Steve Jobs Was the "Toughest Bastard" I Ever Met | Kevin O'Leary

welcome back to segment 3 with kevin o'leary all right two words Steve Jobs the toughest bastard you've ever met he is tough he was you know I went to his his so I called him up I said listen Steve you're two-and-a-half percent of the market and we are your nose right what year is this this is 1998 before Aplin ruled the universe they were wobbly situation turn a half percent share my development cost for 54 million your first titles you know I was the number one title on the Mac platform reading and math and I called him up and I said let's leave I need to meet with unique anomic start working for me and so Charles I can meeting with you so we go out to Cupertino and job shows up with probably seven other executives in the room I'm where with my head sales guys I said Steve thanks for coming out and you have a very simple request we didn't have to give me fifty four million dollars if you want me to develop the next cycle of titles for the Mac because it's a there's no economics that makes sense for me he looked at me and he just started to boom rate me ver rollick every swear word in the world just he said I'm you out of your feet and they got up and out of his charity circled around and said you be some beefy P and looking at him I'm stunned like the guy is just beating me up verbally I'm used to hard time so you know whatever I said hey listen this is all great but are you going to give me the 54 minutes and he said get outta here get in the parking is just abusive like crazy I said okay this is over I walk out to the parking lot and this is one of these windows you have to roll up to the bottom and he rolls up he's yelling at me from definitely parking lot hey I looked up and said so do we have a deal or not call me tomorrow like if the guy just wanted to beat me up he was I guess frustrated that he's had a lot of pressure all that good so anyways at the end of the day we remained in one player on the Mac platform we built a business offic years later I met Wozniak and who is a completely different kind of guy but I understand how jobs work there's a certain amount of fear in that organization for him I mean he chairs into people after he looks at the AI air or anything of a product and he'll rip their heads yeah like people don't get in an elevator with it okay so you have this line about if you don't come to work on Saturday don't bother coming to work on Sunday or Monday are you serious or do you value some balance for your employee no no there's no balancing work for me and here's the whole point see I've discovered that this is the way it works if you want balance go work for a company that's nine-to-five buy a dog go see your kid play baseball but you're never going to get rich we work for me generally speaking you get options in the company I expect you to work 24/7 like an animal until we're successful so that you can cash out you're trying to put this important freedom when you work for me so my employees only when I need them say look here's how we work this is going to work for you give it a shot maybe you work for three years long years you cash out that's great don't come here to make friends I'm not going to be your friend come here to make money it's that simple not everybody can take that but the ones that do come in we form powerful teams we're vicious competitors that's the kind of guy I want work for long-dormant okay so one thing is you can call the lot of bad words you're right I will say this everyone has an ego it's how you manage it but I did not detect a single hint of arrogance in this book which is I think surprising people would have expected you to be somewhat arrogant but my question is you did one thing with Michael Carrick which I think even I'm not mad enough to do which is when we brought along to be your partner you made him see her in an equal partner now imagine imagine you had vested I guess to some extent so it was easier to do that but that's a big thing to do I mean because the company had been around so what is your view on partnerships and why are they so important so here's the way I look at it you know the key to success as an entrepreneur is not to understand your strengths it's to understand your weaknesses now here's what I do I was weak at logistics man and shipping logistics bores the crap outta me I just not interested in it when Walmart came on board and said look we're going to change this whole industry we're going to make you our guys in education software we had the challenge of moving 80 million units I can't do that that's not my skillset micro Pyrrhic on the other hand is myopically focused at that kind of thing and i knew that he's one of our shareholders I went to Parsons and listen why don't you leave your PE firm okay I'll give up the title of CEO you're going to be a CEO you're number one role is going to be logistics because if we are not successful at this we're going to fail this is the only thing that matters is shipping these units all around the world who looked at me and said what's in it for me I said you know what I own a ton of stock lots and lots of it I'll make a deal with you I'll make us equal partners and this is how I'll talk in the broken writing it I looked at every transit transaction where I've made money not just learning company storage now you're Larry funds deals before that all the deals where I made money were partnerships all the ones why had catastrophic failures are the things I'm trying to do myself so I've learned now that it's much better to partner with somebody who actually throws in the hole so many people yeah really people of course but in the case of Perak it was it was actually three people myself Eric and Scott Murray so purpose logistics I'm sales and marketing and Marie's the CFO we were the most feared management team in the consumer software business and we got if we called you you know bad times are coming your way because either we're buying your company ready to compete with you you mentioned word here better to be respected or you're both respected for the normal colors your relational respire roles the reason people respect you is they fear you that's what happens if they actually have the same thing okay but again only one can be both it what's more important who you know or what you know and that's a good one No okay you've eaten I say it's very respectfully but you talked about them in the book you've eaten cat food amazing stories of former selves by myself and who scraped gum off the floor which one changed your life more when you look back you're like scraping gum off the floor because I got fired in to change the direction for me forever fair enough fair enough you say money goes to bad people they're not to bad ideas which i think is a very true and genius thing to say expand on that idea so the concept is that you know people say well you have to be really nice guy to make money that's not true many [ __ ] make lots of money money goes to the path of least resistance it doesn't care about your personality it's looking for an opportunity to grow and expand with the least risk with the least you know resistance to success so I've learned that I work with many people that I would never be friends with but I make money with them and I respect them for that many many many people I can certainly keep the emotion of that decision you mentioned that altruism and capitalism have to coexist my question is I see that some extent but in your mind does everything have to make money yes everything everything has to make money or have performance metrics they forgot even a charity see I talked about the five proof I'm sure my strategy is very simple because I get bombarded with the press to give away money and