“He said to me, ‘It’s Thanksgiving weekend coming up. Why don’t you write down what you would do? How would you approach retail? Tell me about it,’” Johnson said. “So I went back and I wrote this 10-page thesis of why Apple should do stores, what they should be like, blah blah blah.”

I said, ‘So what’d you think of my thesis?’ And he goes, ‘Well, I didn’t like it very much, but that’s okay. Let’s talk!’ That’s Steve. He offered me the job that day.”

 

Ron Johnson recalled at «recode» Steve’s first reaction to the Genius Bar in the stores. Pure Steve Genius

I remember the day I came in and told Steve about the Genius Bar idea and he says, ‘That’s so idiotic! It’ll never work!’” Johnson said. “He said, ‘Ron, you might have the right idea, but here’s the big gap: I’ve never met someone who knows technology who knows how to connect with people. They’re all geeks! You can call it the Geek Bar.’”

“And I said, ‘Steve, kids who are in their 20s today grew up in a very different world. They all know technology, and that’s who’s going to work in the store.’”

The next day, Steve called Apple’s general counsel to trademark the phrase “Genius Bar.”