Steve Jobs
could look at two seemingly indistinguishable avocados and declare one
heavenly and the other inedible. He refused to put a license plate
on his car. Early at Apple, he even used to relax by soaking his
feet in the toilet.
These are only a few of the many eccentric facts I learned
about Jobs through his
biography by Walter Isaacson. Like many of you, Jobs is a personal hero
of mine. I was fascinated, inspired, and enraged throughout the
book. Steve could be both a kind and a cruel man. A genius
visionary and an ignorant fool.
Take for example his initial reaction to having cancer. For
nine months Jobs categorically refused his doctors' advice to
have surgery to remove the
tumor. Instead he was the victim of his own Reality Distortion
Field, believing it was better to use alternative medical solutions. His
advisors told him, "Cancer doesn't work like that. You need surgery”.
We can never
know for sure, but there is cause to believe that Steve didn't
have to die so young. Had he been a bit more humble he would have
elected for the surgery immediately. Who knows what the world would be
like today if he were still at Apple's helm.
Then again, had
he been a bit more humble, could he have revolutionized
no fewer than three industries in his five short decades?
The trouble
with Steve Jobs is that he yelled at his employees, cried to his bosses,
stole from his best friend, denied his firstborn- and yet was one of the
best leaders this world has ever seen.
