Steve Jobs died yesterday. May he rest in Peace.
(Note: if you don’t have time to read this whole post, skip to the last 2-3 paragraphs)
Basically everyone on earth already knows about it. I had the same shock as everyone else, and as someone who works (roughly) in the technology space, it has been a big deal in the circles that I run in. However, I very quickly found myself surprised and a little dismayed at the direction public discourse went in mourning the man.
I got into a brief back-and-forth with the most prolific Twitter user in my industry, Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land, when he said “This is when you wish the US had knighthoods. Perhaps a presidential or congressional recognition of Steve Jobs,” with a link to the list of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients.
Let me say now what I said then: I have no desire to diminish the man’s abilities or accomplishments. I was a fan of both his products (though I never owned a Mac or iPod), and even more his presentations and style as a CEO. He was an innovative business leader, and committed to building a good product and marketing it effectively.
That said, I question the deification that is taking place here. Great business man? Yes. Great individual? Check. Great contributor to humanity? Not clear. Bill Gates said “The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.” He could have been talking about Winston Churchill, or Nelson Mandela, and I guess that’s what’s bothering me about all of this. People who have actually given more to the world die with a fraction of the fanfare.
I should mention, he obviously deserves no blame for this. He didn’t write any of this, and he deserves to be mourned and respected just the same as anyone else who dies. It’s the hero worship that I don’t get. He wasn’t just an industrialist, he made high-end consumer electronics. They are luxury items, no matter how much we love them. I am thrilled that I can now watch YouTube videos on the subway, but I would argue that Google has contributed far the value to the world in making information more accessible. However, since Larry Page (or Sergey Brin) isn’t the huge personality that Jobs was, the response to his eventual passing will be muted in comparison.
I need to keep interrupting myself here to make sure that people realize, I have no problem with saying nice things about a man who died. It is appropriate, and I would hope that people will speak kindly of me when I am gone (though I don’t count on it).
For all his strengths as a business man, he was conspicuously less involved with philanthropy than fellow billionaires like Branson, Buffett, and Gates. He paid himself a salary of only $1 as head of Apple, but made about $8-9 billion in stock options and investments, which he paid very little in taxes on, and was not a supporter of the Buffett school of taxing wealth generation as regular income. In fact, he was the subject of both a criminal investigation and a lawsuit from his own board members for securities fraud and costing the company money in a shady valuation of his stock compensation.
Now, again, let me be clear. He should not be condemned for any of this. They are his opinions, and it was his money to do what he liked with. However, generosity of spirit, belief in the civic value of giving back to the community and government fairly, and compassion for the many are exactly the traits that make Gates and Buffett figures that transcend their business personalities. As far as screwing his own company, the criminal investigation went away, but the lawsuit didn’t. I imagine that it will now, unless his estate is held liable for the $7 billion in damages that the board of directors was seeking.
I feel like this is still coming across as critical, and that isn’t my goal. I am more than happy to raise a glass to the memory of a guy who by all accounts was a good man, a great CEO, a thought leader in his industry, and a beloved husband and father who died too young. I mean that. I am genuinely saddened by his passing, and in the loss of his spirit, zeal, and drive to be the best we have certainly lost something that will be difficult to replace in such a compelling package.
I’m just saying, let’s celebrate the man for what he was, rather than trip over ourselves in a competition to see who can best praise him for being something that he wasn’t.
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