Steve Jobs on Apple's Comeback: Dell Was Wrong
What Jobs talks about
This brief recording recounts Steve Jobs responding to Michael Dell’s famous 1996 comment that Apple should be shut down and its money returned to shareholders. Jobs’s point is simple: Apple survived, recovered, and went on to outperform Dell.
The transcript frames the moment as a statement Jobs sent to Apple employees about ten years later. It captures the competitive edge in Jobs’s thinking and how he used Apple’s comeback as proof that bold vision mattered more than dismissive forecasts.
Only Jobs is quoted directly; the transcript also includes narration summarizing context.
In his words
“I would shut it down and return the shareholders' money.”
“Steve Jobs seems to have taken Dell's statement as an offense.”
“Folks, it seems that Michael Dell is not good at predicting the future.”
“Our company today is worth more than his.”
Key points
- Dell reportedly said Apple should be shut down during its financial crisis.
- Jobs treated that remark as a challenge and remembered it years later.
- Apple’s turnaround is presented as evidence that outsiders can badly misread the future.
- Jobs points to Apple’s higher value as a rebuttal to Dell’s prediction.
Full transcript
In 1996, when Apple was going through a serious financial crisis, they asked Michael Dell what he would do if he were the company's CEO. He replied, I would shut it down and return the shareholders' money. Steve Jobs seems to have taken Dell's statement as an offense. So much so that, ten years later, when Apple had already gone around, Jobs sent the following statement to the employees. Folks, it seems that Michael Dell is not good at predicting the future. Our company today is worth more than his.
Transcribed from the audio with OpenAI Whisper. Timestamps link to the video above. Errors are possible.