One of the most precious toys for Steve Jobs, was a super yacht that he designed himself. It is gigantic and full of luxuries, like any exclusive piece of a millionaire. The only bad thing for the co-founder of Apple was that he unfortunately could not release it.
As with his most distinctive Apple products, Steve Jobs had in mind what he wanted with his superyacht. However, he needed the collaboration of an expert in the field. AND It was there when the French industrial designer, Philippe Starck, entered.
The expert tells in an interview what that first contact was like, and how he was on the verge of not working with Steve Jobs, because of an assistant who had no idea who the master, lord and boss of Apple was.
According to a review of Applesphere, back in 2007 was when Steve Jobs got the idea of having a luxurious yacht. So, he called Philippe Starck’s offices just when the businessman was in a meeting.
If Steve Jobs calls you, Unless you are with the president of a world power, the Pope or God himself, you have to stop what you are doing and answer the call. But since the secretary who answered the phone had no idea who he was, she told him that Starck was not available.
The worst thing is that he didn’t even ask for a message or phone number. She simply hung up the call. “Can you imagine the aura of Steve Jobs in 2007? He was practically God. And she (the secretary) didn’t put the call through to me because she didn’t know who he was. We started well,” says Starck in an interview with Vanity Fair.
Fortunately, weeks later he called again and almost didn’t find him, because the industrial designer was leaving the office for a business trip. Fortunately, whoever answered this time ran out to tell him who was calling him and thus communication was established.
The contact was brief. Steve Jobs said to him, “Do you want to build me a boat?” and Phillipe said yes. “Will you know how to do it,” asked the Apple co-founder. To which Starck said, modesty aside, “of course. I have webbed fingers and scales on my back. “I am amphibian.”
He went to his work table and with the ideas that Steve Jobs had given him he made his design. The then-tycoon was perplexed and told him: “It’s more than I ever imagined.”
Phillipe Starck could not believe those words and continues to highlight that moment in the interview. “The most powerful man in the world, known for being the most uncompromising, incapable of saying bravo, was telling us that this is ‘Beyond my dreams,’ no less,” he said.
The super yacht, a dream come true for the then Apple executive, was launched in 2012, but Steve Jobs died in October 2011, he was never able to launch it. It is now in the hands of his widow, Laurene Powell Jobs.