This review of a Steve Jobs biography that came out shortly after his death might be good comparison with Femi Kusa's recent controversial essay on Ibru
Note, though, that this review describes Job's less pleasant side as crucial to his success. The Femi essay on Ibru does not seem to do the same for Ibru.
Steve Jobs Was an Assaholic
Being a manipulative asshole was one of the Apple visionary's keys to business success, but it was also something he tried to recover from outside of the professional sphere.
I read and loved every single word of the new Steve Jobs biography—I admit it. But not because it reinforced the view that Jobs is our generation's Einstein. Not because it detailed his legendary technological vision. I loved it because the book got underneath all that to the complexity of being an artist, a genius, a perfectionist, a child abandoned by his birth parents, a father, a husband, and most of all, a raging asshole.
Just after reading about the 1984 launch of the Macintosh and Jobs traveling to Europe to meet Apple salespeople and piss off the majority of the continent with his arrogance, I arrived at my favorite passage in the whole 571-page book:
It was on this trip that Jobs first got to know Jean-Louis Gassée, Apple's manager in France. Gassée was among the few to stand up successfully to Jobs on the trip. "He has his own way with the truth," Gassée later remarked. "The only way to deal with him was to out-bully him." When Jobs made his usual threat about cutting down on France's allocation if Gassée didn't jack up sales projections, Gassée got angry. "I remember grabbing his lapel and telling him to stop, and then he backed down. I used to be an angry man myself. I am a recovering assaholic. So I could recognize that in Steve." (Page 185)
Assaholic? Wow.
I've been around addiction pretty much my whole adult life. I've known a ton of folks who are alcoholics, drug addicts, anorexics, gambling addicts, sex addicts, obsessive-compulsives, and crazed over the pursuit of wealth at any cost—and I've been one myself. But a person defined by his assholeness? Well, that's something I know all too well but never really thought about as it's own addiction. That is, until I read about Steve Jobs' many tirades.
The whole of Isaacson's book really is an explanation of how Jobs' very assaholic nature made him the success that he was, for better or worse. This nature certainly got him into a heap of trouble on more than one occasion—but it was the driving force behind everything he did right, too. To his great credit, he must have known when he recruited Isaacson to write the book, told him to talk to his enemies, and declined to see a draft, that most of the book would end up being an exploration of how much of an asshole he really was.
All too often our icons get turned into some sugarcoated fantasy of greatness that has nothing to do with the flesh, blood, and sweat of what made those men and women great (and, in many cases, impossible to deal with). Genius comes in many forms, but it usually involves a certain amount of torture, both inside and out.
♦◊♦
My great-aunt was Pearl S. Buck, the Nobel Laureate for literature. Pearl was a heroine of epic proportions—not only in her writing but also in her work for women's rights and in opening the gates of adoption in America. She was friendly with Eleanor Roosevelt and Jackie Kennedy. Yet, from inside the family, I can say with some confidence that my great-aunt, the genius of art and humanity, was also an assaholic, both with family and those who stood in her way professionally.
That gene must have somehow found its way into my body, because my nature is one that I can certainly see in the description both of Jobs and Buck. I didn't start Apple or win any Nobel Prizes, but I have had my share of non-epic successes in life. And I have always tried mightily to figure out how to deal with my own propensity to be an asshole—not just for sport, but out of a burning desire to get something right.
I get a big kick out of the way Jobs started out as a kind of Buddhist monk, working the night shift because he thought his fruitarian diet meant he had no need to bathe or wear deodorant. The bastard stunk so bad that no one would work anywhere near him at Atari. He took acid and spent most of his time on an apple farm-turned-commune. How that guy became the most important businessman of our generation is, at one level, completely incomprehensible and, at another, completely logical.
I too grew up in a communal living setting, albeit on the opposite coast in Amherst. I learned, like Jobs, that Western logic isn't always all it's cracked up to be—that Eastern intuition and a focus on changing perspective completely to see a different truth is often much more powerful than pounding away at linear thinking.
Like Jobs, I learned, during what can only be described as a "non-traditional" upbringing (read: truly wacky), that in using intuition you can see something deep inside a problem that others miss or are afraid to confront directly.
♦◊♦
Early on, Jobs developed his intensity at the cross section of LSD and technology, manipulating people with his stare and warped reality as he built the first Apple computer. I learned how to be an asshole in sports.
