When Randy Adams and Steve Jobs worked at NeXT and both owned Porsche 911’s, they would park side by side taking up 3 parking spots to avoid car door dings. One day Steve Jobs yelled to Adam’s that he wanted to hide the Porsches. “I said, ‘Why?,’ and he said, ‘Randy, we have to hide the Porsches. Ross Perot is coming by and thinking of investing in the company, and we don’t want him to think we have a lot of money.” The result of them hiding their cars would be a 20 million dollar investment from Perot in 1987.
In the fall of 1986, Bill Gates arrived at NeXT for a meeting with Jobs and was forced to wait for an hour in the lobby. The employees of NeXT took advantage of that hour by asking Gates questions until Jobs finally called him up.
“Adams says, he has many memories of Jobs from those days at NeXT – how Jobs, a vegan, would pass by engineers enjoying their Subway sandwiches and comment, “Oh, the smell of burnt animal flesh. How delightful.”
Randy Adams also pointed out that Jobs would tell employees who made mistakes to “fire yourself,” and if they didn’t get an actual pink slip, that meant he was only joking. He would also dress up as Santa Claus around the holidays and hand out one hundred dollar bills to employees.
Author Connie Guglielmo shares a story of when Jobs had a “meltdown” during the opening of a mini retail store. He had been 100% involved in the design of these stores that included a white flooring, and moments before the press arrived he realized shoes left large scuff marks. In those minutes right before the opening, Jobs refused to step out onto the floor and talk to the press because of the flooring. However, in the end, he was “ultimately convinced” to come out onto the floor and make an appearance.
“When I saw the floor, I immediately turned to Jobs, standing next to me, and asked if he had been involved in every aspect of the design,” Guglielmo wrote. “He said yes. ‘It was obvious that whoever designed the store had never cleaned a floor in their life,’ I told him. He narrowed his eyes at me and stepped inside.”
When the magazine issue drops later this month you can catch many more untold stories. Some include his legendary attention to detail, playing Santa for a friend’s daughter, lack of “social graces,” and his intensity and vision for the future.