A failed Steve Jobs interview to a near accident

(soft music) - [Interviewer] Did you ever interact with Steve? - [Marty] I did, but not on that. Yeah, I interacted with Steve, I should tell you that, because that was a major disappointment. This guy, Steve Jobs seems like he would be a great person to work with cause he's got vision and he appreciates design. It's obvious that we would really hit it off. All I have to do is meet him. And the company was getting all kinds of press, you know, the covers of every magazine and everything. I had been writing articles for Communication Arts-- - [Narrator] Communication Arts, founded in 1959, is the largest trade journal for visual communications, and one of the few magazines still being printed in the industry today. - [Marty] And I got the assignment to do Apple, and I got the introduction that I wanted, to Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs and John Sculley, who Steve Jobs had chosen to run the business while Steve Jobs ran sort of the product part of it. So I'm like, I have to interview both of them, - [Interviewer] Separately or together? - [Marty] Well, it was together. So I'm just going to have them both in the room, ask questions, it's going to be this cool interaction and write a couple of articles, like two cover articles in a row, because that's how important this company was to design. And when I got there with the publisher who I was working with, he wanted to go too and just tag along just because he's in love, you know? (laughs) - [Interviewer] How many times do you get that invitation? - [Marty] Yeah. So, a woman comes up, she says, "I'm Steve's PA, "and you guys can't, are not going to meet together. "Steve's got other things to do, "and he can't really be in this meeting, "but he'll catch up with you later. "So why don't you do John Sculley first "and then you can do Steve." All right. So I interviewed John Sculley and he was a total gentleman. I mean, real professional, just slick as anything. And I'm sure he had this patter down because he was just like pitch perfect. And he would say, "Well, you know, "I don't have a background in technology, but I'm a builder. "I was trained as an architect. "And all of this is all of a piece. "You're building a company, it's like building a building," you know, he went on and on and I'm writing, cause this is good stuff, you know? Okay. So that, after an hour that's done and then I meet Steve in another room and he comes in late and he's looking around and says, "Are you the guy?" (laughs) "I'm writing an article in Communication Arts." He goes, "Oh yeah, okay, all right, let's get going," really in a hurry. And I didn't even get a chance to ask him questions. He said, "No, no, let me show you what we're doing." And he takes me around the room and he says, "Okay, so you know the Macintosh, and that's mine." (laughs) Cause he had already split off part of the company to do his dream while the rest of the company did this stupid old Apple II, you know, in his mind, that's what it was. And he says, "Okay, this product here is a printer. "So it's a laser printer. "And, what's cool about this is now you can print out stuff that was on your computer instead of just looking at the screen, and you can print it out and you can do stuff with it." And you know, this was the whole thing, right? That was what was holding them back. It's like, what could you do with a computer that doesn't output to anything? So I said, "Wow, that's amazing." He says, "Yeah, well, it's all right. "This is a pretty good machine. "We don't make it, We just buy it from another company." And I said, "Yeah, so on the top of the machine, I can see you've changed your logo," right? Cause they had the rainbow striped apple. And he goes, "Oh yeah, yeah, that's brand new. "And it's awesome, I think it's just awesome." And I said, this is where I started to go wrong. Cause in my designer head, I've got, you know, my audience is going to be asking these questions in their minds. And I would say, "It's six colors, six matched colors. "That's expensive stuff for a logo, "especially cause you got a lot of other things you're doing with this machine and to spend a lot of money on just that, do you ever worry about that?" And he started to stiffen already, you know, I could see it and he's going, "It's nothing, it's nothing, it's worth it. "Our logo is everything." And I'm liking this because this is a designer. So I said, "Okay, well that's great!" And he goes, "And it's completely unique. I've never seen a logo that looked like the apple and the bite and everything. I mean, first of its kind." And then I made another mistake. I happened to have a magazine in my briefcase with all my other, it was a recent Communication Arts magazine to show him where he's going to be. - [Marty] And I said, "As a matter of fact, "I'm sort of embarrassed to say this, "but I actually designed one just almost like that "for another company last year. "In fact, it's right here." I open up the annual and there's an apple with a bite taken out of it, which creates kind of a letter C for Creative Education, which was my client. And he just starts to fume and it's like, I never should have done that, what am I thinking? I was trying to impress him because it's kind of a job interview for me. You know, I want to, "Oh, you could have done their logo. "Maybe you can do the next one." (laughs) So no, that's not how he took it. He looked at it and he says, "Ours is better." I said, "Oh yeah, okay, good." And then I tried to leave the subject and he just went on and on about where the logo comes from, how original it was and that there's no way that the designer ever saw mine. It's like, no, come on, everybody reads CA magazine. It was where you get inspired, right? So, maybe he didn't, but anyway, it just went downhill until he finally got up and just said, "I think this interview is over," and walked out. And I went home thinking, "Oh man, how could I do that?" I was like, this is my chance! But I got enough stuff to write the article. And so a couple of days later I'm, my wife was, you know, my support in those days, and she would transcribe all the tapes I made So I could write articles from them. Cause you got to gather up your quotes and you've got to make a timeline for yourself and all this kind of stuff. And she did that part and she's, um, I'm working on some client work and she's on the other corner and she's got her headphones on and she's transcribing the tapes with a little machine that I got her and I hear this, like, groan and then smash, she throws her headphones against the wall. And she says, "Who is this guy?" I said, "I believe you're talking about Steve Jobs." She goes, "What an asshole!" (laughs) I said, "What do you mean?" She goes, "He's so arrogant! "He's just like, he thinks he knows everything! "How could you work with anybody like that?" And I said, "I don't think we have to worry about that." (laughs) - [Interviewer] "I took care of that." - [Marty] "I took care of it." (laughs) So that was my first meeting. And that was it for actually working together on anything. But then there was another time when I almost ran over him. (tires screech) And that was the second time. - [Interviewer] Whoa! What do you mean, you almost ran over Steve Jobs? - [Marty] I, you know, with my car. - [Interviewer] Yeah, where? - [Marty] This is years later, after the iPod came out. And well, you know, in the meantime, this whole Silicon Valley thing had worked out pretty well for us. We were doing pretty well. We bought a house in Old Palo Alto, which is where Steve Jobs also lived, like a couple blocks away. And it's beautiful there. I mean, it's like older houses. People take care of them, there's nice trees. And there's so many trees, though, that it's kind of like you live in a park and you have to be careful if you don't know the neighborhood, because some of the stop signs are hidden by trees and everything. So I just don't take any chances when I'm there. Every intersection I slow down. So, I'm going to work one day and I'm driving my somewhat heavy car down the street, and I see someone look like they're going to cross the street right in front of me and this guy's not looking. And sure enough, he steps off the curb. I know he's not paying attention cause he's got these white wires coming out of his ears. He steps off in front of me and I slam on the brakes. I mean really screeched to a halt like six inches from him. Then he jumps back and turns around, and it's Steve Jobs. (laughs) And I'm, first I kind of laughed. Then my hands started shaking on the steering wheel and I thought, "Oh my God, I almost killed Steve Jobs." What would the Wall Street Journal look like tomorrow morning? There'd be this beautiful engraving, you know how they used to do, of Steve Jobs, and say, "The Founder of Apple Dead At 52 Years Old," or whatever he was. - [Interviewer] "Thanks For the Memories." Yeah, and my picture down below, "The Man Who Killed Design in America" would be there. He apologized and I apologized, and he didn't remember me from before. This is like 10, 20 years later. So, those were the two times I met Steve Jobs. (laughs) - [Interviewer] That's awesome!