Jobs wasn’t being awkward by accident. When he stayed silent and held eye contact, he was applying pressure. And pressure reveals truth. If someone rushed to fill the silence or started rambling, it showed they struggled to stay composed when things got uncomfortable. Jobs was looking for people who could think clearly under tension. The test was never about being loud or impressive. It was about restraint. Could you sit with uncertainty without performing? The ones who could signaled maturity, self-control, and quiet confidence. When Jobs remembered details about your family or background, it wasn’t small talk. He was learning what drove you. Later, he’d use that insight to reconnect you to your own standards why you cared, why you pushed yourself, and who you wanted to become. By compressing timelines, he forced people out of incremental thinking. The message was simple: stop negotiating with limits and start finding paths. Most constraints weren’t technical. They were mental. And once someone broke through, their sense of what was possible permanently expanded. Yes, people feared disappointing him. But more than that, they wanted his respect. Jobs made excellence feel personal. You weren’t just shipping a product. You were proving something about yourself. Most leaders lower standards to keep people comfortable. Jobs did the opposite. He made people uncomfortable so they could discover what they were capable of. That’s why people didn’t just work for Steve Jobs. They rose for him.

Steve was top, so this is a good one if you want. You should try this hectare as well. So Steve would do this as well. He'd say, "So hector, so you're really close with your dad, huh?" 60 seconds. Nothing. Got to hold the gaze. Don't say anything. People get so uncomfortable. So uncomfortable. Granted, it's Steve Jobs. So in life, that's what happens. People just get uncomfortable. So his litmus test to determine if you were a bozo or not. You were the hero or a bozo. Bozos were going to fill up that uncomfortable silence with some bullshit and he was going to know you weren't the guy. Then you'd never be ever negotiate for him. You'd never be able to pull through in the clutch for him. So he gave me about 60 seconds, which felt like six hours. I was like, "Oh my god, I'm just holding the gaze." And finally, I was like, "Can I help you?" "Are you okay?" And he was like, "Okay." And then he'd ask you a bunch of questions about your family or your dad. And he would store it away. Maybe he'd use it right away. Maybe he'd use it in a year, but he'd come back in a meeting. And maybe he was a poor meeting in his mind and he'd bring you over. He'd be like, "Hector, you think you said your dad worked like three jobs and moved you from Juarez, Mexico, and just to give you this life, you think you'd be appreciate with the bullshit performance you made here today? And you could afford it? Yeah. I just choked up a little. I got to do more podcast. He knows what made you take whatever it was. He'd store it away. He'd keep it and he'd whip it out. And you wanted to please him. You, everybody wanted to please Steve. And if you told him, "I can do this, man. I can do it in six months." He's like, "Great, you've got four weeks." And you'd say, "There's no software. I can't make software. I can't even do this in four weeks." And you would. And they did. They always did. And everybody at Apple was amazing. Everybody thought their shit didn't stink. And they were arrogant. And it was a wonderful, exciting place to be in. Especially then, you know, the iPad just came out and everything else. And youth felt you could do anything for this guy.