Great Artist

Chapter 85: Apple Godfather

“Don’t live for others”, this is a classic Steve Jobs quote, the biggest irony of Gu Luobei’s last life, and what Gu Luobei is doing in his life.

When it comes to Steve Jobs, you can add a string of embellishments in front of his name, inventor, entrepreneur, co-founder of Apple, and genius who changed the world. Steve Jobs single-handedly brought Apple to the top of the world, profoundly changing the way of modern communication, entertainment, and even life. He not only led Apple to create d, ne and other appliances that are closely related to life, but also entered the Pixar animation studio, creating a new animation era.

Gu Luobei did not expect that he would meet Steve Jobs. To be precise, he did not expect that the commercialization of digital music would attract Steve Jobs’ attention. From this, we can see that this Apple Godfather’s keen observation.

Steve Jobs, who is over forty-five years old, has gray hair that is only the length of his head, and his mottled beard looks slovenly. He wears a black pullover sweater and washed blue jeans, just like an ordinary middle-aged man. Young people can’t even feel the “overlord’s spirit” of the superiors, but instead have a casual intimacy. However, with those wise eyes, through the round glasses, a powerful light of confidence flickered, and at the corners of his mouth, Gu Luobei read something called “arrogant”. Persistence, maybe, that’s what Steve Jobs is about.

“I met my wife here, it should be in the late 1980s. But 20 years later, the scenery here has not changed much [Dzi Bead Change], the old iron gate, the thick brick wall, And the ivy tangled in buildings, walls, flower stands… Even the bookishness in the air hasn’t changed [dzi change].” Steve Jobs didn’t seem to be here to talk business at all, but rather It is a general tour of old alumni returning to campus.

After receiving a call from Andy Rosen, Gu Luobei walked out of the dormitory and saw Steve Jobs and Andy Rosen, and the three of them walked around the campus. Gu Luobei and Steve Jobs walked side by side, and Andy Rosen followed less than two meters behind.

“Do you mean the smell in the old classroom that I don’t know if it’s a musty smell or a scent? We prefer to be a pedantic, an old pedantic atmosphere.” Gu Luobei has calmed down after the surprise at the first meeting. , After all, Steve – Jobs will not eat people, there is nothing to be nervous.

On the campus of Harvard University, students can be seen hurriedly passing by with books in between. On the riverside and on the lawn, young people in twos and threes are either concentrating on studying or having heated discussions. The atmosphere of learning is indeed very strong. Looking around, Harvard is like a sea of red walls and green shades, and each building is like a boat, representing all kinds of bell towers of each college or school, just like the masts of a ship. Directly pointing to the blue sky, shining brightly.

“Harvard has indeed produced a lot of talents, this kind of pedantry is the dream of countless students.” Steve Jobs said with a smile, looking at the students on the lawn thoughtfully, but Gu Luobei would not take it seriously , Everyone knows that Steve Jobs dropped out of college, but still created the miracle of Apple. Reading and career will be linked, but not absolutely related. “You are from the medical department? It is estimated that you will have a very good prospect in the business school. Why didn’t you consider it at the beginning? The talents of Harvard Business School are very sought-after.”

When Gu Luobei heard this, he kept calm, and just replied indifferently, “Because I like it.” This sentence attracted the second meeting of eyes between Steve Jobs and Gu Luobei. Once was when we greeted each other at the door of the dormitory.

Speaking of the business school, the group of three passed by the business school. The dome of the clock tower of the business school shone with a golden brilliance in the afternoon sun, which was also jokingly called by the students of other schools”This is the most beautiful thing in the business school. A symbol of money”, in fact, this is just a color used by various colleges to distinguish them.

Steve Jobs looked at the splendid brilliance of the dome of the clock tower, and the smile on the corner of his mouth was calm and confident, “Mr. Bell, how do you think the value of a plan should be judged?”

This is a problem for Gu Luobei from the medical school, but he seems to have expected this problem for a long time, and he said slowly, “In my opinion, the value of a plan should be It depends on the company or person who implements the plan. For the same plan, some companies can create hundreds of millions of dollars in value, while some companies will bankrupt themselves. The plan is dead, but how it operates is alive. In the right hands, there is enough value.

Sly guy. This was Andy Rosen’s first thought. After several confrontations, Andy Rosen had to admit that this teenager who had never been involved in the business field had insufficient professional knowledge, but his vision and means were sufficient. The most important thing was What’s more, he is very clear where the bottom line is, which allows him to always make the most reasonable judgment.

