Image via Complex Original
"People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are…Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things." Steve Jobs shared these words of wisdom during the 1997 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. It was a belief he applied to all aspects of life. Whether it pertained to critical product decisions or personal matters, the Apple co-founder had no problem leaving everyone—employees to industry bigwigs like Jimmy Iovine—on the receiving end of rejection.
But contrary to popular belief, even the all-mighty Steve Jobs was turned down on numerous occasions by business partners, rivaling CEOs, and yes, customer service reps. Curious to know who was brave enough to go against the grain? Meet the souls that once told Steve Jobs "no."
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Aaron Sorkin
Date: Unknown
Could you image a Pixar film penned by none other than the Oscar-winning scribe of The Social Network? According to Sorkin, that’s exactly what the Apple co-founder envisioned during their last conversation. The screenwriter was quick to shut down the offer: “The truth is I don't know how to tell those stories. I have a young kid who loves Pixar movies and she'll turn cartwheels if I tell her I’m writing one and I don’t want to disappoint her by writing the only bad movie in the history of Pixar," Sorkin told Jobs. Steve even offered a private tour of the animated film studio, but Sorkin passed on that as well.
Les Moonves
Date: 2011
The CBS president and CEO claimed Jobs approached him sometime in 2011 with the idea of a subscription content service, which would coincide with Apple’s rumored iTV hardware. Moonves took it upon himself to son the tech visionary. “I told Steve, “You know more than me about 99 percent of things but I know more about the television business,” said Moonves. However, his primary reason for skipping on the deal hinged on concern over the network’s existing revenue streams being rattled.
Linus Torvalds
Date: 2000
During his early days at the microprocessor company, Transmeta, the Linux creator had the opportunity of chopping it up with Jobs at Apple’s Cupertino, Calif. campus. Torvalds soon discovered the visit was a ploy to convince him to join the company under the condition he drop Linux development. Aside from already loathing the Mac OS kernel, he wasn’t sold on Jobs pitch. That being “Unix for the biggest user base.” The offer was declined.
Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi
Date: 2009
Some would consider the Dropbox co-founders clinically insane for passing up an $800 million offer. Especially when the bid was being made by one of the most powerful and influential tech figures of all time. But not even that much wealth could convince Ferdowsi and Houston to cash out. Word is Jobs called the duo to a meeting at his Cupertino office and threw the nine-figure deal their way, to which Houston abruptly cut Jobs short on his pitch and declared the business wasn’t for sale.
Andy Lack
Date: 2002
While other music powerhouses like Universal and Warner were quick to license its catalogs to Apple, Sony wasn’t rushing to drink the Kool-Aid. Former CEO Andy Lack knew Jobs initial purpose was to mainly sell hardware and nothing more. So he argued that Apple should pay royalties to the music companies for every iPod sold. Jobs disagreement obviously led to the foreseen rejection from Lack: a move the tech giant took extremely personal as indicated in his biography. “With Andy, it was mostly about his big ego. He never really understood the music business, and could never really deliver. I thought he was sometimes a dick,” Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson.
James Green
Date: 1997
When James Green met with Steve Jobs, he had no idea he was being recruited to act as a liason between Pixar and Disney. Now the CEO of search retargeting company Magnetic, Green recalls his awkward interview at Job’s Palo Alto home, where he was taken into the bedroom and shown an animated film on DVD.
Green passed on the job, but Jobs did persuade him to take another position on the business development and marketing team at Pixar. He was phased into the liaison spot shortly after. Green would resign three months later.
Ali Rowghani
Date: 2010
Jobs made numerous calls and left as many messages to the former CFO of Pixar in an attempt to prevent him from making the move to become finance chief at Twitter. That still wasn’t enough to convince Rowghani to stay with the company. His impression of the social media platform pretty much spoke for itself: “This company is already like world famous and making this massive impact and has clearly touched this nerve. I didn’t think I’d encounter opportunities like that very frequently.”
Unknown AT&T Customer Service Rep
Date: June 29, 2007
While Jobs and IDEO founder David Kelley were both battling cancer, the two executives became extremely close friends. The bond between the two was so special that Apple's capo paid his friend a special visit on the day of the first iPhone launch, blessing Kelley with his own smartphone and hoping to connect the device for him as well. Turns out the AT&T customer service rep Jobs dealt with on the phone denied him the solid, even after he used the "I'm Steve Jobs" card. Somebody must have gotten fired for that one.
Flour+Water Management
Date: July 31, 2010
One would figure the man running the biggest tech company in the world could just walk into any restaurant and take any table he desires. That was far from the case when Jobs visited the hottest pizzeria in San Francisco: Flour+Water. Management brought the CEO back down to reality and denied his request for immediate service, recommending he wait just like every other customer or leave. After the couple in front of him got the last table, Jobs boogied. After hearing about its missed opportunity, Flour+Water asked Jobs to come back promising to hook him up with a table.
Ron Wayne
Date: April 13, 1976
Apple’s third co-founder was responsible for sketching Apple's first logo and wrote the manual for the Apple I, as well as the original partnership agreements between himself, Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak. Then the shocker came that Wayne sold his stock for what amounted to $2,300 and left Apple. Jobs was pushing hard to get Wayne back on board again, but financial stipulations prevented him from accepting any employment offers. Wayne's response to the incident: “I know at the time he really didn’t like it. I don’t think many people said no to him."
