Steve Jobs was 42 years old.
Apple was 90 days from bankruptcy.
The company he founded in his parents’ garage had kicked him out 12 years earlier. Now they were begging him to come back.
Stock price under $4. Market share collapsing. Making dozens of products nobody wanted.
Everyone said Apple was finished.
“Microsoft won.”
“The Mac is dead.”
“Just sell the company for parts while you still can.”
Jobs didn’t listen.
Here’s what Jobs knew that everyone else missed:
Apple wasn’t dying from lack of products. It was dying from lack of focus.
So he walked into his first meeting and did something shocking.
Drew a simple 2x2 grid on a whiteboard.
Consumer. Professional. Desktop. Portable.
Four boxes. That’s it.
“We’re making four great products. Everything else gets killed.”
Apple had over a dozen product lines. Jobs cut them down to four.
People inside the company thought he was destroying it.
“You’re killing our revenue.”
“We need more options, not fewer.”
“This is corporate suicide.”
He ignored them all.
Then he made the real move.
Called Bill Gates. Made a deal with Microsoft. Took their $150 million investment.
The same company that “won” against Apple was now keeping them alive.
Everyone said Jobs sold out. Said he gave up.
They were wrong.
He was buying time. Buying focus. Buying the chance to do what Apple did best.
Make products that actually mattered.
In 1998, at age 43, Jobs launched the iMac.
A computer that looked nothing like anything else. Colorful. Simple. Bold.
It saved the company.
But Jobs wasn’t done.
In 2001, he introduced the iPod. Put 1,000 songs in your pocket.
In 2007, at age 52, he launched the iPhone.
Changed the entire technology industry overnight.
In 2010, he created the iPad.
By the time Steve Jobs died in 2011, Apple had become the most valuable technology company on earth.
Today, Apple is worth over $3 trillion.
More than 2 billion Apple devices are in use worldwide.
All because a 42-year-old fired founder came back and did the hardest thing in business.
He said no to almost everything so he could say yes to the right things.
He turned bankruptcy into focus. Focus into excellence. Excellence into dominance.
He proved that being near death isn’t the end. It’s the opportunity to cut away everything that doesn’t matter.
What dying business are you treating like the end instead of the chance to refocus?
What products are you making that nobody actually wants because you’re afraid to kill them?
Jobs walked into a company 90 days from death and saved it by doing less, not more.
He cut dozens of products down to four. Made a deal with his biggest competitor. Focused on what mattered.
Because he understood something most people don’t.
More products don’t save you. Better focus does.
Your bankruptcy might not be about money. It might be about attention.
Stop making everything. Start making something that matters.
Stop listening to people who think cutting back means giving up.
Start thinking like Steve Jobs.
Draw your grid. Pick your four things. Kill everything else.
And never let anyone tell you that near death means actual death.
Sometimes the greatest companies are built from the greatest failures.
Because when you’re 90 days from bankruptcy, you finally get clear on what actually matters.
