SOON-TO-BE-RELEASED: MUCH ANTICIPATED, NO-HOLES-BARRED BIOGRAPHY BY WALTER ISAACSON
PRESS RELEASE: Statement by Apple's Board of DirectorsWed Oct 05 19:34:00 2011 EDT
CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--October 05, 2011--We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs, 56, passed away today.
Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.
His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.
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His is one of the greatest business/entrepreneur success stories of all time. Much has been and will be said of his brilliance, but now it's enough to know he has left us and to wish his family condolences.
H/T Tom
Quote from book article linked above:
"I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that," Jobs said, according to the description. "But I don't have any skeletons in my closet that can't be allowed out."
The Barnes & Noble listing said that Jobs was, at times, brutally honest "about the people he worked with and competed against," and his friends and foes were the same.
"He was not a model boss or human being, tidily packaged for emulation," the description said. "Driven by demons, he could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple's hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is thus both instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values."
"He was not a model boss or human being, tidily packaged for emulation," the description said.
ReplyDeleteSounds a bit like a guy I worked for long ago; an Englishman who was a real Jekyll and Hyde personality.
Mercurial (in the sense of "fulminate of"), when you made a mistake he would tear you a new on on the spot.
Maybe 10 or 15 minutes later, he would swing by with some gossip as if the outburst had never happened; he had blown it out of his system.
Looking a bit like Ian McShane (in the photo I have in my When not even Ian McShane can save your movie... post), he was one of the smartest people I ever knew, and boy did he know it, adding insufferable to his accolades.
I learned a hell of a lot from him, but as for his outbursts: I'd remind myself that I had been in the USAF; I've been screamed at by experts. But it did get old.
When he eventually left the company (after a dispute with the owners), my feelings were a mixture of dread (he was effectively the brains of the company) mixed with the feeling of an enormous weight being lifted from my shoulders.
On the other hand, during a long bout of unemployment later, he helped me all he could (long distance then) with resumes, tips, a couple of loans and even an offer to let me stay with him until I got back on my feet again.
He was truly one of my best friends (still is), but if offered the chance to work under him again, I honestly do not know what my decision would be.
In 2002, I visited him while on a driving vacation, and openly wondered to him if his habit of exploding like that, getting it out of his system, kept him from getting ulcers while passing them along to us instead.
He laughed and acknowledged that it may well have been the case.
Probably most people do not fit into standard pigeonholes, but there are some (like Steve Jobs, and that boss of mine) who are definitely in a class of their own.
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Well said, Paul!
ReplyDeleteOOPS!!!
ReplyDeleteAnyone clicking on the link I put in my previous comment is apt to get a little confused.
I had done a cut-and-paste into a boilerplate link I use sometimes, and somehow missed changing the URL part.
So here is the Ian McShane link I intended ...
When not even Ian McShane can save your movie...
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