Years earlier than co-founding Salesforce, CEO Marc Benioff started his profession like a lot of individuals do – as an intern.
Benioff’s first step on the company ladder was removed from typical. His Apple internship positioned him in shut proximity to tech icon and firm co-founder Steve Jobs. And the long run CEO’s “first boss” was Guy Kawasaki, an early software program evangelist in Apple’s Macintosh division. It was Kawasaki who obtained Benioff within the door at Apple – after a little persistence from the 19-year-old.
In a current episode of the Remarkable People podcast, Kawasaki interviewed his former intern on what he learned working at Apple and how the expertise helped him launch his personal enterprise.
The teenaged Benioff was already an entrepreneur when he first obtained in contact with Kawasaki. He’d based a small firm that made pc video games, known as Liberty Software, when he was simply 15 years outdated and then used the cash he produced from video games to assist pay for his tuition on the University of Southern California.
But Benioff says his final dream on the time was to work for Apple, so he cold-called Kawasaki a number of instances with questions for the software program pioneer. Benioff requested Kawasaki about every little thing from how you can get his arms on the most recent Macintosh software program, to how you can make writing software program extra accessible to others.
Kawasaki was impressed by {the teenager}’s gumption and requested if he had summer season plans.
“I instructed him I was planning on writing software program to place myself by way of school,'” Benioff wrote in a 2014 CNET article. “That’s when Guy modified my life eternally by asking, ‘Why do not you spend the summer season of 1984 at Apple?'”
Kawasaki hired Benioff to jot down 70 coding language applications. While there, Benioff says he not solely learned extra about pc programming, however he additionally obtained an thought of how you can run a profitable tech enterprise.
“I learned, whereas being at Apple, that a know-how firm, a nice one, is full of superb vitality, vitality and a sense of urgency,” Benioff mentioned on the podcast. “And on the similar time, there was a nice tradition [at Apple]. Steve Jobs had these Odwalla juices for everybody and shiatsu masseurs have been going up and down the hallways, conserving programmers limber.”
Today, Benioff runs a firm that’s valued at $192 billion and introduced in $21.3 billion in 2021 income. But tradition remains to be one thing Salesforce prides itself on, he says. In 2021, the corporate ranked second on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list.
Kawasaki mentioned on the podcast that he all the time knew Benioff would achieve success. He additionally learned over time how a lot the Salesforce CEO values his friendships and lends a hand to the individuals who helped get him the place he is immediately.
“Whenever I inform tales about you, the story I inform is that 36 years after I did you a favor, you probably did me a favor,” Kawasaki instructed Benioff on the podcast, referring to the truth that Benioff prolonged a Salesforce interview to Kawasaki’s son. “That has all the time caught with me – that you’re a one who remembers your folks and that’s not true of everybody.”
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