Chapter 1 Arriving at Apple

Su Yehao arrived at Apple's headquarters.

As he appeared, surrounded by people, he instantly attracted a crowd. People whispered, wondering why he was here.

Although he was the largest shareholder, Su Yehao didn't have much presence within Apple.

Apple's computer and office software business had been stagnant for years, and its subsidiary, Apple Intelligence, had been spun off separately. This made Apple itself seem less important to Su Yehao, and he usually didn't bother to get involved.

It could be said that the mobile terminal era that truly allowed Apple to rise had been cleverly hijacked by Su Yehao. Apple had gone from being a leader to an appendage.

Now, Apple was only responsible for developing the operating system. Su Yehao held the majority of the shares and decision-making power of the subsidiary, Apple Intelligence.

After all, he was the one who first proposed the idea of creating a smartphone, so it was reasonable for him to be the dominant force. Even the shrewd Steve Jobs didn't realize the problem, thinking he was smart enough to jump on the bandwagon.

But he didn't expect that this car was supposed to be Apple's own...

Su Yehao had been to Apple's headquarters before, but he still didn't remember the way.

He found a blonde, white secretary-looking woman and asked her to lead the way, taking the elevator upstairs.

When he knocked and entered the office, he found Jobs still doing yoga, sitting cross-legged, sunbathing, and meditating with his eyes closed.

Compared to their last meeting, the former big shot looked much thinner, with stubble and graying hair, and a somewhat haggard look.

After being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year, Jobs kept it a secret, and even Su Yehao only found out later.

At this moment.

Su Yehao said seriously:

"Even the strongest spirit will be dragged down by the body. That's why Buddhism emphasizes going to the Western Paradise after death, and God's heaven can only be reached after death. What I mean is that even meditation is useless. You still need to treat your illness as soon as possible. In fact, if everyone has a regular check-up every year, many diseases will become less dangerous. You certainly didn't participate in the company's free check-up program, right?"

Jobs opened his eyes.

Although they were allies and partners, Jobs didn't want to discuss these private matters with Su Yehao.

In fact, his pancreatic cancer had a very high chance of being cured in the early stages, but Jobs had been dragging his feet since it was discovered last year, refusing to have surgery to remove it. Su Yehao found this behavior particularly inexplicable.

It had been diagnosed at the end of last year, and he had delayed it for five or six months. He had even gone to India to seek folk remedies from spiritual mediums instead of listening to the doctor's advice.

If that stuff worked, the average life expectancy in India wouldn't be so much lower than in developed regions.

Sleeping when sleepy, eating when hungry, and treating illnesses... these should be common sense, but Jobs insisted on taking a different path.

Even out of concern for talent, Su Yehao didn't want this man to leave too early.

Seeing that he didn't get an answer, he added, "I'm only in my twenties, and I'm already taking care of my health. Steve, you should have surgery as soon as possible. Cancer is not a cold. Continuing to delay will do you no good."

Unfortunately.

If he were so easily persuaded, Jobs wouldn't be the tyrant that others saw him as.

Annoyed by Su Yehao's nagging.

Jobs slowly got up and said:

"Hasn't anyone told you that due to flight delays, the three directors who went out to attend a meeting didn't have time to return to the company, and the meeting has been postponed for two hours? I know my body best. It's not a big problem for the time being, and the company has been quite busy recently."

"The company can still operate normally without you, right? Like me, I have so many companies under me, and I still take vacations all the time."

As soon as Su Yehao finished speaking, Jobs rolled his eyes and replied:

"If I remember correctly, the media said that your family office has exceeded a thousand people, several times larger than other family offices."

"What's the use of being big? People will only say that Buffett employs a dozen or twenty people and earns so much, blah blah blah. Is it so hard to admit that I'm excellent?"

Su Yehao didn't stand on ceremony.

He sat down on Jobs's sofa and casually picked up today's newspaper.

Jobs knew his temper. If this lazy rich kid were under his command, he would have been kicked out of the company long ago. But Su Yehao was so carefree, and the investment projects he chose always brought extremely considerable returns.

One or two successes might be attributed to luck, but that was clearly not the case now.

Realizing that Su Yehao clearly didn't intend to leave his office, Jobs was a little helpless. He personally made a pot of black tea and brought it over, saying:

"I'm already preparing. Once something happens to me, Cook will be a very good CEO. You know, I've had the experience of being driven out of the company I created by investors working together. I can't help but worry about the shareholders having too much power. If the worst-case scenario really happens, I hope you can guarantee me that you won't disrupt the balance of the company's board of directors."

Su Yehao only smiled and said:

"Then have you ever thought that perhaps Apple will become even better in my hands? There are no bad corporate management systems, only bad decision-makers. Steve, you spent several years saving Apple from the brink of bankruptcy and making the company financially healthy. Now is the time to show your skills."

"Maybe, I don't want to take risks. Accompany me to the research and development laboratory later, and you will know how excellent Apple's next products are. This company is not your Yanwenzi Group. It doesn't have countless fanatical investors chasing after it. The funds on the books are only enough to fail two or three times at most. I don't want it to sink again."

Jobs was quite unlucky. In his early years, the media would often dig up old accounts and compare him to Bill Gates.

Nowadays, those reporters are too lazy to compare anymore. The gap between the two, both in terms of the size of the companies they manage and in terms of personal wealth, is too large.

If Su Yehao hadn't heavily invested in Apple stock, Wall Street investors would have almost forgotten about Apple's existence, leaving only some niche investors to pay attention to Apple's latest developments.

Overall.

The Jobs sitting in front of him was almost like a completely different person from the infinitely glorious "Tech Godfather" in Su Yehao's memory.

Thinking about it, it made sense.

The computer market had already been divided up by many brands, leaving Apple with only about 3% of the market share. Even if they wanted to be proactive, there wasn't much they could do. It was already pretty good to be able to maintain the basics.

Su Yehao said with a smile:

"No, I don't plan to listen to you. Once something happens to you, I will acquire the shares in the hands of other shareholders at a premium until I get more than 33% of the shares and become Apple's controlling shareholder. If you don't want this to happen, then go and receive treatment from top doctors. This is like cheating on an exam. You don't copy the papers of students with all A+'s, but you insist on learning from Indian students. Haven't you noticed that there's something wrong with that?"

Guessing that he was advising him to seek treatment as soon as possible, Jobs didn't take the bait and stubbornly said, "That's discrimination. As far as I know, Indian students have very good grades, second only to you Chinese."

"Who said that? I'm Chinese, but my grades are terrible."

Su Yehao didn't give him a good tone and added, "I'm just giving an example. The top doctors and pharmaceutical companies are all in America. They should have a way to cure you..."