Steve Jobs Fired This Employee 5 Times

Andrea Cunninghamaffectionately called Andy by those closest to her, is an expert in marketing and everything related to the market that was part of the Macintosh launch in 1984.

He also founded Cunningham Communication, a firm dedicated to helping major Silicon Valley companies with their public relations. For years, he gave interviews and reflected on the identity of the Apple as a company, what made it so special and how Tim Cook completely transformed what it loved.

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Today, she continues to dedicate herself full-time to this, but in her time, she worked directly with Steve Jobs. Side by side. This resulted in a very particular situation in which Jobs fired her, but thanks to her determination, she managed to be reinstated. So far, so good, but it turns out she was fired and then reinstated five timesas admitted in a interview from a few years ago.

In a certain part of the interview she says:

“I think Steve Jobs fired me about 5 times. I’m Andy Cunningham and I run a marketing consulting firm called Cunningham Collective and I just wrote a book about positioning, which is a big practice in marketing. It’s called Get to Aha!”

Former employee tells how it all happened

The businesswoman explains that at one point she was called to Steve Jobs’ office when she was working on the Macintosh. She was afraid of being fired, and sadly that’s what happened. She ended up in a conference room with Apple’s CFO. She said her job was horrible and that they were going to cut her employment contract..

Cunningham recalled that they still owed her $35,000, but she said she had no intention of paying it, that her work was very poor, and that she did not deserve it.

Andy called a colleague for advice. He said, “If you want Steve Jobs to pay you, you’re going to have to have something that interests him.“. “I have nothing that interests Steve Jobs“, Andrea said immediately. However, Regis McKenna, her friend, reminded her that it was: “your relationship with the press“.

“So I went back and met with Steve because I was friends with his CFO, and she got me a meeting. I went into the meeting, which he accepted, which was amazing, and I said, ‘Steve, you owe me $35,000. I need that money. I have a new company. I need to pay the salaries, and I want you to write me a check for what you owe me.’ And he said, ‘I’m not going to do that.’ And I said, ‘You have to,’ and he said, ‘Why?’

And I said, “Well, just so you know, Steve, I get about 30 or 40 calls a week from the business press that we’ve built relationships with over the last couple of years asking what kind of person you are to work with and So far, I’ve been saying very nice things.“He immediately wrote me a check and rehired me.”

Jobs Behavior at Work

From that moment on, Jobs was tempted to fire her on another occasion.but she didn’t. It would be reasonable to think that Cunningham would hold some kind of grudge, but no. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, she is tremendously grateful.

He threw things at people, nothing heavy, but he threw wads of paper at people, insulted them, criticized their clothes. He did all of those things. What he did to some people was make us try harder and try to be better. but to some, it destroyed. Luckily for me, I was one of the first and I am eternally grateful for the experience because I am now much better at what I do than I would have been without it.

It’s clear that Jobs was demanding. You don’t create one of the most valuable companies of all time without being able to get the best out of each of the people around you. It’s true that some people didn’t make it, but he managed to get many to achieve goals that were previously just distant dreams through hard work and effort.