Why did Jobs not seize the reins? Why was he reluctant to grab the job that for two decades he had seemed to desire? When I asked him, he said:

为什么乔布斯不抓住这个机会？为什么他会不想接受这个20年来他看似很渴望的工作？当我问他这些问题时，他说：

We’d just taken Pixar public, and I was happy being CEO there. I never knew of anyone who served as CEO of two public companies, even temporarily, and I wasn’t even sure it was legal. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was enjoying spending more time with my family. I was torn. I knew Apple was a mess, so I wondered: Do I want to give up this nice lifestyle that I have? What are all the Pixar shareholders going to think? I talked to people I respected. I finally called Andy Grove at about eight one Saturday morning—too early. I gave him the pros and the cons, and in the middle he stopped me and said, “Steve, I don’t give a shit about Apple.” I was stunned. It was then I realized that I do give a shit about Apple—I started it and it is a good thing to have in the world. That was when I decided to go back on a temporary basis to help them hire a CEO.

我们刚刚把皮克斯做上市，我很高兴在那儿做CEO。我从未听说过有人同时做两家上市公司的CEO，即使是临时的，我甚至不确定那是否合法。我不知道我该怎么做，或我想怎么做。我很喜欢有更多时间跟家人在一起。我左右为难。我知道苹果的情况一团糟，所以我想：我愿意放弃现在这么好的生活方式吗？皮克斯的股东们会怎么想？我跟一些我尊重的人进行讨论，最后在一个周六的早晨给安迪·格鲁夫打电话——实在太早了。我给他列举好处和坏处，说到一半他打断我说：“史蒂夫，我才不在乎苹果会怎么样。”我愣住了。就是在那个时刻，我认识到我是在乎苹果的——我创建了它，它的存在对世界是件好事。就是在那个时候，我决定暂时回去帮他们招聘CEO。

The claim that he was enjoying spending more time with his family was not convincing. He was never destined to win a Father of the Year trophy, even when he had spare time on his hands. He was getting better at paying heed to his children, especially Reed, but his primary focus was on his work. He was frequently aloof from his two younger daughters, estranged again from Lisa, and often prickly as a husband.

实际上，皮克斯的员工们很髙兴乔布斯可以少一点儿时间在公司。他们私下（有时甚至公开）表示，他们很兴奋现在苹果要占用乔布斯的时间了。埃德·卡特穆尔曾是个不错的CEO,他很容易就可以重操旧业，正式或非正式地接管公司。至于享受跟家人在一起的时光，乔布斯是注定永远不可能获得“年度最佳父亲”奖的，哪怕在他有大把空闲时间的时候。他在给予孩子关注方面有所进步，尤其是对里德，但是他主要的关注点还是他的工作。他对两个小女儿经常是有距离而冷淡的，跟丽萨又闹矛盾，作为一个丈夫也常常是脾气暴躁。