For a rower in college, winter training involves hours of torture. On Saturday mornings, we would have races up a road that snaked through a cemetery near campus. Snow and ice didn't stop us. The road started with a steep incline, then leveled off in a false peak only to come around a turn for an even steeper incline to the top. It was that second part of the hill that caused legs to crumble.
I was the captain of the team and a fast runner; my best friend Jon was a decent oarsman but an exceptional runner. On one particular Saturday, our coach sat on the back of his yellow Datsun pickup at the top of the hill, clipboard in hand and tobacco in his bearded cheek as he kept score on the ten-hill workout.
We had all been out late the night before—it was college, after all. But I was still gutting out each repetition, moving through muscle failure to get my body to the top of the hill at the front of the pack. I noticed Jon taking off every other hill, beating me on one and coming in last on the next one.
Something deep inside me snapped. It was as if I could see the order of the world and for this guy, even my best friend, taking a powder was not part of it. Always before I had kept my rage in check, but this day, probably because Jon was my friend, I let it out. When he dogged the next time, I was already on my way back down when I passed him still making his way up. I pushed him into a snow bank. Hard. And I screamed, "What the fuck do you think you are doing?"
Jon came up swinging and landed a few good shots to my jaw before the coach broke us up.
But my point had been made.
♦◊♦
I've often thought of the fight on the cemetery hill as a turning point in my life. I was an asshole that day for sure—but an asshole in the service of a greater cause.
"Rage" doesn't adequately describe my state of mind. It was more like "intensity." Rage was the end result of seeing something wrong that I was prepared to demand be made right, even if that required me to look to others like an asshole. Over the last 25 years, across conference room tables from New York to Los Angeles, I have flexed that same muscle more times than I can count. My opponents' reaction is always the same as Jon's. They come up swinging.
But assaholism has been the secret to any success I have had.
Isaacson says again and again how Jobs, with his unblinking stare and bipolar behavior, was manipulative. But I don't believe that being an assaholic is an act. I think it's more like an otherworldly intensity that expresses itself only through constantly questioning who else sees the deeper truth of the situation and who is just standing around and getting in the way.
The most interesting thing about Steve Jobs is how he used his, frankly, quite unpleasant personality to achieve something great—and how in his later years he tried to figure out how to remold his uglier parts in the service of being a better father, husband, and man.
The fact that Jobs commissioned a book that details every nook and cranny of his difficult personality—a book he apparently wanted written so his kids would have a fuller picture of who he really was and what he did—shows great humility, sure, but it also shows how he never let go of his assaholism.
—Photo katerha/AP
About Tom MatlackTom Matlack is the co-founder of The Good Men Project. He has a 17-year-old daughter and 15- and 6-year-old sons. His wife, Elena, is the love of his life.
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Too soon. You're an ass.
Really? Read the piece. I am saying it was a good thing.
this is AMAZING you really should read it!! Im actually downloading the book NOW because of it!!
The people who are crazy enough to think they are crazy enough to change the world…….(When u know the rest) …Steve Jobs, was a man of passion, intensity, intelligence, he believe in the possibility of unity humanity and technology. He stopped at nothing to achieve his goal he pushed others till they succumbed to his will and achieving a better meaning to their life.
I am an asshole i just cursed out a bunch, of my soccer team mates i can't help it. I want to see the best in them. I want them to achieve they potential. But ultimately, i want to win. I want to win more than they want to win they don't share my passion. I am an asshole cause i curse them out. Two year ago i just walked in the office of my college of engineering dean and asked him why he kept sabotaging black minorities engineering organisation by not funding our organisation, he would see me walking in the walkways on his office until he succumbed to me. I took this from my father who i hated for displaying this same characteristic. Jobs has captivated me since his Stafford commencement speech.
Reality distortion field is character, Character in from of strong charisma.
While Microsoft went after money, he went after a digital computing revolution and didn't he achieve it? He did. I listened to the audio book on an IPOD and googled references on iPad. The Hollywood actor Will Smith, once said if you are resolute in your cause the universe would bend to your will. This was the case of Steve.
Tom your are not an asshole, i am not an asshole, we are just so passionate only us can see our vision and are willing to put passion behind our vision and achieve it, people might hate you now but the trade off is a Humanity that would succeed and benefit from your result. People like Steve Jobs are what the world needs. My brother think he is an asshole a big jerk, far from it, i think his a rare gem polished, polished uniquely, embraced his difference and even his weakness was channeled in such a unique way, that we got the IPOD, IPAD and APPLE products.
