doing the whole banana

[unpakwon]

What does the following in red mean? "Doing all things"?

"Because Woz and I started the company based on doing the whole banana, we weren't so good at partnering with people," he said.

Thank you.

[5jj]

What does the following in red mean? "Doing all things"?

"Because Woz and I started the company based on doing the whole banana, we weren't so good at partnering with people," he said.

Thank you.

I do not know the expression. I imagine it means 'doing every single thing themselves'.

[TheParser]

[QUOTE=unpakwon


NOT A TEACHER


(1) Thanks to you and the moderator, I have learned a new idiom this morning.

(2) Of course, I visited Professor Google and found two uses that you may wish to

study.

(a) The following advice comes from a golfer to another golfer (needless to say, I

know NO THING about golf):

"It is if you play it safe and bite it off in 200' chunks. If you want to go for the whole

banana in one throw, it gets a bit narrower."

(b) Then apparently someone wanted to remodel a room. Someone gave this advice:

" Why not go for the whole banana, and make the closet full-height?"

(3) It seems that to "do/go for the whole banana" suggests being bold. Doing the

maximum. Not settling for half measures. As the saying goes: Throwing caution to

the wind.

(a) Maybe (a big "maybe"), your quotation means something like:

Those two gentlemen were always pushing the boundaries as far as they could.

They had no patience dealing with partners who might be more timid.

[unpakwon]

Thank you all for the kind help.

I understand your explanation. Still I don't see what the fruit has to to with the meaning. Anyway I've got what I need.

[Barb_D]

While I've never heard "the whole banana" before, we do use "the whole enchilada" with the same meaning.

I have no idea why.