Jim Lynch: Off the Top of My Head…

Very interesting take on life inside of Apple from a former employee:

I went to work for Apple in February of 1989 for simple reasons: I loved the technology. It was a company that I felt could make a difference and improve society, and I wanted a chance to help make those changes. I think it’s safe to say that most people who go to work for Apple go for similar reasons; Apple is a rare breed of company, one not afraid to try to improve the world around it. It is constantly reinventing itself – five years ago, it was a computer company; today, it’s a consumer products company that also makes computers.

When I joined, John Sculley was CEO and the Macintosh II was the state of the art. Few people had heard of the internet, and nobody had URLs or web pages, because they weren’t invented until years later. Music came on CDs, videos came on VHS tapes, and the mobile phone was big, expensive and along with pagers more a sign of corporate servitude. Cable systems may have had 15, 20 channels. Your VCR probably had a clock flashing 12:00.

When I left, Steve Jobs was in charge and the Macbook Pro was the best of the best, the iPod was a global success and Apple was reshaping the music industry (much to that industry’s dismay).

Life there wasn’t always fun. Apple had its problems. I rode the rollercoaster through four different layoffs, and was laid off once in the summer of 1993 – but talked them out of it. I’ve never regretted that decision, even though I left a stack of money on the table to stay with a company whose future wasn’t certain at the time. Why? Because I still believed Apple was worth fighting for.

I like his take on Steve Jobs – that the company WILL go on when Jobs retires. I’ve found the deification of Jobs incredibly irritating. You’d think that he was the entire company and of course that’s not true. He’s had an amazing impact but Apple is far more than just him. But if you listen to the media you’d think that Jobs did every job in the company.

The bit about Jobs’ flamethrower is somewhat amusing:

But Apple doesn’t always get it right. Remember the launch of MobileMe in June 2008? It was that rare reminder that Apple could, in fact, royally screw up. When Apple released it, it simply wasn’t ready. Early users, myself included, suffered from committing to it before it was ready, and the Mac faithful had a field day complaining about it (legitimately) and using it to declare everything from the upcoming death of Apple to the impending nova of the sun and loss of all life in the solar system.

Not that it wouldn’t have felt like that internally. To people who wondered how what the atmosphere would be like inside 1 Infinite Loop, I said: “Just imagine Steve Jobs wandering the hall with a flame thrower in hand, asking random people ‘do you work on MobileMe?’”

I never had Steve’s flamethrower aimed at me, although I came close a couple of times; all in all, I was close to getting my butt fired three times – and all three times, I probably would have deserved it. I do know friends who did. It wasn’t always pleasant – but one thing I give Steve credit for is he held himself to the same high standards he held those around him. He is a perfectionist, and that’s what makes him successful and what made Apple succeed. But that kind of perfectionism isn’t easy, and isn’t done with gentle criticism.

I don’t think I’d like to have it aimed at me either.

But, hey, you really can’t argue with the guy’s results. He brought the company back from the brink of death.

I wasn’t too worried about the MobileMe problems. I have the service and I found them annoying but it wasn’t all that big of a deal for me because I don’t use MobileMe for email. So having it down or otherwise messed up didn’t affect me too much. It was a big goof on Apple’s part though.

Hat Tip: MDN

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