120pgs

Steve Jobs on why he cold-called Bill Hewlett at age 12: "I've actually always found something to be very true, which is most people don't get those experiences because they never ask. I've never found anybody that didn't want to help me if I asked them for help." Steve was 12 years old when he decided to build a frequency counter. As he puts it: "I called up Bill Hewlett when I was 12 years old and he lived in Palo Alto. His number was still in the phone book and he answered the phone himself. He said 'Yes.' I said 'Hi, I'm Steve Jobs. I'm 12 years old. I'm a student in high school and I want to build a frequency counter and I was wondering if you had any spare parts I could have.'" The result: "He laughed and he gave me the spare parts to build this frequency counter. And he gave me a job that summer at Hewlett Packard working on the assembly line putting nuts and bolts together on frequency counters. He got me a job in the place that built them and I was in heaven." He continues: "I've never found anyone who said no or hung up the phone when I called. I just asked. And when people ask me, I try to be as responsive to pay that debt of gratitude back." The problem most people have: "Most people never pick up the phone and call. Most people never ask. And that's what separates sometimes the people that do things from the people that just dream about them." On taking action: "You got to act and you've got to be willing to fail. You've got to be willing to crash and burn with people on the phone, with starting a company, with whatever. If you're afraid of failing, you won't get very far." The worst they can say is no.