Steve Jobs seemed to have expected Gu Luobei’s answer, and he didn’t find it strange, but went on, “In your opinion, as for Apple’s plan for commercializing digital music, it should be How much is it worth?”

Gu Luobei knew that the answer to this question would not be “1% of iTunes music sales”, but let him answer a specific number, “10 million dollars.” Gu Luobei gave his own answer. Answer.

Steve Jobs laughed twice, “Mr. Bell has a good eye. No wonder he refused to give in on the 1% figure.” too high. Therefore, Gu Luobei wisely chose a long-term investment, taking 1% of iTunes music sales. Apple does not need to spend a penny, but it will unconditionally distribute dividends for Gu Luobei every year in the future.

“If there is no other plan, then I am afraid that we will not be able to make this deal. I think Sony will be very interested in this plan.” Steve Jobs is really old-fashioned and decisively denied this possibility.

This is the fourth negotiation between Gu Luobei and Apple, and both parties have already had relatively mature negotiations on various conditions. Steve Jobs also had a clear understanding of his bottom line, so he didn’t make this decision rashly.

But Gu Luobei didn’t panic at all. If Steve Jobs just listened to a “$10 million” figure and refused to cooperate, he didn’t need to come to Boston to find Gu Luobei in person. This refusal is just telling Gu Luobei that Apple’s bottom line is not iTunes music sales dividends, nor ten million dollars.

This “10 million US dollars”, Gu Luobei is indeed open to the lion, but it is not without strategy.

Gu Luobei remembered reading in an official Apple statistical report that from January 2003 to January 2006, iTunes music retailing brought in $160 million in sales for Apple. This is only in the early days of the development of the digital music business model. By 2008, the sales volume of music singles had increased fivefold compared to 2006, and the revenue had doubled exponentially.

1% of the $160 million is 1.6 million, so in the future, this number will definitely continue to rise. Ten million dollars, in the next ten years, is not too much, or even a small amount, but as a plan, it cannot be used to calculate the value, this is just used by Gu Luobei to test Steve- Jobs’ bottom line numbers.

Gu Luobei knew that although he had the plan, he had the initiative, but it was not an absolute advantage, so he did not insist on it any longer, but said with a smile, “Then, let’s trade with one hammer, but I want to replace it with an equivalent value. of Apple stock.”

Brilliant! Steve Jobs looked at Gu Luobei’s eyes for the third time, and the light flashed through the lens, even more dazzling than the sunlight behind him. Gu Luobei’s true purpose finally revealed his face, what he wanted was always Apple’s stock, not iTunes dividends, nor cash!

“Why?” Steve Jobs was more interested in this teenager. Before today’s meeting, he had made several assumptions, but there was no conjecture about stocks. “Hehe, I think you didn’t read last year’s report. The year-end summary report, you will be interested in our company’s stock.”

Gu Luobei smiled, a big bright smile, with a young man’s arrogance and debauchery, which reminded Steve Jobs of the time when he founded Apple. Youth is always remembered.

“Mr. Jobs, are you losing confidence in your company?” Gu Luobei said with a smile, those azure blue eyes flashed with confidence, and in the depths of the eyes, there was a playful, old-fashioned history Steve Jobs captured it acutely! “As an investor, I am optimistic about the prospects of Apple, and decided to invest in a plan, but Mr. Jobs has no confidence in his company, which is indeed very rare~www.readwn.com~ Apple has experienced an unpleasant 2000 In 2018, after small profits were achieved in spring and summer, large losses occurred in autumn and winter, and while the market share declined, stock prices fell sharply. This situation was not relieved until the launch of d at the beginning of this year. The stock price recovered slowly in January and February, but after entering March, the recovery momentum weakened, and there was some downward momentum.

In this case, Gu Luobei’s plan to realize the commercialization of digital music appeared. Although there is no effective means of maintaining digital music copyright, if the digital music download mode can be launched and run successfully, it will be very important for Apple. That said, it is undoubtedly crucial.

At this time, Gu Luobei actually proposed to exchange the plan for stocks. Steve Jobs found clues sensitively. Could it be that Gu Luobei is so confident in Apple? As a company leader, Steve Jobs exhausted his energy in order to run the company. Of course he has confidence, and he must have confidence. But as an outsider, a little-known independent musician, to have such confidence, it is worth pondering!

First update today.

Huh, it’s on the shelves, please ask for a monthly pass, hehe.