Although Jobs was still nominally the board’s chairman, he had not been to any meetings since he lost power. He called Sculley, said he was going to attend, and asked that an item be added to the end of the agenda for a “chairman’s report.” He didn’t say what it was about, and Sculley assumed it would be a criticism of the latest reorganization. Instead, when his turn came to speak, Jobs described to the board his plans to start a new company. “I’ve been thinking a lot, and it’s time for me to get on with my life,” he began. “It’s obvious that I’ve got to do something. I’m thirty years old.” Then he referred to some prepared notes to describe his plan to create a computer for the higher education market. The new company would not be competitive with Apple, he promised, and he would take with him only a handful of non-key personnel. He offered to resign as chairman of Apple, but he expressed hope that they could work together. Perhaps Apple would want to buy the distribution rights to his product, he suggested, or license Macintosh software to it.

盡管喬布斯名義上仍然是該公司的董事長，但自從失去實權后，他就再沒有參加過蘋果公司的任何會議。他打電話給斯卡利，說自己要參加這一天的董事會會議，并要求在議程最后加上一項“董事長報告”。他沒有告訴斯卡利自己要報告什么，斯卡利以為他會對最新的重組進行批評。相反，喬布斯在會議上描述了自己創(chuàng)辦新公司的計劃。“我想了很多，現(xiàn)在是時候繼續(xù)我的生活了廣他以此開始自己的發(fā)言，“很明顯，我該做些什么了。我才30歲。”然后，他根據(jù)已經(jīng)準備好的便箋，描述了自己的計劃——為髙等教育市場開發(fā)一款計算機。他承諾，新公司不會同蘋果公司存在競爭關系，并且只會帶走少數(shù)非關鍵員工。他提出辭去蘋果公司董事長一職，但希望仍能與蘋果公司合作。喬布斯提議，也許蘋果愿意購買其產(chǎn)品的經(jīng)銷權，或者授權新公司的產(chǎn)品使用麥金塔軟件。

Mike Markkula rankled at the possibility that Jobs would hire anyone from Apple. “Why would you take anyone at all?” he asked.

對于喬布斯可能會聘請?zhí)O果員工，邁克·馬庫拉頗有微詞。

“Don’t get upset,” Jobs assured him and the rest of the board. “These are very low-level people that you won’t miss, and they will be leaving anyway.”

“你憑什么帶走任何一個人？”他質(zhì)問喬布斯。“別生氣，”喬布斯向他保證，“我要帶走的都是些級別很低的員工，你們不會想念他們的，況且，他們反正都要辭職了。”

The board initially seemed disposed to wish Jobs well in his venture. After a private discussion, the directors even proposed that Apple take a 10% stake in the new company and that Jobs remain on the board.

董事會最初表示希望喬布斯的新公司能一切順利。私下討論后，董事們甚至提議，蘋果公司可以向這家新公司注資，占據(jù)10%的股份，并且讓喬布斯仍然留在蘋果公司董事會。

That night Jobs and his five renegades met again at his house for dinner. He was in favor of taking the Apple investment, but the others convinced him it was unwise. They also agreed that it would be best if they resigned all at once, right away. Then they could make a clean break.

當晚，喬布斯連同5名“反叛的海盜”又一次在他家見面吃晚飯。喬布斯愿意接受蘋果公司的投資，但是在座的其他人認為這樣做不明智，并說服了他。他們還一致認為，最好現(xiàn)在馬上一起辭職，這樣就能和蘋果公司一刀兩斷了。

So Jobs wrote a formal letter telling Sculley the names of the five who would be leaving, signed it in his spidery lowercase signature, and drove to Apple the next morning to hand it to him before his 7:30 staff meeting.

因此，喬布斯寫了一封正式信函，告知斯卡利將要辭職的5位員工的姓名，并附上自己精巧的小寫簽名。第二天一早喬布斯就開車前往蘋果公司，趕在7點半的員工會議之前將這封信交給了斯卡利。

“Steve, these are not low-level people,” Sculley said.

“史蒂夫，這些都不是低級別職員。”斯卡利讀完信后說道。

“Well, these people were going to resign anyway,” Jobs replied. “They are going to be handing in their resignations by nine this morning.”

“好吧，但這些人早晚都會辭職，”喬布斯回答說，“他們會在今天上午9點之前遞交辭職信。”

From Jobs’s perspective, he had been honest. The five were not division managers or members of Sculley’s top team. They had all felt diminished, in fact, by the company’s new organization. But from Sculley’s perspective, these were important players; Page was an Apple Fellow, and Lewin was a key to the higher education market. In addition, they knew about the plans for Big Mac; even though it had been shelved, this was still proprietary information. Nevertheless Sculley was sanguine. Instead of pushing the point, he asked Jobs to remain on the board. Jobs replied that he would think about it.

從喬布斯的角度來看，自己是誠實的。這5位準備棄船的員工并非部門經(jīng)理，也不是斯卡利髙層團隊的成員。事實上，他們都覺得公司的重組削弱了自己的杈力。但在斯卡利看來，這些都是重要的員工：佩奇是蘋果公司的資深員工，盧因是蘋果在高等教育市場的關鍵人物。而且，他們知道大Mac計劃，雖然該計劃已被束之髙閣，但是這仍然屬于專右信息。不過，斯卡利看上去很樂觀，至少最開始是如此。他沒有駁回這一提議，而是詢問喬布斯是否會留在董事會。喬布斯表示自己會考慮一下。

But when Sculley walked into his 7:30 staff meeting and told his top lieutenants who was leaving, there was an uproar. Most of them felt that Jobs had breached his duties as chairman and displayed stunning disloyalty to the company. “We should expose him for the fraud that he is so that people here stop regarding him as a messiah,” Campbell shouted, according to Sculley.

7點半，斯卡利走進會議室，吿訴自己的高級職員團隊，公司里將有哪些人要離幵。會場一片嘩然。大多數(shù)人認為，喬布斯違反了董事長的職責，并且對公司表現(xiàn)出驚人的不忠。據(jù)斯卡利回憶，坎貝爾當時大喊道：“我們應該曝光他的欺詐行為，這樣蘋果公司的人就不會繼續(xù)把他當做救世主！”

Campbell admitted that, although he later became a great Jobs defender and supportive board member, he was ballistic that morning. “I was fucking furious, especially about him taking Dan’l Lewin,” he recalled. “Dan’l had built the relationships with the universities. He was always muttering about how hard it was to work with Steve, and then he left.” Campbell was so angry that he walked out of the meeting to call Lewin at home. When his wife said he was in the shower, Campbell said, “I’ll wait.” A few minutes later, when she said he was still in the shower, Campbell again said, “I’ll wait.” When Lewin finally came on the phone, Campbell asked him if it was true. Lewin acknowledged it was. Campbell hung up without saying another word.

盡管坎貝爾后來成為了喬布斯真正的擁護者和董事會成員里的支持者，但他承認自己那天早上的確火藥味兒十足。“我非常非常憤怒，尤其是他要帶走丹·盧因，”坎貝爾說，“盧因已經(jīng)同髙校建立了關系。他總在嘟囔和史蒂夫共事多么難，可現(xiàn)在卻要走人。”事實上，坎貝爾氣得走出會議室，往盧因家里打電話。盧因的妻子說他正在洗澡，坎貝爾就說：“我等著。”幾分鐘后，她說盧因還在洗。坎貝爾又說了一遍：“我等著。”盧因最后終于接了電話，坎貝爾問他喬布斯說的是不是真的。盧因承認是的，坎貝爾聽了什么都沒說，掛了電話。