Back in 1983, John Sculley was the president of Pepsi. He was a very highly paid executive sitting atop of one of PepsiCo’s most important divisions, and the youngest president in Pepsi’s history. Sculley had dedicated his career to Pepsi, and was widely believed to be a serious contender to become PepsiCo’s chairman one day.
As a result of his high profile, Sculley constantly turned down offers from corporate headhunters, trying to lure him away to run other companies.
One day, he received a call from the top headhunter in New York, telling him Apple Computers was looking for a CEO. Steve Jobs needed someone to run the company while he focused on product development.
Although Sculley was intrigued by Apple’s rise to become a Fortune 500 company in only six years, he said he wasn’t interested. When he met Jobs, he was taken aback by how young he was. Steve was only 27, but he and Sculley had a lot in common. Both were detail-oriented perfectionists, and both liked to build companies.
But Sculley was shocked by Apple’s headquarters. It looked like the branch office of an insurance company. Completely unimpressive.
A few weeks later, Jobs flew to New York and dropped in on the Pepsi president. Sculley still resisted the offer. Then Jobs started calling him every three or four days. Sculley said thank you, but no thank you. He had invested too many years in Pepsi, and he had a future there.
That’s when Jobs looked Sculley in the eyes and said, “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?”
That challenge hit Sculley like a fist in the stomach. After all the meetings, the huge salary offer and the stock options, it was that one sentence that haunted him. It gnawed at Sculley. It wouldn’t let him sleep. It was so powerful, it finally convinced him to leave Pepsi behind and join Apple.
That question from Steve Jobs is considered one of the best elevator pitches in history.
**Source: https://www.cbc.ca/
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