While Steve Jobs was known for his oversize personality, Apple’s current CEO is something of an enigma. What’s he like? There is new book coming out and the source for Tapscape’s quick and dirty Tim Cook FAQ.
Yukari Iwatani Kane’s Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs, which arrives in the iBooks and Kindle stores on March 18, offers a detailed look at Apple’s enigmatic CEO, who is described as being a workaholic with no social life. However, as you will see in our Tim Cook FAQ, the man is hardly one dimensional.
Tim Cook FAQ
— What’s he like? — Kane says that some colleagues call Cook a blank slate. She reports, “As far as anyone could tell, Cook had no close friends, never socialized and rarely talked about his personal life.”
— Where does he live? He rented a house without air conditioning for years. When he finally bought his own place it was 2,400 square foot home on a half lot with a single parking space.
— What’s he drive? His first sports car was a used Porsche Boxster.
— Friends? Not so much… When Apple was going to release iMovie, Jobs asked all the executives to make home movies to test the software. Cook made a movie about house hunting in Palo Alto, and the high price of real estate in the late 90s.
— Meetings with Tim… Cook’s weekly meetings could last 5-6 hours as he went over every single detail. His employees crammed for the meetings like they were cramming for a final exam. If any number was wrong or missing, Cook would know.
— Tim’s style… “Meetings with Cook could be terrifying.” He could ask the same question of an employee 10 times in a row. He would ask, “Why is that?” “What do you mean?” “I don’t understand. Why are you not making it clear?”
See also: Tim Cook Comes Out: ‘I’m Proud to Be Gay’
— Is Tim a yeller? “Cook also knew the power of silence. He could do more with a pause than Jobs ever could with an epithet. When someone was unable to answer a question, Cook would sit without a word while people stared at the table and shifted in their seats.”
— Tim Cook, iron man… He has an “inhuman” level of stamina. He would spend days in Asia, return to California, and head straight to work.
— Tim Cook, the monk… He wakes up every morning at 4-5 AM. He works out, then heads to the office. He eats protein bars all day and has simple meals like Chicken and rice.
— Tim Cook, the athlete… His hobbies are rock climbing and mountain biking.
— Heart of gold… He’s generous. He volunteers at soup kitchens, he gives away frequent flier miles as presents, and he’s participated in bike rides to raise money for charity. When he was first named CEO he made it so Apple would do matching contributions to charities.
— A regular guy… Cook eats in the Apple company cafeteria and introduces himself to coworkers he doesn’t know.
What questions are left unanswered by our Tim Cook FAQ? For example, while he probably doesn’t have or won’t make time, one wonders if the Apple CEO has a significant other…
What are questions do you have Tim Cook?
Source: Wall Street Journal