Why did Jobs not seize the reins? Why was he reluctant to grab the job that for two decades he had seemed to desire? When I asked him, he said:

為什么喬布斯不抓住這個機會？為什么他會不想接受這個20年來他看似很渴望的工作？當我問他這些問題時，他說：

We’d just taken Pixar public, and I was happy being CEO there. I never knew of anyone who served as CEO of two public companies, even temporarily, and I wasn’t even sure it was legal. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was enjoying spending more time with my family. I was torn. I knew Apple was a mess, so I wondered: Do I want to give up this nice lifestyle that I have? What are all the Pixar shareholders going to think? I talked to people I respected. I finally called Andy Grove at about eight one Saturday morning—too early. I gave him the pros and the cons, and in the middle he stopped me and said, “Steve, I don’t give a shit about Apple.” I was stunned. It was then I realized that I do give a shit about Apple—I started it and it is a good thing to have in the world. That was when I decided to go back on a temporary basis to help them hire a CEO.

我們剛剛把皮克斯做上市，我很高興在那兒做CEO。我從未聽說過有人同時做兩家上市公司的CEO，即使是臨時的，我甚至不確定那是否合法。我不知道我該怎么做，或我想怎么做。我很喜歡有更多時間跟家人在一起。我左右為難。我知道蘋果的情況一團糟，所以我想：我愿意放棄現在這么好的生活方式嗎？皮克斯的股東們會怎么想？我跟一些我尊重的人進行討論，最后在一個周六的早晨給安迪·格魯夫打電話——實在太早了。我給他列舉好處和壞處，說到一半他打斷我說：“史蒂夫，我才不在乎蘋果會怎么樣。”我愣住了。就是在那個時刻，我認識到我是在乎蘋果的——我創建了它，它的存在對世界是件好事。就是在那個時候，我決定暫時回去幫他們招聘CEO。

The claim that he was enjoying spending more time with his family was not convincing. He was never destined to win a Father of the Year trophy, even when he had spare time on his hands. He was getting better at paying heed to his children, especially Reed, but his primary focus was on his work. He was frequently aloof from his two younger daughters, estranged again from Lisa, and often prickly as a husband.

實際上，皮克斯的員工們很髙興喬布斯可以少一點兒時間在公司。他們私下（有時甚至公開）表示，他們很興奮現在蘋果要占用喬布斯的時間了。埃德·卡特穆爾曾是個不錯的CEO,他很容易就可以重操舊業，正式或非正式地接管公司。至于享受跟家人在一起的時光，喬布斯是注定永遠不可能獲得“年度最佳父親”獎的，哪怕在他有大把空閑時間的時候。他在給予孩子關注方面有所進步，尤其是對里德，但是他主要的關注點還是他的工作。他對兩個小女兒經常是有距離而冷淡的，跟麗薩又鬧矛盾，作為一個丈夫也常常是脾氣暴躁。