Steve Jobs really pulled a reality distortion field to poach Tim Cook from Compaq (in 1998, it was worth $30B+ to Apple’s $3B). All of Cook’s friends and advisors told him not to join almost-bankrupt Apple. Cook says it took Jobs one meeting to convince him: “I had gotten a call several times from the search people that [Jobs] had employed, and I kept saying no. I was happy at Compaq — or thought I was — and they were persistent. So, I finally thought, ‘you know, I’m going to go out and…