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14 years old Apple Staff (14歲的蘋果員工) - Tom Williams

csllanna

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如果單純從文章題目看,您可能以為我描述那些命運多舛的童工,但其實不然,因我是從另外一個積極面告訴您一個真實的故事 - 一個14歲就被蘋果聘請的小孩,Tom Williams 。



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Tom Williams, 12歳時,父母鬧離異,雖然父母儘量在平和的氣氛下處理,但這對Tom來說,仍然是個打擊。 但更殘酷的現實面是,他必須要解決金錢的難題。於是他只好去賣巧克力棒。

"Even though my parents were dealing with that relatively amicably, I was very distraught and quite upset"
"I then realized I was quite powerless, and the solution was to find my own income."


天生我才必有用,很快地,他就成為頂尖銷售員。 腦子轉得快而且伶牙俐齒的他,還發展出一套談判術。

"I started out selling chocolate bars and quickly noticed I was the top seller in school. I realized I was getting kind of gypped, so I negotiated to be the direct retailer of this wholesale chocolate bar operation"

現實商務和實業訓練,啟發他對金錢的敏感度(連搞個"觀鳥刋物"都可掙錢)。而且培養他對商業的直覺 - 就是:這是否是門好生意?還有,全盤獨立自主的性格。

"For me, this thinking about what was a bad deal or a good deal was instinctive."
"I always relied on my own instincts. I knew that if I wanted to get something done, I had to do it. Nobody else was going to do it for me. Nobody else was going to support me. I didn't expect to be supported. I just knew I had to do it if I wanted to do it. That's how I lived every aspect of my life."
"I was always constantly thinking about how to make money and generate revenue."



接著,Tom 租了間小辦公室(還和當地的蘋果分公司同一栋大樓)搞一些教育和娛樂性的光碟軟件,公司名是"Desert Island Software"

"I rented an office in the same building as the local sales office for Apple in Victoria. I would go to my office after school, not really having much to do but trying to build edutainment software on CD-ROM. I even had an outsourced receptionist service."

然後,他朝向自己的目標出發: 成為蘋果的一份子 。他熟讀John Sculley的傳記(當年蘋果的執行長)。13歳开始,他每天早上上學前,就搖個電話給John Sculley, 當然是John的助理, Jerry接聽。說的話題包括讓兩間公司的CEO合作機會或是單純的問候。

"I read John Sculley's biography, who was Apple's CEO at the time......he was my hero. I wanted to be him or be like him."
"So I started calling Apple in the 7th grade. Every single morning, at about 8:00 am before I went to school,....Every single morning I'd be talking to Jerry, his assistant"
" I think instinctively I realized that by building a relationship with Jerry, I was building a relationship with the gatekeeper"
"Here I was, literally for about a year and a half, calling every single morning. "


如果您問,這姓Williams的小子想幹嘛?其實理由很簡單,只要和蘋果的CEO見個五分鐘,分享和分析自己的商業想法,而且他有把握,只要能碰上五分鐘,他就能使這五分鐘延伸到半個小時,而這半個小時,又能再延伸至無限發展的可能性。

"My dream was to meet John for five minutes, and then I just meet him, and pitch him in person. I knew that If I was granted five minutes, I was going to be able to extend that into half hour, and that half hour would dictate or drive what would happen next."

早晨問候的這個動作, Tom堅持了一年半,在1993年五月母親節,他獲得了蘋果給他一次去Worldwide Developers Conference的機會,一整個星期的入場票,美金$1,500.00以及五月15號那天早上,7點30分,他可以有五分鐘和John面談的機會。

諳熟知彼知己,百戰百勝的他,把握著會議將會談論的Newton, 口若懸河地和John討論起來。真如他所料,那短短的五分鐘,延長至John被拉出去演講的前一分鐘, 而那無限的機會是。- 1994 年WWDC的星期三,他被聘請了。(以加拿大某公司顧問的假身份)

"Even though I was a marketing guy, it was the engineering team, that on a Wednesday of WWDC, in 1994, had offered me a job. They said, "We want you to come work with us!"











文章/圖片來源:
1) IV Speakers - Tom Williams

2). Tom Williams: Hired by Apple at 14. His full story
 
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