《乔布斯传》背后的故事（节选）

    亚当：你在这本书中并没有把乔布斯描述成一个一点就着的人。

    沃尔特：好吧，你知道吗，他是个感情强烈、容易生气、没有耐性的人。我真的认为这与这位传奇人物的敏感个性有关，他希望创造出极端伟大的产品。他是个走极端的人，要么极其伟大，要么彻底失败，二者之间没有任何折中的余地。我认为这会令人脾气暴躁、没有耐性，有时还会显得粗鲁无礼。有一次，有个人径直朝我走了过来。我看不出他遇到了什么麻烦，但他说：“我在苹果公司工作，我曾经见过史蒂夫•乔布斯。”我说：“怎么了？”他说：“在自助餐厅里，他插到我前面去拿食物。”我说：“他说对不起了吗？”他说：“没有。”你知道吗，这就是乔布斯。这就是生前的乔布斯。但他同时也是个天才，你不能否认这个事实。他创造了了不起的产品。我希望读者通过这本书的描写，可以看到一个十分严厉、对人粗鲁、时而犯浑的人，但同时他也培养并启发了一支对他极其忠诚的团队，而且他源源不断地创造了难以置信的伟大产品，比如Mac、iMac、iPod、iPhone和iPad。因此，不能将乔布斯的个性与他的完美主义和他的强烈感情割裂开来。正是它们的结合才缔造了这些产品。

    亚当：我们再来谈一下那个似乎有点肤浅的趣闻。我想说的是，在自助餐厅插队可不好，那是令人生厌的行为。我们都教育子女不要这么做。你在书中还讲述了更加有趣得多的轶事。某天午夜，当乔布斯的女公关已经出门为他寻找他想要的那种花，乔布斯却对她说“你像坨屎”。这可不是令人称赞的行为。

    沃尔特：让我告诉你吧，如果你一直在听其他人对乔布斯的评价，形容他的1,000个词语里都不会出现友好、亲切这样的字眼。假如你想要友好和亲切，我曾写过本•富兰克林的传记，不如买这本。我所写的传记反映了人物的真实面貌。我会问：“乔布斯，为什么你是这样的人？”他会说：“这就是我，我就是这个样子。”其他人会说，你知道吗，他不挂车牌，有时候占用残疾人的专用车位，还插队。他似乎就是这样活着，仿佛正常的规则对他不起作用。你不会教育你6岁的孩子去做这种事情，我也不会这样教育我21岁的孩子。但正是这些却造就了人们称颂的人物——不合群、疯狂——正如苹果公司的广告，“不同凡想”（Think Different）。如果你拒绝接受规则，有时就能够扭转现实。你是个非常和善的人，有时我也相当和善，因此我绝对不可能造出iPad。所以，我们注定只能成为芸芸众生中的一员。我可不是在为不友善的行为辩解。

    亚当：我明白。

    阅读英文全文请点击链接：http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/12/27/walter-isaacson-steve-jobs/

    AL: You do not describe a petulant man in this book.

    WI: Well, you know, he had a passion, a petulance, an impatience. I do think it was connected to the artist's sensibility, that wanted to really make insanely great products. And he was kind of binary, either something was insanely great, or it totally sucked, and nothing in between, and I do think that that leads you to be brittle, rather impatient, sometimes brusque. Somebody just walked up to me at one point. I don't think he'll get in trouble, but he said, "I work at Apple and I sort of met Steve Jobs." I said, "How?" He said, "He cut in front of me in the cafe to grab some food." I said, "Did he say 'I'm sorry'?" He said, "No." You know, but that's Steve. That was Steve. You can't separate that from the fact that he was a total genius, he made awesome products. And I hope the narrative of the book is, you will look at a guy who admits to being really tough, rough on people, a jerk at times, but as it goes along he develops and inspires a team that becomes incredibly loyal to him--and over and over again, whether it's the Mac, the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, just makes awesomely great products. So, you can't separate the personality from the perfectionism, the passion, that made these products.

    AL: So, let's run with this seemingly superficial anecdote for just a moment. I mean, cutting in line in front of somebody in the cafeteria is not nice. It's repugnant behavior. It's the kind of behavior we teach our children not to do. And in your book you have far stronger anecdotes: telling his PR woman at midnight, after she's gone out to find him the kind of flowers that he wants, that she looks like shit. That is just not admirable behavior.

    WI: Let me tell you that if you were listening, of the 1,000 adjectives for Steve nice, kindness, would not be up there. If you want nice and kindness--I wrote biography of Ben Franklin, buy it. But I write the biography of the people I'm writing about. And I'd say, "Why are you that way, Steve?" And he'd say, "This is who I am, this is the way I am." And people say, well, you know, he didn't put a license plate on and he sometimes parked in the handicap, or he cut in line. He actually seemed to live as if the normal rules didn't apply to him. That's not what you want to teach your 6-year-old, or for that matter my 21-year old. But it also leads you to be the type of person you can celebrate--and here's to the misfits, the crazy ones--you know, the "Think Different" ad. And if you believe the rules don't apply to you, sometimes you're able to bend reality. You're very nice, I'm pretty nice at times--I would never have been able to make the iPad. So, you've got to just live with the whole package there. I'm not defending being not nice.

    AL: I understand.