Who Did Steve Jobs Feel He Worked for?

David Senra, reading Geoffrey Cain, says that by November 1995 Steve Jobs felt he worked for most of the people doing the brilliant work. Talented people can get another job in 10 minutes, so the hierarchy flips and the chief executive is at the bottom.

Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, spent the longest stretch beside Jobs. Senra thinks it was 24 straight years. Catmull never had a shouting argument with him. Jobs did not want his thinking guided. He wanted the facts. One disagreement ran for three months. A strong personality and faster talk did not make Jobs right. Catmull laid out his case and waited. Eventually Jobs agreed, and the argument ended.

The people with Jobs at the end of 1995 mostly stayed for the rest of his life. By that November he was a leader people would follow for the long run, and he was humbled. The Jobs who was pushed out of Apple would not have said he worked for the people doing the work.