Writers Block Live

Revised
During that first meeting with Steve, he had said Apple would find a way to accommodate my preference to continue living in Minnesota. But once the deal was set I was turned over to Phil, and it became his responsibility to find a place for me in his group. He felt much differently than Steve, telling me that he could not see it working out unless I relocated to California.

This was something I had not expected. I had originally assumed I’d be out of a job once Astarte was sold to Apple, but during the negotiations it became clear that Apple wanted the entire team. That, added to Steve’s comments, turned things around in my mind. For a short time it looked like my dream of being part of Apple would come true. Then Phil has to throw this big bucket of cold water on the whole thing.

I did my best to convince him that I was not like the other ‘remote’ employees he’d known. I told him how I’d worked remotely for Astarte for years, and had been able to accomplish a great deal (something I was sure he’d have to agree with). But he would not be swayed.

Relocating was not an option for me. My wife and I were separated at the time, and I would not even consider taking our three sons somewhere where she would not be able to see them easily (although I think they would have loved the idea of living in California.) To my great disappointment, I had to call Phil and decline.

It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I didn’t have much time to worry about that, however. Saying ‘no’ meant that my income would be stopping very abruptly in just a few weeks. I told Phil I would be available to help with transition, and I had committed to Freddie that I’d participate in the NAB show in April (if the Apple deal wasn’t closed by then, we were committed to exhibit at that show). But I had to get busy and find a job.

Though my heart was heavy, I started making phone calls. One of my first calls was to my old friend and colleague Tom Burke. His company, Wired, had just been sold to Media100. They had big plans for the Wired products, and Tom thought my background was a perfect fit to help grow that business. Just a few days later I had a job offer from Media100. While that was gratifying, it made my disappointment about Apple even more acute. Working for Media100 would just be ‘a job’; it had no magic at all.

For several days, while all this was going on, my mind kept going back to what Steve had said, ‘we’ll find a way to make it work…’ Why did he say that when Phil felt the way he did? If you can’t trust a promise from Steve Jobs, who can you trust?

Finally my anxiety got the best of me and I decided I had to bring this up with Steve, even though it meant going over Phil’s head, so to speak. I’d only spoken to Steve once before, and had nowhere near enough confidence to try to call him on the phone, so I sent him an e-mail. I explained the situation and essentially asked him if I had misunderstood what he said at our first meeting.

This is when I learned something very interesting about Steve; if you send him an e-mail, he will either answer it almost immediately, or never. And it doesn’t seem to matter what time of day or night you send it.

I had sent my message just before midnight. Before noon the next day I had his reply:

He asked for a few days to work on it…I didn’t have to wait even that long. I got a message from Phil the next day saying he was willing to give it a try after all.

Looks like Steve’s word means something after all. And I was on my way to being an Apple employee.

Coming in the next installment: the commuting arrangements.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 27th, 2005 at 1:25 pm and is filed under The Book - Jobs Ive Known. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.