To Be on Your Own

靠自己

“The best thing ever to happen to Steve is when we fired him, told him to get lost,” Arthur Rock later said. The theory, shared by many, is that the tough love made him wiser and more mature. But it’s not that simple. At the company he founded after being ousted from Apple, Jobs was able to indulge all of his instincts, both good and bad. He was unbound. The result was a series of spectacular products that were dazzling market flops. This was the true learning experience. What prepared him for the great success he would have in Act III was not his ouster from his Act I at Apple but his brilliant failures in Act II.

“对于史蒂夫来说，最好的事情就是我们解雇了他，叫他滚蛋。”亚瑟·罗克之后说道。许多人也认为，这种严厉的爱让乔布斯更明智，更成熟。但事情并非如此简单。离开苹果后，在自己创建的新公司里，乔布斯能够释放自己的所有天性，无论好坏。他自由了。结果是一系列炫目的产品，但都遭遇了市场失败的重挫。这才是真正的学习经验。他后来的巨大成功，并非因为在苹果的下台，而是下台后华丽的失败。

The first instinct that he indulged was his passion for design. The name he chose for his new company was rather straightforward: Next. In order to make it more distinctive, he decided he needed a world-class logo. So he courted the dean of corporate logos, Paul Rand. At seventy-one, the Brooklyn-born graphic designer had already created some of the best-known logos in business, including those of Esquire, IBM, Westinghouse, ABC, and UPS. He was under contract to IBM, and his supervisors there said that it would obviously be a conflict for him to create a logo for another computer company. So Jobs picked up the phone and called IBM’s CEO, John Akers. Akers was out of town, but Jobs was so persistent that he was finally put through to Vice Chairman Paul Rizzo. After two days, Rizzo concluded that it was futile to resist Jobs, and he gave permission for Rand to do the work.

他得以放纵的第一个天性便是对设计的热情。他为新公司选择的名称相当简单：Next。为了让其更加与众不同，乔布斯决定，需要设计一个世界级的标识。于是，他设法找到企业标识大师保罗·兰德（PaulRand）。当时，这位出生于布鲁克林的平面设计师已经71岁，他曾设计出商界最知名的一些标识，包括《君子》杂志、IBM、西屋电器、美国广播公司以及联合包裹服务公司（UPS）。兰德当时已与IBM签订了合作协议，IBM公司的管理者表示，兰德为另一家计算机公司设计标识显然会造成冲突。于是，乔布斯拿起电话打给IBM的CEO约翰·埃克斯（JohnAkers）。埃克斯当时不在，乔布斯非常执著，最后联系到了的副董事长保罗·里佐（PaulRizzo）。两天后，里佐发现要拒绝乔布斯简直就是不可能的，于是，许可了兰德为这家新公司设计标识。

Rand flew out to Palo Alto and spent time walking with Jobs and listening to his vision. The computer would be a cube, Jobs pronounced. He loved that shape. It was perfect and simple. So Rand decided that the logo should be a cube as well, one that was tilted at a 28° angle. When Jobs asked for a number of options to consider, Rand declared that he did not create different options for clients. “I will solve your problem, and you will pay me,” he told Jobs. “You can use what I produce, or not, but I will not do options, and either way you will pay me.”

兰德飞到了帕洛奥图，同乔布斯一同走了走，听取了他的构想。乔布斯说，计算机将是一个立方体。他喜欢这种形状，完美而简单。因此，兰德决定将标识也做成立方体效果，并且倾斜28度，活泼漂亮。乔布斯询问兰德能否做出几个备选方案来供自己考虑。兰德表示，自己从不为客户做不同的备选方案。“我解决你的问题，你付钱给我。”他告诉乔布斯，“我设计出来的东西你用也行，不用也罢，都得付钱给我，但是我不做备选。”

Jobs admired that kind of thinking, so he made what was quite a gamble. The company would pay an astonishing $100,000 flat fee to get one design. “There was a clarity in our relationship,” Jobs said. “He had a purity as an artist, but he was astute at solving business problems. He had a tough exterior, and had perfected the image of a curmudgeon, but he was a teddy bear inside.” It was one of Jobs’s highest praises: purity as an artist.

乔布斯很钦佩这种想法。他对此也有同感。于是，乔布斯作出了赌博般的决定——以10万美元的费用，让兰德为新公司设计一个标识。“我们的关系非常清楚，”乔布斯说，“他具有艺术家的纯粹品质，但精于解决商业问题。他外表强硬，像个倔老头，但是内心就和泰迪熊一样。”这是乔布斯所给予过的最高评价之一：艺术家的纯粹品质。

It took Rand just two weeks. He flew back to deliver the result to Jobs at his Woodside house. First they had dinner, then Rand handed him an elegant and vibrant booklet that described his thought process. On the final spread, Rand presented the logo he had chosen. “In its design, color arrangement, and orientation, the logo is a study in contrasts,” his booklet proclaimed. “Tipped at a jaunty angle, it brims with the informality, friendliness, and spontaneity of a Christmas seal and the authority of a rubber stamp.” The word “next” was split into two lines to fill the square face of the cube, with only the “e” in lowercase. That letter stood out, Rand’s booklet explained, to connote “education, excellence . . . e = mc2.”

兰德只用了短短两周就完成了工作。他再次飞到帕洛奥图，来到乔布斯在伍德赛德的家中，送上了设计结果。他们先是共进晚餐，然后，兰德递给乔布斯一个雅致而颜色鮮艳的小册子，里面描述了自己的构思过程。册子的最后一页，兰德呈现了自己选择的标识。“从设计、色彩搭配和定位来看，这个标识就是对比的杰作，”他的小册子中写道，“倾斜角度活泼漂亮，它充满了随和、友善、圣诞贴纸般的自然，以及椽皮图章式的权威感。”“Next”这个词被分成了两行，填补了立方体的立面，只有“e”是小写，从整个词中脱颖而出，兰德的小册子将“e”解释为“教育，卓越……e=mc”

It was often hard to predict how Jobs would react to a presentation. He could label it shitty or brilliant; one never knew which way he might go. But with a legendary designer such as Rand, the chances were that Jobs would embrace the proposal. He stared at the final spread, looked up at Rand, and then hugged him. They had one minor disagreement: Rand had used a dark yellow for the “e” in the logo, and Jobs wanted him to change it to a brighter and more traditional yellow. Rand banged his fist on the table and declared, “I’ve been doing this for fifty years, and I know what I’m doing.” Jobs relented.

有时很难预测乔布斯对于某个东西的反应。他可能会认为它很低劣，也可能觉得它很杰出，但你绝对猜不到他会是哪一种反应。但是面对兰德这样的传奇设计师，乔布斯很有可能接受他的创意。乔布斯盯着最后一页，抬头看了看兰德，拥抱了他。不过，他们有一个小分歧：兰德在字母“e”上使用了暗黄色，而乔布斯希望能改成更为明亮和传统的黄色。兰德用拳头猛击桌子，说：“我做这行已经50年了，我知道自己在做什么。”乔布斯妥协了。