Marketing and communications entrepreneur Andy Cunningham recently published her book, Get To Aha!, a guide for start-ups to position themselves. But long before that, Cunninham had achieved a different, somewhat dubious, set of milestones: according to her own statements, she was fired five times by Steve Jobs.
In the video above, Cunningham – who was part of the team that launched the Apple Macintosh in 1984 – recalls the first time Jobs fired her. It does not paint either Jobs, or herself, in a flattering light.
“The first time Steve fired me was actually probably the most traumatic because I thought it was going to be the last time I would ever work with him,” she says in the video, before recalling the incident in detail. While Jobs emerges as an autocratic, mean-minded boss, Cunningham herself admits she was not above using subtle threats about how she could damage him and Apple with the media, in order to secure the money she thought the company owed her.
Incredibly, in spite of being fired four more times after that, Cunningham says she loved working with him. “I am forever grateful to him actually for he experience because now I am so much better at what I do than I would have been without him.”
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