Plotting a Coup

策划政变

Jobs was not good at taking no for an answer. He went to Sculley’s office in early May 1985 and asked for more time to show that he could manage the Macintosh division. He would prove himself as an operations guy, he promised. Sculley didn’t back down. Jobs next tried a direct challenge: He asked Sculley to resign. “I think you really lost your stride,” Jobs told him. “You were really great the first year, and everything went wonderful. But something happened.” Sculley, who generally was even-tempered, lashed back, pointing out that Jobs had been unable to get Macintosh software developed, come up with new models, or win customers. The meeting degenerated into a shouting match about who was the worse manager. After Jobs stalked out, Sculley turned away from the glass wall of his office, where others had been looking in on the meeting, and wept.

乔布斯并不习惯别人对自己说“不”。1985年5月初，他来到斯卡利的办公室，要求给他更多时间来证明自己能够管理麦金塔部门。乔布斯表示，他将证明自己是个运营人才。斯卡利没有让步。乔布斯接着又直接挑战对方：叫斯卡利辞职。“我觉得你真的已经乱了阵脚，”乔布斯对他说，“你来苹果的第一年确实挺好，一切都很美妙。但是后来出问题了。”一向平和的斯卡利回击了，他指出乔布斯没能完成麦金塔的软件，没能开发出新机型，也没能赢得新顾客。两人的会面成了一场关于谁是更烂的管理者的吵闹。乔布斯走后，斯卡利转了个身，背对着办公室的玻璃墙，落下了眼泪。玻璃墙外都是围观他们争吵的人。

Matters began to come to a head on Tuesday, May 14, when the Macintosh team made its quarterly review presentation to Sculley and other Apple corporate leaders. Jobs still had not relinquished control of the division, and he was defiant when he arrived in the corporate boardroom with his team. He and Sculley began by clashing over what the division’s mission was. Jobs said it was to sell more Macintosh machines. Sculley said it was to serve the interests of the Apple company as a whole. As usual there was little cooperation among the divisions; for one thing, the Macintosh team was planning new disk drives that were different from those being developed by the Apple II division. The debate, according to the minutes, took a full hour.

5月14日，周二，麦金塔团队向斯卡利和其他苹果公司领导者进行季度回顾报告。事情至此达到高潮。乔布斯仍然没有放弃该部门的控制权，他目中无人地带领麦金塔团队来到董事会会议室。他和斯卡利开始就麦金塔部门的使命发生冲突。乔布斯认为这个团队的任务就是销售更多的麦金塔电脑，斯卡利说它应该服务于苹果公司的整体利益。和往常一样，苹果公司的部门之间几乎没有合作，麦金塔团队当时正计划开发新的磁盘驱动器，这种驱动器不同于AppleII团队正在做的那个。根据会议记录，两人的辩论持续了整整一个小时。

Jobs then described the projects under way: a more powerful Mac, which would take the place of the discontinued Lisa; and software called FileServer, which would allow Macintosh users to share files on a network. Sculley learned for the first time that these projects were going to be late. He gave a cold critique of Murray’s marketing record, Belleville’s missed engineering deadlines, and Jobs’s overall management. Despite all this, Jobs ended the meeting with a plea to Sculley, in front of all the others there, to be given one more chance to prove he could run a division. Sculley refused.

之后，乔布斯介绍了其团队正在进行的项目：更强大的Mac，这款新机器将取代已经停产的丽萨电脑；以及一款名为“文件服务器”（FileServer）的软件，麦金塔电脑用户可以通过该软件在网络上共享文件。但斯卡利首次得知这些项目都会推迟发布。他冷酷地批评了默里的营销业绩、鲍勃·贝尔维尔错过的工程期限，以及乔布斯的整体管理状况。虽然如此，乔布斯还是在报告会结束时，当着所有其他人的面，要求斯卡利再给自己一次机会，让他证明自己能够管理一个部门。斯卡利拒绝了。

That night Jobs took his Macintosh team out to dinner at Nina’s Café in Woodside. Jean-Louis Gassée was in town because Sculley wanted him to prepare to take over the Macintosh division, and Jobs invited him to join them. Belleville proposed a toast “to those of us who really understand what the world according to Steve Jobs is all about.” That phrase—“the world according to Steve”—had been used dismissively by others at Apple who belittled the reality warp he created. After the others left, Belleville sat with Jobs in his Mercedes and urged him to organize a battle to the death with Sculley.

当晚，乔布斯带领麦金塔团队在伍德赛德的妮娜咖啡馆（Nina-sCafe）吃晚饭。让-路易·加西当时也在苹果公司总部，因为斯卡利要他来准备接管麦金塔部门。乔布斯邀请加西一起吃晚饭。鲍勃·贝尔维尔举杯祝酒，“敬我们这些真正明白史蒂夫·乔布斯所构想的世界的人。”这句话是回应那些以“乔布斯所构想的世界”来诋毁乔布斯的人。其他人离开后，贝尔维尔陪乔布斯坐在他的奔驰车里，鼓励他发起战斗同斯卡利抗争到底。

Months earlier, Apple had gotten the right to export computers to China, and Jobs had been invited to sign a deal in the Great Hall of the People over the 1985 Memorial Day weekend. He had told Sculley, who decided he wanted to go himself, which was just fine with Jobs. Jobs decided to use Sculley’s absence to execute his coup. Throughout the week leading up to Memorial Day, he took a lot of people on walks to share his plans. “I’m going to launch a coup while John is in China,” he told Mike Murray.

几个月前，苹果公司已经获得了向中国出口电脑的许可。乔布斯收到邀请，需要动身去中国，到人民大会堂签署协议的日期是美国阵亡将士纪念日①的那个周末之后。斯卡利决定自己去签协议，乔布斯表示没问题。乔布斯计划利用斯卡利不在公司的时间，发动政变。在临近阵亡将士纪念日的一周时间内，他同许多人分享了自己的计划。“约翰在中国的时候，我要发动政变。”他告诉迈克·默里——

注释：

①5月最后一个星期一。