… or do you want to join me and change the world? This is one of my favorite stories from the early computer era. Steve Jobs was trying to recruit John Sculley from Pepsi to come lead Apple and, after having had very little success, dropped the intellectual bomb that ultimately gnawed at Sculley’s psyche until he couldn’t bear it any longer, finally pushing him to take the leap and join Apple.

That was all well before the drama of Jobs being ousted from Apple, founding NeXT Computer and then selling NeXT back to Apple as the foundation for the next-gen operating system that is MacOS today. For those that either didn’t live through it or aren’t well-schooled on early computer lore, Apple had already dispensed with Sculley by the time Jobs was brought back in. Sculley’s downfall was being ahead of his time (and ahead of the technology curve) with the Apple Newton personal assistant.

He was replaced by Gil Amelio, who came over from National Semiconductor to lead Apple. Amelio had his own folley at Apple, which was thinking that Apple could follow in the footsteps of Microsoft as a software vendor. All they needed, he reasoned, was a thriving clone ecosystem for the Apple hardware just as there had been for IBM ten years earlier. If given time, the strategy may have been successful – there were definitely good clone machines from the like of Power Computing, but Amelio was never given the chance. Great hardware was the foundation of Apple’s culture, and when Jobs returned to Apple as a “consultant” with the acquisition of NeXT, he leveraged this fundamental mismatch of culture and mission to “consult” his was back into the CEO role. To nobody’s surprise, Jobs’ return turned out to be the beginning of the end for Amelio and his cadre of clone makers.

What is the relevance of all this history? Only to make the point that sometimes you have to make the choice not to sell sugar water any longer. Not a great analogy – because it didn’t work out so well for Sculley (or Ameilo) – but that’s my point, regardless. Just to share a little about myself – I’ve had a 25 year career as a manager and quant guy in financial services, and as of recent, it’s beginning to feel a little like selling sugar water. Ever since graduate school, I’ve had an idea that is my version of changing the world. Whether it actually would “change the world” in the broader sense is yet to be seen, but I think it has the potential to.

So, here’s the point of this website which I’ve titled (for no reason other than the fact that I had already registered this domain many years ago) LazyApe. This is a place to document my swing at the fences; my attempt at doing something great. To be the Steve Jobs of my own world; to get away from selling sugar water. More to come about what the new journey is, but I will post updates and insights here. I’m sure I’ll give away more info than is smart to do so. But, follow along and maybe we can change the world together!