An Apple a day will byte you…

I have to warn you that my response got quite lengthy and don’t feel compelled to read it all. Also, it gets political at the end.

Did you [read] Jobs’ biography?

He was a remarkable person. I suspect no one else could have built, nor saved, Apple. But he was a near total jerk. The same obsessiveness that enabled him to create Apple lead him to casually destroy people. It also led him to make the decisions about his medical care that resulted in his death far before it should have occurred had he listened to others.

What Jobs says in the quote above is superficially attractive I suppose – i.e., you are very smart and contain within you a wise inner voice that will steer you right if you let it. However, a moment’s reflection will tell you that is not true for most people. Even worse, Job’s idea that you should not pay attention to anyone’s opinion but your own works if you are a genius bully but I don’t recommend it for most people.  His “me at all costs and to hell with what you think philosophy” badly damaged Apple at many turns. Apple needed Jobs but it would have been a much better company if Jobs had been more willing to listen to other voices. All of this said I also suspect that great enterprises often need people like Jobs.

I used to work at a place not all that different from Apple (hugely successful, complete with genius entrepreneur obsessed with her business, which was akin to her child), If I stayed I would be very wealthy now, but she wanted me to make the company my life and that wasn’t what I was looking for. I think if you stay at a place like Apple and similar places, you can pay a heavy price and/or reap great rewards. It is your choice.

I don’t know where you live nor do I have any real idea of what your politics are so excuse me if I offend you but what Jobs says ties in with the state of politics in the U.S. I have no problem at all with the self-made people of the world reaping their rewards, however, we have now arrived at a place where we have a small group of elites who were born to wealth and who by manipulating the system have become obscenely wealthy and have the same philosophy that Jobs expressed above (Jobs was socially liberal while most of these people are not). Many of these people are very, very smart, but they don’t care about anyone else but themselves. It is specifically with those people who a philosophy like Jobs’ (or like Any Rand’s for that matter) have the potential for great mischief. A little bully is one thing; a big bully who controls the reins of government is something else entirely.

This is the Points of View of Mr. Beluga; a comment made on this post: Everything else is secondary by Steve Jobs.  I contacted him that I will be sharing his comments for others to read.  I happen to share his view.

 

Related link:  Everything else is secondary by Steve Jobs

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