Via Wired:
To some, Jobs’ life has revealed the importance of sticking firmly to one’s vision and goals, no matter the psychic toll on employees or business associates. To others, Jobs serves as a cautionary tale, a man who changed the world but at the price of alienating almost everyone around him. The divergence in these reactions is a testament to the two deep and often contradictory hungers that drive so many of us today: We want to succeed in the world of work, but we also want satisfaction in the realm of home and family. For those who, like Jobs, have pledged to “put a dent in the universe,” his thorny life story has forced a reckoning. Is it really worth being like Steve?
The Story of Steve Jobs: An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale? | Wired Business | Wired.com
Points:
- “Join or get out of the way—it’s a phrase that sums up what Jobs’ life has taught his admirers today.”
- “My lesson from Jobs,” Levie says, “is that I can push my employees further than they thought possible, and I won’t rush any product out the door without it being perfect.” He adds: “That approach comes with collateral damage on the people side.”
- “If you’re going to fail at building something,” he says, “fail at building the f-ing iPad. Don’t fail at building children.”
- “Jobs was like dynamite,” Syal says. “Dynamite clears paths, but it also destroys everything around it.”
- “If he could do Apple and Pixar—two multibillion-dollar companies—then I should be able to handle one business and also my family.”
- “ Without his unyielding approach to design, we might never have had our iPods and MacBooks and iPads. But most of us don’t need, or want, to take such an unyielding approach.”
