The best quote on Steve Jobs came from one of his biggest rivals, Bill Gates. "So many of the people who want to be like Steve have the asshole side down. What they're missing is the genius part." I wish more people realised that.
Every startup in the silicon valley thinks that they need at least one of them to be Steve Jobs. They play the the asshole, overconfident, uppity designer part to the tee, they will not even acknowledge your presence in the room, unless you have the social clout. The other one has to play the technical nerd guru. Expert in their own right, the Woz to the Jobs so to speak.
This was true 10 years ago. This is true today. The number of idiots who think being an asshole and overconfident about their little products will have them reach some sort of cult status is crazy.
The thing is, it's easy to be the asshole in the room, it's more difficult to be the genius person. Which ironically is the wrong lesson to take from Jobs' life. Steve Jobs was one of the greatest product people to exist on the planet. He knew computers from inside out. He had a vision for what he wanted computing to be, he had the knowledge, and most importantly he spent 40 years of his life doing that; but his personal life was a mess. His behaviour towards others should never be glorified. Like every other person on this planet, him being good at one thing didn't make him an expert at others. I wish more people chose to be as disciplined as him, chose to master their craft as he did. But instead, people wake up one day, and decide they'll just take all the wrong lessons from his life.
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