Steve Jobs: Not a very nice person to know

http://www.livemint.com/2011/10/21004530/Not-a-very-nice-man-to-know.html

by asto • 15 years ago

32 14 15 years ago

The book The No Asshole Rule talks extensively about Steve, IIRC labeling him a certified asshole and discussing his management style. The conclusion I drew was Steve succeeded in part because he was more often charismatic but people were afraid of disappointing Steve and facing the asshole persona.

Heck, in a way I'm sure it was great working with him - I bet you always knew where you stood.

asto• 15 years ago

It's one thing to be brutally honest with people and quite another to disown your own child, deride subordinates for silly things, destroy people's public reputation and park in multiple spots meant for handicapped people!

People who are honest and disregard the consequences of absolute honesty are an asset in a world filled with people who would lie to keep social ties intact. Assholes on the other hand, not so much.

grkhetan3• 15 years ago

If you think nobody liked Steve, do you think he would have remained the CEO of Apple? Was he a dictator who couldn't be ousted? He was the best leader for Apple, period. Secondly, if your boss scolds you, sometimes unnecessarily so, but he makes you millions of dollars by leading the company to a 130X increase in stock price, would you mind?? Thirdly, employees in the company love him. I happen to work at Apple right now, and the love I have seen in the employees for Steve, cannot be paralleled for any other leader at any other company. People didn't like his aggressiveness and his abrasiveness, but still loved him and his dedication and leadership, and that he single-handedly led Apple to great success. Genius is idiosyncratic.

michaelcampbell• 15 years ago

> Heck, in a way I'm sure it was great working with him - I bet you always knew where you stood.

Under his shoe.

jerrya4• 15 years ago

Ugh! This page has auto-playing audio, and the audio controls are way down at the bottom of the page.

@asto, I think you should have remarked on this in the title to this link. And I wish people would not post links with auto-playing audio or video.

Natsu• 15 years ago

It's possible that the original poster didn't realize it was there. I, for one, had no idea there was any kind of audio on that page, because any such thing is automatically blocked.

jerrya4• 15 years ago

You might be right. What a horrible website -- I have no idea who the audience they are targeting is that appreciates autoplay audio.

grkhetan3• 15 years ago

(i made this comment on that web page, but hasn't been approved in the last 3 hours, so copying here as well)

I think some of your stories are not very accurate, they are twisted to be more negative than they were.

In any case, one thing you should definitely do is remove Richard Stallman's statement -- since perhaps you don't know him -- he thinks the whole IT product industry is satanish -- nobody should ever sell any product as per him. He does not use any software which is sold and lives like a hermit in the world of tech, with so fanatic ideals that he is completely incompatible with today's world.

Secondly, labor conditions at FoxConn factories are often pointed out as Apple's crimes -- but it is foolish to do so. Foxconn is the largest electronics manufacturer in the world, and a LOT of top tech brands in the world outsource their manufacturing to them. Apple makes them most money though -- I am not sure how Foxconn conditions are caused by Apple.

Thirdly, about charity, he donated privately. And he had a RED product campaign for iPods which donated a large amount of money to Africa for AIDS. And he has left his wealth of 7 billion here, his wife spent a lot of time doing charity, I am sure she will use almost all of it in charity...

Fourthly, backdating options was a common practice followed at a lot of companies -- this has nothing to do with Steve Jobs -- in fact he was found to be innocent in this (he knew about it, but he likely thought of it as an accounting issue: he was no accounting expert -- its not like he requested for this to be done).

Regarding Amelio -- really? Can you point to any authentic source for reference? I am not sure he made Apple a 3 billion stock pile when Apple had a multi-billion dollar loss the year before Steve Jobs joined. And you are trying to make it sound like Steve Jobs was a hitler who kicked off Amelio who should have been the CEO of Apple. Are you nuts?

One more -- you mention Apple "stole" the developers from C&G, a MP3 software firm. Please can you describe more what you meant -- I never knew one could "steal" developers.... Apple had hired 4 of their key employees --- by making them an offer which they could have declined obviously but they didn't, because they wanted to join Apple -- i am not sure how this means anything. Lot of things like this happen in the industry, for example, Juniper frequently hires a bunch of developers from Cisco's team for a product, when they want to start a new similar product.

Overall - I obviously agree Steve was not a "polite" person -- he used to talk harshly and make aggressive moves business wise. But he did all of it for passion of making something that will change the market upside down. And he did that, multiple times. With innovative ideas. Who could have started a retail store chain in 2001 for an electronics company? And made it successful today when all retail is failing...

All his achievements are known to everybody. He was a person that had failings like everybody else, but he pursued his passion with such a vigor, that he made a massive impact on everything he did. He moved industries forward, with a sudden, immense push, multiple times.

jerrya4• 15 years ago

"Apple makes them most money though -- I am not sure how Foxconn conditions are caused by Apple."

Nike was very heavily criticized for the working/living conditions of workers at the factories that made Nike shoes.

For quite sometime, Nike hid behind the claim that they were not shoe manufacturers, but a sports product design and marketing company, and that the actual conditions of the workers were not Nike's business.

What you are telling me "Apple makes them most money though " is that Apple has a great deal of leverage with FoxConn, and that Apple can use that leverage as Nike did to dramatically improve and police the conditions of the FoxConn employees.

And if Steve Jobs had, or Tim Cook would, tell their users that in the future prices would take a $10 jump per player to ensure they were manufactured in better conditions, my guess is that it would affect sales in much the same way that Nike's sales were affected (which is to say, increase.)

grkhetan3• 15 years ago

Apple actually did a lot to better the labor conditions at the plants. They routinely publish a report about it as well.

What I wanted to say is that Foxconn makes products for a large number of companies : Acer, Amazon, Intel, Cisco, HP, Dell, Nintendo, Nokia, Microsoft, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Vizio, and others, apart from Apple. I am sure their products are also manufactured in the same labor conditions. Why is Apple being blamed and not any of the other companies? In fact, since Apple's name has been publicized, they have done much more to improve the conditions there, I am not sure whether these other clients did even a little bit.

Steve Jobs: Not a very nice person to know

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