February 25, 1981: Apple CEO Michael Scott oversees a mass firing of employees, then holds a massive party.
“I used to say that when being CEO at Apple wasn’t fun anymore, I’d quit,” he tells a crowd of Apple staffers. “But now I’ve changed my mind — when being CEO isn’t fun anymore, I’ll just fire people until it is fun again.”
For many people at Apple, the day is the worst in company history — and an early sign that the fun startup culture of the early days are gone forever.