#235 Steve Jobs (The Pixar Story)

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one-time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like The Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer, but if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets, they're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. Steve Jobs had been hunting for a CFO of Pixar and reached out to Jordan, who agreed to meet Jobs for breakfast.
I show up in my suit jacket, Jordan recalled, and Jobs walks in in torn clothes 20 minutes late.
Jobs had only two interview questions for Jordan. Question one, you went to Stanford Business School in the late 80s, and then you're in the center of the company creation universe in the most exciting time in the world, and you became a fucking management consultant?
Question two, how could you work at Disney for eight years? Those guys are fucking bozos.
Jordan saw the questions for what they were, a Steve Jobs stress test.
I'll cop to the first one, Jordan said. It took me 10 years to find my way back here, but I'm back and I'm here to stay.
On the question of Disney, he pushed back hard. You're wrong on Disney, he said. Then he explained that Disney Stores, which he was previously the CFO of, had higher consumer ratings than the Disney theme parks.
Jobs seemed satisfied and pitched Jordan on Pixar. Jordan demurred. He had just been a CFO and he was looking for something different.
Jobs proposed that Jordan join Apple instead.
I have this new vision for Apple Stores, Jobs said, and proceeded to outline a re-imagined shopping experience from the ground up.
Jordan thought Jobs was delusional and politely declined the offer.
Of course, Jordan said of Jobs' retail concept, he nailed it.
That is an excerpt not from the book that I'm gonna talk to you about today, but a book I did two podcasts ago on episode number 233 That is The Founders, the story of PayPal and the entrepreneurs who shaped Silicon Valley, and it was written by Jimmy Sony. And that is a footnote in the book of a previously at least new to me, Steve Jobs story. And the reason I started with that is because the author of the book that I'm gonna talk to you about today, which is To Pixar and Beyond, My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History, written by Lawrence Levy. Levy was the first CFO of Pixar recruited by Steve Jobs. And that was the person he had retired or he went on sabbatical and moved to the board of directors of Pixar. And in that interview, Steve is trying to find somebody to succeed him. And it's always amazing to me how so many of these stories fit together and are related in some fashion or form. So I'm gonna jump into this book. I wanna jump into the prologue. And in the prologue, Lawrence tells us what this book is about. It's about the very early history of Pixar and the reason that I'm bringing it to your attention is because I think by reading about the very early days of Pixar, we get more insights to how Steve Jobs thought about building companies. And so Lawrence brings with the fact that Walt Disney has just agreed to pay $7.6 billion for Pixar. And how unlikely an outcome like that would have been when, if you told him that, when he started at Pixar back in 94 So he says, when I first started talking to Steve about Pixar, a little more than 10 years earlier in late 1994, the company had burned through almost $50 million of his money, with little to show for it. The value assigned to Pixar's stockholders on its financial statements at that time was negative $50 million. Now Steve's investment in Pixar had made him one of the wealthiest individuals in the world.