“This approach has not served you well in the past, as evidenced by your poor graphics architectures and performance. Maybe you should think about changing it for the future…” Thus began a curious exchange of emails between Steve Jobs and Andy Grovesthe CEO of Intel at the time.

The year was 1985 when Steve was at Pixar, and Intel was very interested in knowing certain data that the animation company obtained using its processors for different projects. Jobs asked to be paid for it, but Intel had no intention of this.

The man who made Steve Jobs change his mind

If the thesaurus of the Royal Spanish Academy of Language included images, Steve Jobs’s would appear next to “stubborn”. His decisions were firm and it was extremely difficult to make him change his mind. When someone did, it was quite an achievement. Not so much for the fact itself but because of the rarity with which it happened.

Andy Groves was the complete opposite. His emotional intelligence was known to all, to the point that managed to make Jobs change his mind. He was the CEO of Intel for almost 20 years, as well as one of the original founders of the company. He was an engineer, and his specialty was semiconductors.

When an engineer from his company contacted Jobs to see if they could get that data we talked about earlier, he asked how much they would be willing to pay for them. The Intel engineer then replied that: “we have not reached any financial agreement in exchange for good ideas for our microprocessors in the past and we have no intention of doing so in the future.”

Steve was furious. He replied that this way of doing things had not gotten them anywhere, and that perhaps they should consider that it was time to change it. He wrote directly to Andy saying that this engineer’s stance was too arrogant, and heand asked if he could take action on the matter.

Groves, far from cowering or berating his employee, told Jobs: “I am firmly on the engineer’s side in this case. He’s taking your offer to help us very seriously, has assembled the best techies, and was ready to go when you brought a new element into the discussion: money. You and I have talked many times about this topic; you never suggested or insinuated that it was a commercial exchange. I took your offer to help us exactly as that: help, not an offer of business relationship.

“You may remember that, from time to time, he offered you suggestions related to your business. Examples range from the porting of NextStep to the 486 – which we were also interested in – to my presentation to your staff about repositioning NextStep beyond that. I’m not suggesting its value is comparable to your graphics expertise, but I gave what I had, reflected on the problem you were facing, and it never crossed my mind to charge for it. In my opinion, that’s what friendly companies (and friends) do to each other. In the long run, these things even out. I’m sorry you don’t think so. We will lose out, and so will the industry.”

It is a hard message. The tone is disappointing. Of the one who thinks he has a friend and sees how he betrays him at the moment of truth. Steve realized the situation, and although he did not reply to the email at the time, he did he did it four days laterand that’s when his opinion “changed 180 degrees.”

“I have many defects, but one of them is not ingratitude. And I agree with you that “in the long run, these things balance out.” Therefore, I have changed my position 180 degrees – – we will help you for free to make your processors much better for 3D graphics. Please have your engineer call me, and we’ll set up a meeting as soon as the appropriate Pixar technicians can be released from production. Thanks for a clearer perspective.”

It’s funny how he ends that email: “thanks for a clearer perspective.” Jobs knew that he was not realizing something, and as soon as it was explained to him, he understood it. He changed his way of thinking, acted accordingly and helped the one who was once his friend and who was now his mentor.

Andy Grove was born in Hungary, went to study in the United States and co-founded Intel. He launched the company to the top of semiconductors, which was his passion, and rubbed shoulders with the greats of the industry. He passed away in 2016 and was a friend and mentor to Steve, and albeit indirectly had an impact on Apple. Together they improved the tech industry, and all for a couple of emails. How curious is life.

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