So, a black guy who gratuitously yells at people over a game and guilt-trips a college dean to get something he might not have deserved. Yeah, you're a real winner, pal. You have a really great grasp of English, too.
Since you cant understand the underlying meaning in my comment and i don't have the obligation to help you modify your perspective.
….therefore? Predicate, please.
"While Microsoft went after money, he went after a digital computing revolution and didn't he achieve it? "
Was he, and apple, not after money? I really don't think apple deserves canonisation over microsoft. They've shown the inclination to be just as monopolistic where they can be.
As for him being a polished gem, ever read about the "worldwide loyalty team?" He was enormously successful, but theres no reason for tom not to call 'em like he sees 'em. I'm not sure a world full of Steve Jobs would be a very pleasant place to live.
http://gizmodo.com/5427058/apple-gestapo-how-apple-hunts-down-leaks
Microsoft products were boring and were aimed at corporations; they weren't hip enough to attract and retain consumers. Their bottom line was mainly profits, not consumer satisfaction.
Apple products came along and revolutionized technology and how end-users interacted with it. Apple made technology hip; designs are innovative and sleek; being seen with an Apple brand brings user status and the technology is fun and easy to use – it's captured consumers' hearts and the world over, unlike any other products before. Apple's bottom line: innovation and consumer satisfaction.
Apple profits and their "monopolization" are by-products of their innovation AND consumer satisfaction. Consumer satisfaction is key.
If MS wasn't "hip enough" to keep consumers, it's really funny that more consumers use them than Apple. I'm on a Mac laptop right now. Hate the thing. Use it because it was a gift. I'll switch at the first opportunity.
As a consumer, I could NOT care less whether my hardware is "hip" as long as it does what I want it to and is reasonably priced.
It is too bad that he had cancer and died at an early age. It didn't make him some kind of God though. He treated people horribly.
It's always sad to see anyone die of cancer, at any age. Steve Jobs' deficiencies were self-evident and well-known for quite some time. They're not really rationalizable, since this sort of narcissism never is. As for Apple, I like their products, though not enough to plunk down a lot of money for them. Some don't like Apple. It takes all kinds. What I find annoying is the Apple cult. They're the sort who'd lord it over anyone who flies coach. My ex-wife was like that.
Micorsoft had to "go after money." So does Apple. The law requires the management of publicly-owned companies to consider the fiduciary well-being of the company's shareholders, first and foremost. They're not playing with sea-shells, they're playing with people's savings.
Peter, you miss the point. apple is creating product that are so unique u could swear aliens left them for us . Read the book you ill understand what i mean, when he(steve) got fired first from apple it was because the goal of the company was to become a profit making one instead of consumer product oriented product.
I read the article, if(tom the article writer) he wants to work at a not so not so great company, that is mediocre you should quit. But when you work for the biggest, most successful computing company in the world you need to be committed to protecting their proprietary information. I also believe he was adequate compensated and owned stock in this company so its not KGB as described.
The world would be better if more people embraced their jobs instinct, because then everybody would make only decision they can defend and have absolutely thougth through thoroughly, so when approached for the rational behind their decision like the france division head who stood up to him. they can stand up for themselves.
In an Age, where government is cutting budget, government lacks focus, the entire congress is defunct, companies are after profit and shredding every sense of principle, shipping jobs to other countries to make hire profit margins(Apple did this too), Cooperate america has done every thing but innovation and instead of looking for innovation we want to fix every thing by bureaucracy of tax cut/budget. Maybe we need more people like steve jobs, to fasten us to principle, anchor progress to innovation, make product that just dont make business sense but consumer sense. Because when consumer like product they will live and die but it just like we love and die by the iPod, iPad, Machintosh and iphone.
Maybe we just need more people like him, who can actually push legislation they know would positively drive the economy and say fuck it to lobbyist,(like Steve Jobs said Fuck it to memory card slot). May be we just need more people to embrace the asshole nature they have, say fuck it i need it done like this and that is how ill get it done. Think about it Tom think about it.
"[W]e love and die by the iPod, iPad, Machintosh (sic) and iphone."
Sounds like someone needs validation for their existence. Travel. See the world. One thing, though: avoid Eastern religion. It's charlatanism. Read real philosophers.
Validation for existence? i was born in Australia, grew up in South Africa, spend my summers in England and i have lived in the United state for 7 years. I have seen more of the world than you. Once again you miss the point, this devices empower. I never implied they define our existence.
I'll compare passport stamps any time you'd like. As for your point, not once did I write that Apple makes poor products. If you could read at grade level, you'd discern that.
