptcy.
@Big Wizz "Who dares question the boss we fired 10 years ago and brought back?"
@acidhax
ugh, wrong. Check your facts. MS invested in Apple as a means to end the litigation they were likely to lose. Their $150 Million investment was by no means a lifeline - Apple had a billion in cash at the time.
@TomSawyer
Besides the fact you think it's only the dude thinks its that petty money that saved them. If Jobs and Apple hadn't come out with hit products you think they would be where they are today. The stupidity of the people here astounds me.
I know it's easy to think Sculley was an idiot for firing Jobs, but whose to say that the time in the proverbial wilderness isn't essential to his current success?
@mcg Exactly. We'll never know what would have happened.
I've always said, what does a soda pop salesman know about technology?!?
@NoobsRUs
Awesome comment! I 2nd that.
Same thing is happening now at Dell people from pepsico and others with no IT or development background are running the show Dell is heading the wrong direction
@Makali Dell has been fucked since they began sacrificing build quality for sales. The IT guy at my job would set his head on fire before buying another Dell, and I know others who feel like they've been ripped off by Dell.
@Makali
there alienware at least
Board: Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it's *because* they sat there that they were able to do it.
Steve: "O rly?"
Define "tech company"
Hindsight is always 20/20. Pointless running around saying Sculley was a dork.
Sculley did the right thing. Numerous witnesses reported Steve being a total a-hole while harassing employees and setting unrealistic standards. In short - Apple was losing it's charm and competitiveness, and Steve was pissed, releasing his steam on others. After he was fired, NeXT computer was certainly not doing well as hoped... it was probably during that time that Steve got to think for a while and realize what kind of idiot he has been.
It's always easy to play the Monday morning quarterback routine and not take a more broader view of the whole situation.
I used to work for a company he took over.
He's actually a very nice guy, very interested in technology, and definitely not "a first class idiot"... but he's no Steve Jobs. He always gave me the impression of being a good executive who was dying to have the soul of an engineer but just didn't.
If you read a little about Apple history you find out that he didn't really have a choice in the firing of Jobs, who was a completely out of control spoiled brat at the time.
Folks get fired from jobs they excel at every day. It's the nature of business. Whoever believes business is a science hasn't been shitcanned for being good, but "different", yet. I was fired from 1 job in my 50 year ( so far) life. The fact that I was the only male on a 6 person salesforce was the true reason. The stated reason was "failing to hit sales quotas". This was the first time in 2 years, while 1 or 2 of my coworkers had NEVER met quota. It turned out to be a blessing for me.
Sweet. It's in German. Good thing I don't know German.
Before everyone start calling Sculley a moron for firing Jobs, let's compare what Jobs created with a old technology created by Sculley's team in the late 1980s to late 90s. The Newton pad for example; this was the platform for what is the Iphone OS and Ipad OS. Though it's a old technology, I'd choose the Newton message pad 2100 to the Ipad any day. Jobs is just profiting off what was left behind by Sculley. So, if you own any portable apple products other than the mac-books, you need to go and bow before Sculley and thank him for providing the blueprint to our present. If you haven't seen what the Newton message pad 2100 can do, search it on YouTube and be amazed.