最近在看《乔布斯传》，是看的第二遍。第一遍看的时候是五年前，那时候看完的主要收获大概就是知道了乔布斯的生平故事，在之后和别人谈话时，有助于装逼而已。
最近看第二遍的时候，被很多细节的地方打动，可能是因为看的时候少了一些想要装逼的想法，多了一些思考。也可能是因为自己也成长了，更能理解乔布斯的一些境遇。
乔布斯在30岁的时候，被从自己创建的苹果公司赶了出来。之后他创建了NeXT电脑公司，但是Next的产品销售不佳，NeXT亏钱。他收购了Pixar公司，Pixar也亏钱。而且乔布斯的沟通容易得罪人，所以即便他工作那么努力，即便他那么有天赋，即便他那么希望改变世界，但是，当时的现实就是世界不断地打他的脸。
下面引用的原文，故事就发生在乔布斯在NeXT和Pixar的时候，那是乔布斯得不所愿的时期：
In the spring of 1988 cash was running so short that he convened a meeting to decree deep spending cuts across the board. When it was over,Lasseter and his animation group were almost too afraid to ask Jobs about authorizing some extra money for another short. Finally,they broached the topic and Jobs sat silent,looking skeptical. It would require close to $ 300,000 more out of his pocket. After a few minutes,he asked if there were any storyboards. Catmull took him down to the animation offices,and once Lasseter started his show—displaying his boards,doing the voices,showing his passion for his product—Jobs started to warm up.
Jobs said he would provide the money.“I believed in what John was doing,”he later said.“It was art. He cared,and I cared. I always said yes.”His only comment at the end of Lasseter’s presentation was,“All I ask of you,John,is to make it great.”
Tin Toy went on to win the 1988 Academy Award for animated short films,the first computer-generated film to do so. To celebrate,Jobs took Lasseter and his team to Greens,a vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco. Lasseter grabbed the Oscar,which was in the center of the table,held it aloft,and toasted Jobs by saying,“All you asked is that we make a great movie.”
The new team at Disney—Michael Eisner the CEO and Jeffrey Katzenberg in the film division—began a quest to get Lasseter to come back. They liked Tin Toy,and they thought that something more could be done with animated stories of toys that come alive and have human emotions. But Lasseter,grateful for Jobs’s faith in him,felt that Pixar was the only place where he could create a new world of computer-generated animation. He told Catmull,“I can go to Disney and be a director,or I can stay here and make history.”
So Disney began talking about making a production deal with Pixar.“Lasseter’s shorts were really breathtaking both in storytelling and in the use of technology,”recalled Katzenberg.“I tried so hard to get him to Disney,but he was loyal to Steve and Pixar. So if you can’t beat them,join them. We decided to look for ways we could join up with Pixar and have them make a film about toys for us.”
Looking back,Jobs said that,had he known more,he would have focused on animation sooner and not worried about pushing the company’s hardware or software applications. On the other hand,had he known the hardware and software would never be profitable,he would not have taken over Pixar.“Life kind of snookered me into doing that,and perhaps it was for the better.”
看完这些故事，我的感触是以下几点：
在艰难时期依然保持勇气和自信，别被吓坏了。
最幸运的就是遇到优秀的人，相互信任和支持。
生活常常是阴差阳错的，别试着预测人生，只要在当下努力就好。
