It immediately became clear that, whether or not he wanted to admit it publicly (or even to himself), Jobs was going to take control and not be a mere advisor. As soon as he came onstage that day—wearing shorts, sneakers, and a black turtleneck—he got to work reinvigorating his beloved institution. “Okay, tell me what’s wrong with this place,” he said. There were some murmurings, but Jobs cut them off. “It’s the products!” he answered. “So what’s wrong with the products?” Again there were a few attempts at an answer, until Jobs broke in to hand down the correct answer. “The products suck!” he shouted. “There’s no sex in them anymore!”

事實很明顯，無論是否愿意公開承認（或甚至向他自己承認），他都即將控制大局，而不僅僅是當一個“顧問”。那天他一登上舞臺——穿著短褲、運動鞋和他標志性的黑色套頭衫——就開始再次激發他熱愛的這家公司的活力。“好了，告訴我這個地方出了什么問題。”他說。下面有些竊竊私語，喬布斯打斷了他們。“是產品出了問題！”他回答,“那么產品出了什么問題？”下面又有些人嘗試回答，喬布斯給出了正確答案。“產品糟透了！”他嚷道，“它們不再性感了！”

Woolard was able to coax Jobs to agree that his role as an advisor would be a very active one. Jobs approved a statement saying that he had “agreed to step up my involvement with Apple for up to 90 days, helping them until they hire a new CEO.” The clever formulation that Woolard used in his statement was that Jobs was coming back “as an advisor leading the team.”

伍拉德成功地說服喬布斯同意，他擔任的這個“顧問”將是個很活躍的角色。喬布斯批準了一個聲明，說他已經“同意在蘋果深入工作90天，幫助他們，直到他們找到新的CEO”。而伍拉德在這個聲明里用了個巧妙的說法，喬布斯回來“做一個統領團隊的顧問”。

Jobs took a small office next to the boardroom on the executive floor, conspicuously eschewing Amelio’s big corner office. He got involved in all aspects of the business: product design, where to cut, supplier negotiations, and advertising agency review. He believed that he had to stop the hemorrhaging of top Apple employees, and to do so he wanted to reprice their stock options. Apple stock had dropped so low that the options had become worthless. Jobs wanted to lower the exercise price, so they would be valuable again. At the time, that was legally permissible, but it was not considered good corporate practice. On his first Thursday back at Apple, Jobs called for a telephonic board meeting and outlined the problem. The directors balked. They asked for time to do a legal and financial study of what the change would mean. “It has to be done fast,” Jobs told them. “We’re losing good people.”

喬布斯用了行政樓層董事會會議室旁邊的一間小辦公室，明顯地避開阿梅里奧在角落里的大辦公室。他參與到公司業務的所有方面：產品設計，業務整合，供應商談判，以及廣告代理商評估。他還認為必須止住蘋果高層員工的流失，所以他決定，要給他們的股票期權重新定價。蘋果股票已經跌了太多，期權已經變得毫無意義。喬布斯想降低行杈價格，這樣期杈就又有價值了。當時這在法律上行得通，但是不被認為是良好的公司行為。在回到蘋果的第一個周四，喬布斯召集了董事會電話會議，提出了這個問題。董事們猶豫不決。他們讓他作一下法律和財務研究，看看這個變化意味著什么。“這事必須要盡快做，”喬布斯告訴他們，“我們正在流失人才。”