After nearly finalizing terms with a chip supplier in the mid-2000s, Cook called the supplier and said he’d reconsidered. “I think you mistreated us, and don’t think we’ll negotiate anymore,” he said. He then went silent for days, as the supplier worried it had lost the deal. “What he’s hoping for is that you’ll come back with a huge give in the eleventh hour,” recalled the supplier, who eventually got the deal done. “Smart guys would have to say, ‘Keep the faith.’ It was old-school negotiations.”
