Cook stayed at Compaq for just six months until meeting Steve Jobs. Apple’s founder was been known to create a “reality distortion field” that changed people’s minds and convinced them to do impossible things.
“Any purely rational consideration of cost and benefits lined up in Compaq’s favor,” Cook said in a 2010 speech at Auburn University. “No more than five minutes into my initial interview with Steve, I wanted to throw caution and logic to the wind and join Apple.