Steve Jobs rare interview 2003

20035:43English

Transcript

Machine transcript in the original language. It may contain errors. Select a timestamp to play that moment.

60 minutes over time.
This all started with George Lucas.
He had a problem.
Now, to describe his problem, let me digress a little bit.
When you make a copy of an audio cassette tape, let's say,
an analog copy of an audio recording,
you get noise artifacts, hiss, right?
We've all experienced that.
Well, the same thing happens when you make an analog copy
or an optical copy of a piece of film.
If you copy optically one piece of film to another, you get hiss, if you will.
And in this case, the noise artifacts are visual.
You get a dirty frame.
Well, when George was making the original Star Wars,
he had to combine many, many pieces of film together to make one frame.
Some with the models, some with the matte paintings,
some with the human characters, some with the special effects.
And by the time he got through combining all these pieces of film
to make just one frame of his movie, it was dirty.
And he, being the genius that he was, thought, I wonder if I combine them digitally, if they could be totally clean.
Because when you make a digital copy of an analog recording, it's perfect.
And it turns out if you make a digital copy of a piece of film, it's perfect.
Sharper, clearer.
Sharper, clearer, without the noise artifacts.
So George hired this guy named Ed Catmull, who was at the New York Institute of Technology,
to come out and build a computer group for him and to figure out how to solve this problem.
And they did.
and George was the first one to ever do this.
And after this problem was solved,
George decided that he'd solve this problem
and he decided he would sell this computer group.
And I ended up buying them.
I met Ed and Ed told me his dream
was to make the world's first computer animated film.
And I bought into that dream
both sort of spiritually and financially.
And together we started Pixar in 1986.
60 Minutes Overtime
My model of business is the Beatles.
You know, they were four very talented guys who kept each other's kind of negative tendencies in check.
They balanced each other, and the sum was greater than, the total was greater than the sum of the parts.
And that's how I see business.
You know, great things in business are never done by one person.
They're done by a team of people.
And we've got that here at Pixar.
And we've got that at Apple as well.
And so that's what lets me do this.
Well, you know, the Beatles, when they were together,
they did truly brilliant, innovative work.
And when they split up, they did good work,
but it was never the same.
And I see business that way, too.
It's really always a team.
60 Minutes Overtime
Well, as a person, what's your biggest strength?
I've been very lucky in meeting incredibly talented people and hanging out with them.
And so that's been my greatest strength.
And what's your biggest weakness?
You know, I think all of us need to be on guard against arrogance, which knocks at the door whenever you're successful.
Have you lived through that?
Oh, sure.
Oh, sure.
Now, by that, correct me if I'm wrong, you had an incredible high with the initial success of Apple.
and then other competitors get in and it's sobering.
Well, as you may know, I was basically fired from Apple when I was 30
and was invited to come back 12 years later.
So that was difficult when it happened,
but maybe the best thing that ever happened to me.
There wouldn't be a Pixar if that hadn't happened.
And so, you know, you just, you move on, life goes on, and you learn from it.
We're at the end here, but you were fired from Apple when you were 30, asked to come back when you were, what, 42?
Mm-hmm.
Did you think of that moment how sweet it is?
No, I thought at that moment, what a, you know, what a circle of life, you know.
Life is just always mysterious and surprising and you never know what's around the next corner.
60 Minutes Overtime
Thank you. Thanks for coming today.
Let's talk about Steve Jobs, the person.
What drives you, Steve Jobs?
I like working with people that make products that will get used or experienced by a lot of people.
You have a chance to, in a very small way, influence how things go, influence the way people look at a product or maybe even the world in a small way.
And I'm very lucky I get to do that at Apple.
That's what it looks like.
Very thin.
You know, I still believe that the computer business is in its infancy, that there's
a tremendous amount of innovation that's going to be coming out.
I'm optimistic as to the future of the computer business.

Transcript

Machine transcript in the original language. It may contain errors. Select a timestamp to play that moment.

60 minutes over time.

This all started with George Lucas.

He had a problem.

Now, to describe his problem, let me digress a little bit.

When you make a copy of an audio cassette tape, let's say,

an analog copy of an audio recording,

you get noise artifacts, hiss, right?

We've all experienced that.

Well, the same thing happens when you make an analog copy

or an optical copy of a piece of film.

If you copy optically one piece of film to another, you get hiss, if you will.

And in this case, the noise artifacts are visual.

You get a dirty frame.

Well, when George was making the original Star Wars,

he had to combine many, many pieces of film together to make one frame.

Some with the models, some with the matte paintings,

some with the human characters, some with the special effects.

And by the time he got through combining all these pieces of film

to make just one frame of his movie, it was dirty.

And he, being the genius that he was, thought, I wonder if I combine them digitally, if they could be totally clean.

Because when you make a digital copy of an analog recording, it's perfect.

And it turns out if you make a digital copy of a piece of film, it's perfect.

Sharper, clearer.

Sharper, clearer, without the noise artifacts.

So George hired this guy named Ed Catmull, who was at the New York Institute of Technology,

to come out and build a computer group for him and to figure out how to solve this problem.

And they did.

and George was the first one to ever do this.

And after this problem was solved,

George decided that he'd solve this problem

and he decided he would sell this computer group.

And I ended up buying them.

I met Ed and Ed told me his dream

was to make the world's first computer animated film.

And I bought into that dream

both sort of spiritually and financially.

And together we started Pixar in 1986.

60 Minutes Overtime

My model of business is the Beatles.

You know, they were four very talented guys who kept each other's kind of negative tendencies in check.

They balanced each other, and the sum was greater than, the total was greater than the sum of the parts.

And that's how I see business.

You know, great things in business are never done by one person.

They're done by a team of people.

And we've got that here at Pixar.

And we've got that at Apple as well.

And so that's what lets me do this.

Well, you know, the Beatles, when they were together,

they did truly brilliant, innovative work.

And when they split up, they did good work,

but it was never the same.

And I see business that way, too.

It's really always a team.

60 Minutes Overtime

Well, as a person, what's your biggest strength?

I've been very lucky in meeting incredibly talented people and hanging out with them.

And so that's been my greatest strength.

And what's your biggest weakness?

You know, I think all of us need to be on guard against arrogance, which knocks at the door whenever you're successful.

Have you lived through that?

Oh, sure.

Now, by that, correct me if I'm wrong, you had an incredible high with the initial success of Apple.

and then other competitors get in and it's sobering.

Well, as you may know, I was basically fired from Apple when I was 30

and was invited to come back 12 years later.

So that was difficult when it happened,

but maybe the best thing that ever happened to me.

There wouldn't be a Pixar if that hadn't happened.

And so, you know, you just, you move on, life goes on, and you learn from it.

We're at the end here, but you were fired from Apple when you were 30, asked to come back when you were, what, 42?

Mm-hmm.

Did you think of that moment how sweet it is?

No, I thought at that moment, what a, you know, what a circle of life, you know.

Life is just always mysterious and surprising and you never know what's around the next corner.

60 Minutes Overtime

Thank you. Thanks for coming today.

Let's talk about Steve Jobs, the person.

What drives you, Steve Jobs?

I like working with people that make products that will get used or experienced by a lot of people.

You have a chance to, in a very small way, influence how things go, influence the way people look at a product or maybe even the world in a small way.

And I'm very lucky I get to do that at Apple.

That's what it looks like.

Very thin.

You know, I still believe that the computer business is in its infancy, that there's

a tremendous amount of innovation that's going to be coming out.

I'm optimistic as to the future of the computer business.