Mike Markkula

迈克马库拉

All of this required money. “The tooling of this plastic case was going to cost, like, $100,000,” Jobs said. “Just to get this whole thing into production was going to be, like, $200,000.” He went back to Nolan Bushnell, this time to get him to put in some money and take a minority equity stake. “He asked me if I would put $50,000 in and he would give me a third of the company,” said Bushnell. “I was so smart, I said no. It’s kind of fun to think about that, when I’m not crying.”

这一切都需要用钱。“塑料箱子的加工要花费大概10万美元，”乔布斯说，“实现量产需要差不多20万美元。”他又回去找诺兰·布什内尔，想让他投资一笔钱，换取小部分股权。“他问我能不能投人5万美元，他会把公司1/3的股权给我，”布什内尔说，“我当时自认为很聪明，拒绝了他。现在想想这件事，觉得挺有意思的，当然更多的是欲哭无泪的感觉。”

Bushnell suggested that Jobs try Don Valentine, a straight-shooting former marketing manager at National Semiconductor who had founded Sequoia Capital, a pioneering venture capital firm. Valentine arrived at the Jobses’ garage in a Mercedes wearing a blue suit, button-down shirt, and rep tie. His first impression was that Jobs looked and smelled odd. “Steve was trying to be the embodiment of the counterculture. He had a wispy beard, was very thin, and looked like Ho Chi Minh.”

布什内尔建议乔布斯去找唐·瓦伦丁（DonValentine）试试。唐是个心直口快的人，曾在国家半导体公司任营销经理，后来创办了风险投资界的先驱企业——红杉资本。瓦伦丁开着奔驰来到了乔布斯家的车库，穿着蓝色西装和系领扣的衬衫，打着棱纹领带。布什内尔回忆说，瓦伦丁后来给他打电话，半开玩笑半严肃地问：“你为什么要让我去见那些连人类都算不上的怪胎？”瓦伦丁说不记得是否说过这样的一句话了，但他承认自己当时觉得乔布斯的样子和身上的气味都很怪异。“那时候史蒂夫努力要成为反主流文化的化身，”瓦伦丁回忆说，“他留着一撮胡子，非常消痩，看上去就像胡志明。”

Valentine, however, did not become a preeminent Silicon Valley investor by relying on surface appearances. What bothered him more was that Jobs knew nothing about marketing and seemed content to peddle his product to individual stores one by one. “If you want me to finance you,” Valentine told him, “you need to have one person as a partner who understands marketing and distribution and can write a business plan.” Jobs tended to be either bristly or solicitous when older people offered him advice. With Valentine he was the latter. “Send me three suggestions,” he replied. Valentine did, Jobs met them, and he clicked with one of them, a man named Mike Markkula, who would end up playing a critical role at Apple for the next two decades.

当然，如果仅仅以貌取人，瓦伦丁也不可能成为硅谷的顶尖投资者。让他烦恼的是，乔布斯对市场营销一窍不通,而且满足于到各个电子商店挨家叫卖这种销售模式。“如果你想要我给你投资的话，”瓦伦丁告诉他，“你必须找一个合作伙伴，这个人要了解销售，还要能写商业计划书。”当有长者给乔布斯建议的时候，他有时候会愤怒，有时候则又显得很热切，在瓦伦丁这儿，他表现出的是后者。“给我三个推荐人选吧。”他回复说。瓦伦丁照做了，乔布斯见了这三个人，并与其中一个一拍即合——这个人叫迈克·马库拉，他在苹果公司未来20年的发展中，扮演了关键的角色。

Markkula was only thirty-three, but he had already retired after working at Fairchild and then Intel, where he made millions on his stock options when the chip maker went public. He was a cautious and shrewd man, with the precise moves of someone who had been a gymnast in high school, and he excelled at figuring out pricing strategies, distribution networks, marketing, and finance. Despite being slightly reserved, he had a flashy side when it came to enjoying his newly minted wealth. He built himself a house in Lake Tahoe and later an outsize mansion in the hills of Woodside. When he showed up for his first meeting at Jobs’s garage, he was driving not a dark Mercedes like Valentine, but a highly polished gold Corvette convertible. “When I arrived at the garage, Woz was at the workbench and immediately began showing off the Apple II,” Markkula recalled. “I looked past the fact that both guys needed a haircut and was amazed by what I saw on that workbench. You can always get a haircut.”

马库拉当时才33岁，但已经处于退休状态，之前他先后供职于仙童公司和英特尔，后者上市之后，他凭着股票期权赚了几百万。他是个谨慎而又精明的人，作为髙中时期的体操运动员，每一步行动都力求精准，同时他还精于定价策略、销售网络、市场营销以及财务。在享受自己新赚来的财富时，尽管已经有所克制，但还是显得极尽奢华。他先是在太浩湖边给自己建了一座房子，之后又在伍德赛德的山区建了一座超大豪宅。他第一次去乔布斯的车库与其会面时，没有像瓦伦丁那样开深色奔驰，而是开着一辆锃亮的金色克尔维特（Corvette）敞篷车。“我到车库的时候，沃兹就在工作台边，他立刻就开始展示AppleII，”马库拉回忆说，“我没有太关心他们两个的长头发，而是被桌上的东西吸引了。头发什么时候都可以剪嘛。”

Jobs immediately liked Markkula. “He was short and he had been passed over for the top marketing job at Intel, which I suspect made him want to prove himself.” He also struck Jobs as decent and fair. “You could tell that if he could screw you, he wouldn’t. He had a real moral sense to him.” Wozniak was equally impressed. “I thought he was the nicest person ever,” he recalled. “Better still, he actually liked what we had!”

乔布斯立刻就喜欢上了马库拉。“他个子不髙，在英特尔的时候寻求晋升市场营销的最髙职位遭遇过失败，我觉得这些都让他很想要证明自己。”他的正直和公正也给乔布斯留下了深刻的印象：“你可以看得出来，即便他有能力骗你，他也不会那么做。他有很强的道德意识。”沃兹尼亚克也对他印象颇佳。“我觉得他是世界上最好的人，”他说，“更棒的是，他真的很喜欢我们的产品！”

Markkula proposed to Jobs that they write a business plan together. “If it comes out well, I’ll invest,” Markkula said, “and if not, you’ve got a few weeks of my time for free.” Jobs began going to Markkula’s house in the evenings, kicking around projections and talking through the night. “We made a lot of assumptions, such as about how many houses would have a personal computer, and there were nights we were up until 4 a.m.,” Jobs recalled. Markkula ended up writing most of the plan. “Steve would say, ‘I will bring you this section next time,’ but he usually didn’t deliver on time, so I ended up doing it.”

马库拉向乔布斯提议一起撰写商业计划书。“如果计划出的结果很好，那我就投资，”马库拉说，“如果不好的话，你也免费得到了我好几个星期的时间。”乔布斯开始在晚上拜访马库拉家，考虑各种方案，整夜整夜地谈话。“我们作了很多设想，比如有多少家庭会拥有个人电脑，好几个晚上我们都工作到凌晨4点。”乔布斯回忆说。最终，大部分的计划书是由马库拉完成的。“史蒂夫会说，我下次把这一部分带给你，但他一般都不能准时完成，所以只好我来做。”