happy to do so I took the same percentage every year of my income after tax and I pick five charities for five years and they get the same amount every year for five years that five years is over I get five new charities and that way I could stay focused make a difference they know that they're gonna have some kind of a turn for me and so in that way I can I can do this in a way that I've got that deal done and I know it's gonna work agree or disagree greed is good which is a quote from the fictional character Gordon Gekko you talk about greed is good but do you agree with disagree I do I agree and I think weight is not only good it's wonderful it's wonderful to expect next question that's my next question is a few more things there's a quote from Douglas Ivysaur former CFO and REE CEO of coca-cola he basically says quote when your competitor is drowning stick a hose in his mouth end quote do you agree or disagree with that I agree but I would pour boiling or into that post out alright next quote dick Parsons former chairman of Time Warner current current chairman of Citigroup quote when you negotiate leave a little something on the table end quote in other words don't get so much like every penny you could because it's a short life you're going to run into the same business people and if they feel you had the massive upper hand and it wasn't a fair transaction they're not really going to want to deal with you again is dick is mr. Parsons right or wrong well it's right in some ways but I look at a different way the best deals are ones where both sides are unhappy or interesting okay not happy I'd have both are happy they suspend why because if you're both unhappy you've both left both sides lots on the table in other words you never got what you want to be of the other side that's a good deal and generally if you didn't have a great partnership what is stronger and this I think is more investing question that it really would apply to management on spyro's well what is a stronger feeling greed or fear fear I think there is a better motivator than greed is the stock market efficient in terms of information do you have massively more access to information than regular drove he's looking at investing in IBM or Apple no the market is I'm not accusing Reubens oh no no no I don't I don't do insider trading anyways I mean I don't actually train at all because I'm a finisher I'm a very fun saw I prepare you know prohibited from trading so I look at it this way the market has become extremely volatile because there's lots of transparency and loss of information and we now have high-speed trading programs to do this so I anticipate that we're gonna have two or three percent means every day for the rest of my life in the market okay you talk about business being in your DNA you've also heard about the line about you know Warren Bennis professor at USC says leaders are they born or are they made so my first question is you are held a sales person are sales people born or are they made well everybody's born it's the way I look at it is great sales people are able to live with very strict metrics so I hire all my salespeople and I probably I look for in them is can they get up in the morning and say I want to go to bed at night richer than I woke up that's the hallmark of a great salesman because they put on conditions that's how it burst you know sales is tough and only two thirds of your sales force are gonna work out long-term most of my firings occur in the sales area because it's clear to me it's not working it it's a combination of relationships a little art a little science and in an organization the people I respect the most but not the CFL's the CFO's it's the salespeople that's where I have a kidney speak couple more questions uh don't you say go let others determine your worth I totally get that now let me ask you something your best sales guy walks into your office he says boss it's time for me to go start my own company do you a side up and so much to stay he change his mind or see say I want less to me would be nicer in here boy look at me no no I'm gonna pour hot oil on no no people don't want to stay I never try and keep him that doesn't make sense I mean if he's found a better opportunity but I would never invest in a Salesman because they're not generally the best managers but are the best salesmen never promote the best salesmen to run stairs yeah so there is a different little great okay final questions are sort of sub questions regarding your investing that track record of on dragons then in Shark Tank so how many companies have you invested all the two trucks oh that's plenty pioneer perfect 20 how much money of universal album oh I have to add it up the deals are in size the height biggest one was three million and the smallest one was five thousand bucks what did you get what percentage for that room um that deals were royalty deals was 51% but there's something about reading the statistics belieber estimate this is an interesting line let me tell you the stats page for investment is gonna be shocking to you since for me from 1992 to 2001 in ten deals got liquid and they the shareholders money in grooming on this since 2002 today is one in 25 returns on venture investing actually negative on drag is that in Shark Tank every time as a handshake you see if they're like that only one in three of those close the two other three village survival villages of the investment portfolio including the British the American and the Canadian where there are hundreds of deals done 117 has made money I don't help a dispensary capital investing but I got a sense from the little icing on what I've read and what I've heard it's more almost like a bank loan or like a certain level is changing now because banks aren't lending so real copies are coming on people practicin is this is the venture capital is the American Idol of intricate yeah if you put your product on there truly and people see it four times a we a second miss sales are going up forty five percent so I argue that I'd rather invest in a company listen consumer go to service I'd have an ungracious ticket for free advertising but making money with it now mr. Dees would be telling with royalties for some percentage of capital T batch the investor form factor yeah so I wanted to work sub questions on this any I sensor from your investment on shows yes there was one called IQ zone in season two which was an app with the early apps for Nokia cell phones that was the next step it was a good outcome because another one that's coming on very very well for ticket gloss which is from two seasons ago with zero to four hundred thousand sales this thing is taking office building a brand the rest are living dead basically you know I'm writing checks and that frankly that's gonna be the ratio it's gonna be two in eighteen all right we could shop for hours fascinating you do a great job of telling the right story is only from a pilot biography perspective this book was probably more entertaining than most buyers and from good money and business lessons goes great person it's available in bookstores online many great places $10 you can finish thank you very much

Channel: Kevin O'Leary

Views: 1,322,578

Keywords: Ask Mr Wonderful, Kevin O'leary, Mr Wonderful, millionaire, billionaire, Business advice, hustle, earn money, luxury lifestyle, celebrity, Shark Tank, Ask Kevin o'leary, shark tank best pitches, shark tank behind the scenes, kevin olery, kevin o'leary best advice, How to start a business, best advice for entrepreneurs, how to make money with no money, Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs and Kevin O'Leary, Steve Jobs toughest bastard, Steve Jobs Apple

Id: eIYDUhLdF3I

Length: 14min 0sec (840 seconds)

Published: Tue May 07 2013