You can argue that turnaround artist Gil Amelio began Apple's recovery until you're blue in the face-- lord knows, he still thinks so-- but from our perspective, it's plain to see that Steve Jobs was really the one who brought the patient back from its near-death experience. Sure, Amelio had some decent ideas, but the execution was lacking, and the man could never win over the press because he had the personal charisma and the showmanship of Al Gore on Prozac. If you ask us, Gil's most important contribution to the process was bringing Jobs back on board so that he could grab control of the company again. The most crucial battle in the war for Apple's survival was fought with the press, and who better to fight it that a man whose Reality Distortion Field is legendary? And for those who doubt Steve's commitment to the cause, he saved Apple from the brink of death and received darn close to no financial compensation for doing it. Face it; the man simply has something to prove.

In fact, as a CNET article points out, Jobs didn't even receive a salary from Apple last year, and he didn't get paid in 1997, either. Poor guy... perhaps we should take up a collection? On the other hand, Jobs finally holds a substantial number of shares in Apple's stock. Remember how Apple's interim CEO and chairman of the board had only a single share last year? Well, now he's got 10,001, which is one third of the 30,000 options they offered him back in 1997. And considering that those shares are now worth about $400,000, maybe we shouldn't feel so bad after all. (It's still a lot less than Amelio took from the company, especially when you include his bonus for juggling the books to give Apple a "profit" in 1996.)

Anyway, it's always been clear that Jobs' motivation for his hours at Apple has not been monetary. Remember, this is a guy who built one of the biggest computer companies in the world, only to hire a guy who kicked him out. Then the company faltered and nearly tanked, when they finally came crawling back. There's no question that Apple is close to Steve's heart, and wanting to prove the naysayers wrong is a powerful force and more motivating than money-- especially to a guy who's raking in the dough from Pixar. Pride and chutzpah make the world go 'round...