When Steve Jobs gifted brand new Jaguar to secretary after he got late to office; said ...
Apple founder Steve Jobs, known for his intense leadership style at Apple, once surprised a late-arriving secretary with a brand-new Jaguar. Ron Givens, Apple's director of quality from 1981 to 1986, shared the story in a 2011 interview with WRAL. During the interview, Givens recalled a day when a secretary showed up late for work. Jobs, he said, walked over and asked her why she was late. She explained her car had broken down. 'That afternoon, he walks into her office, tosses a set of keys to a brand-new Jaguar and says, 'Here, don't be late anymore,'' Givens said.
At the time, a Jaguar XJ cost about $35,000—roughly $123,000 today (adjusted for inflation).
The moment captures what Givens called the 'paradox' of Jobs. He described him as a boss who could both intimidate and inspire. 'He could motivate you out of your socks,' said Givens. Jobs, then just 26, was known for constantly walking the halls, questioning engineers about minute design details one moment and delivering surprise gifts the next.
Givens, who was about 20 years older than Jobs, said many of the young CEO's ideas seemed 'stupid' at first—until their brilliance became clear. He also recalled being handed a $1,000 Steuben-glass apple from Jobs, with no explanation.
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Apple needs 'only A players': Steve Jobs
Jobs pushed hard for excellence, famously saying Apple needed "only A players." He admitted firing weaker employees was 'very painful,' but necessary. Pixar's Pete Docter later said Jobs was known for 3 am phone calls—something he never wanted to repeat.
According to a recent CNBC report, Docter told Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Gala that Jobs would phone colleagues 'at any time, day or night, three in the morning … you're on vacation, doesn't matter'. He further stated that Jobs' after-hours calls were non-negotiable and that the intensity often ignored personal boundaries.
'He wants to talk to you about it, you're on,' Docter further added. As per the report, Docter admitted he sometimes sends late-night emails himself but added, 'That's what my wife's trying to get me to stop doing.'
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Gaining access to Perplexity AI's talented team and its ready-made alternative to Google Search could mark the beginning of what Apple has long envisioned as the core experience behind Apple Intelligence. In May, Apple's Senior Vice-President Eddy Cue revealed that the company had discussed a possible Safari integration with Perplexity during Google's ongoing search antitrust case. Apple has been under increasing pressure to end its partnership with Google, which currently pays Cupertino billions of dollars each year to remain the default search engine on the iPhone. While that could mean the end of the billions Apple receives from Google if regulators apply pressure, Cupertino also needs an alternative—and a long-term bet on Perplexity AI makes a lot of sense. Though it remains to be seen whether Apple will invest in Perplexity AI or move to acquire the startup outright, one major hurdle could be regulatory approval. 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However, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now under pressure and must answer to shareholders about how the company plans to win the AI race against OpenAI and Google's parent company, Alphabet. That explains why Meta is on a spending spree and actively eyeing AI companies, even though the cost of acquiring them during the peak of the AI boom is astronomically high. Just recently, Meta made a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, gaining access to star developer and startup founder Alexandr Wang—a Massachusetts Institute of Technology dropout who founded the company at age 19. The 41-year-old Meta CEO has also reportedly attempted to acquire Perplexity AI and Safe Superintelligence, the latter launched a year ago by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. Meta is now reportedly planning to hire former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and his business partner Daniel Gross, who had been leading the $32 billion AI startup Safe Superintelligence. 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But compared to OpenAI and Google, Meta has made slower progress in artificial intelligence, despite having vast resources and top-tier talent. The company's current AI strategy centers around an open-source approach built on its Llama family of models. In April, Meta announced the Llama 4 AI models, which were not well received by developers. So far, Meta has only released two smaller versions of Llama 4 and has stated it will eventually release a larger and more powerful 'Behemoth' model. This suggests that Meta remains behind Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic in the AI race. That leaves Meta with no choice but to speed up its efforts to hire the right talent. It's well known in Silicon Valley that star developers are few—and they come at a high cost. In the latest episode of the Uncapped podcast, hosted by his brother, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that Meta has attempted to recruit OpenAI employees by offering signing bonuses as high as $100 million, along with even larger annual compensation packages. This underscores just how desperate—Meta is to secure top-tier AI talent. Poaching is normalised in Silicon Valley – and certainly not new. With Perplexity AI reportedly on the radar of both Meta and Apple, it's clear that both companies are keen to acquire the Arvind Srinivas–led startup. Meta has previously been in talks to acquire the company, highlighting just how much it values Perplexity's potential. For Meta, the acquisition would be strategically important in improving its Meta AI assistant—which already serves over a billion monthly active users across the company's family of apps—by making it more personalised and better tuned for voice-based conversations. Anuj Bhatia is a personal technology writer at who has been covering smartphones, personal computers, gaming, apps, and lifestyle tech actively since 2011. He specialises in writing longer-form feature articles and explainers on trending tech topics. His unique interests encompass delving into vintage tech, retro gaming and composing in-depth narratives on the intersection of history, technology, and popular culture. He covers major international tech conferences and product launches from the world's biggest and most valuable tech brands including Apple, Google and others. At the same time, he also extensively covers indie, home-grown tech startups. Prior to joining The Indian Express in late 2016, he served as a senior tech writer at My Mobile magazine and previously held roles as a reviewer and tech writer at Gizbot. Anuj holds a postgraduate degree from Banaras Hindu University. You can find Anuj on Linkedin. Email: ... Read More
