Seven Days in May

关键七天：1985年5月

Thursday, May 23: At his regular Thursday meeting with his top lieutenants in the Macintosh division, Jobs told his inner circle about his plan to oust Sculley. He also confided in the corporate human resources director, Jay Elliot, who told him bluntly that the proposed rebellion wouldn’t work. Elliot had talked to some board members and urged them to stand up for Jobs, but he discovered that most of the board was with Sculley, as were most members of Apple’s senior staff. Yet Jobs barreled ahead. He even revealed his plans to Gassée on a walk around the parking lot, despite the fact that Gassée had come from Paris to take his job. “I made the mistake of telling Gassée,” Jobs wryly conceded years later.

5月23日，周四：在麦金塔部门的髙层例会上，乔布斯向核心成员讲述了自己推翻斯卡利的计划，还画了一张图表以说明自己将如何重组公司。他还向公司人力资源总监杰伊·埃利奥特透露了这个计划，埃利奥特直言这个阴谋不会成功。埃利奥特曾和一些董事会成员谈过，力劝他们支持乔布斯，但他发现大多数董事都站在斯卡利一边，苹果公司的大多数髙级职员也是一样。尽管如此，乔布斯执意要将这个计划进行到底。他甚至还在去停车场的路上将自己的计划透露给了加西，而加西来这里正是为了接替他的工作。“我把这事告诉了加西，这是个错误。”乔布斯多年后自我挖苦道。

That evening Apple’s general counsel Al Eisenstat had a small barbecue at his home for Sculley, Gassée, and their wives. When Gassée told Eisenstat what Jobs was plotting, he recommended that Gassée inform Sculley. “Steve was trying to raise a cabal and have a coup to get rid of John,” Gassée recalled. “In the den of Al Eisenstat’s house, I put my index finger lightly on John’s breastbone and said, ‘If you leave tomorrow for China, you could be ousted. Steve’s plotting to get rid of you.’”

当晚，苹果的法律总顾问阿尔·艾森斯塔特在自己家为斯卡利夫妇和加西夫妇举办了一个小型的烧烤聚会。当加西告诉艾森斯塔特乔布斯的密谋时，艾森斯塔特建议他通知斯卡利。“史蒂夫正在策划阴谋，想要发动政变除掉约翰，”加西回忆说，“在阿尔·艾森斯塔特家，我用食指轻轻指着约翰的胸口，说，‘如果你明天出发去中国，就会被取代。史蒂夫正密谋除掉你。’”

Friday, May 24: Sculley canceled his trip and decided to confront Jobs at the executive staff meeting on Friday morning. Jobs arrived late, and he saw that his usual seat next to Sculley, who sat at the head of the table, was taken. He sat instead at the far end. He was dressed in a well-tailored suit and looked energized. Sculley looked pale. He announced that he was dispensing with the agenda to confront the issue on everyone’s mind. “It’s come to my attention that you’d like to throw me out of the company,” he said, looking directly at Jobs. “I’d like to ask you if that’s true.”

5月24日，周五：斯卡利取消了自己的中国之行，决定在周五上午的苹果公司高级职员大会上与乔布斯对质。乔布斯迟到了，他发现自己平时的座位被人占了，他平时坐在会议桌的一头，旁边是斯卡利。于是，他挑了个最远的位置坐下。他穿着量身定做的威尔克斯·巴什福德西装，看起来精神饱满。斯卡利面色苍白，向大家宣布，自己取消了今天的安排，来此解决所有人心中的问题。“我注意到你想把我赶出公司。”他说道，眼睛直视乔布斯，“我想问问你，这是真的吗？”

Jobs was not expecting this. But he was never shy about indulging in brutal honesty. His eyes narrowed, and he fixed Sculley with his unblinking stare. “I think you’re bad for Apple, and I think you’re the wrong person to run the company,” he replied, coldly and slowly. “You really should leave this company. You don’t know how to operate and never have.” He accused Sculley of not understanding the product development process, and then he added a self-centered swipe: “I wanted you here to help me grow, and you’ve been ineffective in helping me.”

乔布斯没料到会这样。但是他从不羞于表达自己残忍的诚实。他眯着眼，眨都不眨地盯着斯卡利。“我觉得你对苹果公司有害，而且我认为，你是管理公司的错误人选。”他语调冰冷、不慌不忙地回答道，“你真的应该离开苹果。你不知道如何经营，也从来没有经营过公司。”他指责斯卡利不理解产品开发流程，接着他又抛出了一句尖刻的、以自我为中心的话，“我要你来是为了助我一臂之力，可是你从来没有帮到过我。”

As the rest of the room sat frozen, Sculley finally lost his temper. A childhood stutter that had not afflicted him for twenty years started to return. “I don’t trust you, and I won’t tolerate a lack of trust,” he stammered. When Jobs claimed that he would be better than Sculley at running the company, Sculley took a gamble. He decided to poll the room on that question. “He pulled off this clever maneuver,” Jobs recalled, still smarting thirty-five years later. “It was at the executive committee meeting, and he said, ‘It’s me or Steve, who do you vote for?’ He set the whole thing up so that you’d kind of have to be an idiot to vote for me.”

