To lure PepsiCo president John Sculley to Apple in 1983, Steve Jobs asked him one question: “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?” Sculley took the job.
Before Apple, Jobs took an Atari job to design the arcade game Breakout and brought in his friend Steve Wozniak, agreeing to split the pay. Wozniak built it in a few days; Jobs told him it paid $700 and handed him $350 — while reportedly keeping a bonus of around $5,000. Wozniak only learned the truth years later.
Apple became the first U.S. public company worth $1 trillion in 2018, then the first worth $3 trillion a few years later — milestones that once seemed impossible for any company.