会议室里其他人都一动不动地坐着，斯卡利终于发火了。他小时候有过口吃，但已经20年没犯了，现在他又结巴起来。“我不信任你，我也不能容忍缺乏信任。”他结结巴巴地说道。当乔布斯声称，在经营企业方面，他比斯卡利更好时，斯卡利决定赌一把，他让房间里的所有人对这个问题进行投票。“他通过这个聪明的举动赢了。”乔布斯回忆道，这件事在35年后仍然让他觉得痛楚，“当时是执行委员会的会议，斯卡利说，‘我，还是史蒂夫，你们选吧。’他设计了这整件事，从而让人觉得，选我的人肯定是白痴。”

Suddenly the frozen onlookers began to squirm. Del Yocam had to go first. He said he loved Jobs, wanted him to continue to play some role in the company, but he worked up the nerve to conclude, with Jobs staring at him, that he “respected” Sculley and would support him to run the company. Eisenstat faced Jobs directly and said much the same thing: He liked Jobs but was supporting Sculley. Regis McKenna, who sat in on senior staff meetings as an outside consultant, was more direct. He looked at Jobs and told him he was not yet ready to run the company, something he had told him before. Others sided with Sculley as well. For Bill Campbell, it was particularly tough. He was fond of Jobs and didn’t particularly like Sculley. His voice quavered a bit as he told Jobs he had decided to support Sculley, and he urged the two of them to work it out and find some role for Jobs to play in the company. “You can’t let Steve leave this company,” he told Sculley.

突然，纹丝不动的旁观者们骚动起来。德尔·约克姆不得不第一个发言，他说自己欣赏乔布斯，希望他能继续在公司发挥一定的作用。虽然乔布斯盯着他，但是约克姆鼓起勇气总结说，他“尊重”斯卡利并会支持他管理公司。艾森斯塔特直面乔布斯，说了差不多的话：他欣赏乔布斯，但是支持斯卡利。里吉斯·麦肯纳是一位外部顾问，坐在一群高级职员之间，他的回答更直接。他看着乔布斯，说他还没有准备好管理公司，这句话他之前也对乔布斯说过。其他人也支持斯卡利。对于比尔·坎贝尔来说，这个抉择尤为艰难。他很欣赏乔布斯，但并不是特别欣赏斯卡利。当告诉乔布斯自己有多欣赏他时，坎贝尔的声音抖了一下。虽然决定支持斯卡利，但是他敦促乔布斯和斯卡利解决彼此之间的问题，并让乔布斯在公司里担任别的职位。“你不能让史蒂夫离开苹果。”他告诉斯卡利。

Jobs looked shattered. “I guess I know where things stand,” he said, and bolted out of the room. No one followed.

乔布斯看上去都快崩溃了。“我想我知道大家的立场了。”他说完冲出了房间。没有人追上去。

He went back to his office, gathered his longtime loyalists on the Macintosh staff, and started to cry. He would have to leave Apple, he said. As he started to walk out the door, Debi Coleman restrained him. She and the others urged him to settle down and not do anything hasty. He should take the weekend to regroup. Perhaps there was a way to prevent the company from being torn apart.

他回到自己的办公室，召集了麦金塔团队共事已久的心腹成员，忍不住开始哭泣。他说自己有必要离开苹果。当他快走出办公室的门时，黛比·科尔曼拦住了他。她和其他人劝他静下心来，不要轻举妄动，他应该在周末重组团队，也许能想到办法阻止苹果公司分裂。

Sculley was devastated by his victory. Like a wounded warrior, he retreated to Eisenstat’s office and asked the corporate counsel to go for a ride. When they got into Eisenstat’s Porsche, Sculley lamented, “I don’t know whether I can go through with this.” When Eisenstat asked what he meant, Sculley responded, “I think I’m going to resign.”

斯卡利被自己的胜利击毁了。他像一个受伤的战士，走进公司顾问阿尔·艾森斯塔特的办公室，并要他一起去兜兜风。当他们坐上艾森斯塔特的保时捷时，斯卡利悲叹道：“我不知道自己是否能继续做下去。”艾森斯塔特询问他是什么意思，斯卡利回答说：“我想我会辞职。

“You can’t,” Eisenstat protested. “Apple will fall apart.”

“你不能，”艾森斯塔特抗议道，“苹果会垮的。”

“I’m going to resign,” Sculley declared. “I don’t think I’m right for the company.”

“我打算辞职，”斯卡利重申道，“我觉得自己不是管理苹果的正确人选。你能打电话给董事会并告诉他们吗？”

“I think you’re copping out,” Eisenstat replied. “You’ve got to stand up to him.” Then he drove Sculley home.

“我会的。”艾森斯塔特回答说，“但是，我觉得你这是在逃避。你得勇敢地面对他。”然后，他开车把斯卡利送回了家。

Sculley’s wife was surprised to see him back in the middle of the day. “I’ve failed,” he said to her forlornly. She was a volatile woman who had never liked Jobs or appreciated her husband’s infatuation with him. So when she heard what had happened, she jumped into her car and sped over to Jobs’s office. Informed that he had gone to the Good Earth restaurant, she marched over there and confronted him in the parking lot as he was coming out with loyalists on his Macintosh team.

斯卡利的妻子利兹很惊讶看到丈夫在中午就回来，“我失败了。”他神色落寞地对利兹说。利兹是个心理不稳定的女人，她从来都不喜欢乔布斯，也不赞赏丈夫对乔布斯的迷恋。因此，在听说发生了什么事后，她跳上自己的车，一路加速来到乔布斯的办公室。得知乔布斯已经前往美好地球餐厅，她又赶到那里。在停车场，乔布斯正同黛比·科尔曼及其他麦金塔核心成员走下车来。利兹径直走到他面前。