My point, however, stands. Living (you did mean to write 'living', didn't you, not 'loving'?) and dying by appliances is the height of shallowness, even if the appliances are first rate.
Knowing you live in America confirms the belief of many that the authorities will allow just anybody to live and work here.
Read at Grade level?! You have a knack for stirring up nonconstructive arguments Its about Steve Jobs legacy not me …
Reading your essay, Tom, I thought back to a magazine experience I had that I thought would shape my career…and lead me on to higher planes of success. My editor was able to pull a team together, make us all feel like super-achievers and, in general, sustain a warm, reassuring tone in our workplace. He was not successful, alas. We loved him, all of us, blindly—totally unaware that our publication was heading south. His replacement was tough, cold, demanding, uncaring, an arrogant prick who matches the asshole stereotype perfectly. He scared us a bit—those of us who'd survived his initial cut—and he angered us. We considered him harsh, tactless and indifferent. The thing is, he did turn our magazine around; he did beat us up—mentally—so that we churned out a publication that was considerably more relevant and salable than what we'd been producing till then. We didn't love him; far from it. But those of us who survived his spitfire management came away chastened and maybe a little scarred. This man, unlike Steve Jobs, did not produce anything earthshaking, but in his own world he was often referred to as a genius—a super-achiever raised aloft by the likes of those of us who served him. In that regard, I guess there could be a Steve Jobs parallel. Their primary difference: Steve Jobs knew he was an asshole and learned to live with assoholicism; my former boss—now deep into his dotage, alas—considered himself the nicest man in the world. A puzzler.
When I lived in Roundrock, TX, I had a couple of friends who worked at Apple. I was told that if you got onto an elevator with Steve Jobs he would likely ask you the names of the corporate officers. If you didn't have them memorized he would fire you right then and there. My definition of an asshole is someone who treats you badly when it is unnecessary. Having ADHD, I would be fired. That is so unfair when it has NOTHING to do with doing your job well (to know those names). To throw someone into unemployment and crush their soul just for not knowing something that has little to nothing to do with their job description is cruel. I disagree that assaholicism was partly the cause of his success. It's about the interface and the FreeBSD OS. Good design and ease of use. It doesn't take a genius to build a successful company and I have not seen signs of genius in him. I like using Apple products, especially my I-Pod Touch though I am glad to never have worked at Apple b/c if he had fired me for not knowing those names I would have punched him as hard as I could as many times as I could.
Clark If you read the book, you would understand he didn't take this decision for the fun of it. HE said i was hard on people some times and i was probably a little too hard. I remember when Reid his son was 6 years old, and i just fired someone that day, he got home and felt bad that someone lost his job. but he said somebody had to do it" . Steve jobs shouldnt care about your family and tolerate your short comings. You should care about your family not to allow short coming in your life.
But honestly, how can you work for a company and not know the person you report to? Your cooperate officer. Other CEOs might not take it as a big deal. But Steve Jobs does. And if you cant remember questions like that just take the elevator.
Just avoid the elevator i mean and take the stairs
You just demonstrated quite amplay and definitively that someone else should have received that liver instead of Steve Jobs.
I have known quite a few arrogant and even cruel people. It has not lead to their success. There are successful people who are also assholes.
There are a lot of very successful people who are not assholes at all. I understand that Billy Graham, General Patreus, and Peter Jackson all qualify.
Most men know already that nice guys finish last. Your feminist friends would have men like Steve Jobs neutered so that they can compete for those top jobs.
Oh, Good lord. Being a decent human being means their are emasculated. Get a life. And a brain.
Being intense or passionate for a larger cause should not be an excuse for being an asshole, even if being an asshole is an extension of that passion. Especially so in Jobs' case, when he was clearly aware he was an asshole. (And again, confessing that he had been too hard on some people doesn't diminish his tyrannical antics.) Let's stop romanticising his assaholicism any more. It is just that – assholicism. It was not the secret ingredient to his success. Those ingredients were his vision, passion, foresight and talent.
Personally, I think truly good leaders can command respect and foster an amazing work culture without resorting to being something of a tyrant in the workplace. There needs to be a fine line struck up between being nice and being a bully; obviously Jobs was way too skewed towards the latter direction.
"Personally, I think truly good leaders can command respect and foster an amazing work culture "
An example of a leader that commands respect and fosters an amazing work culture is Obama. The whole country know he is a push over. Even when the future of the nation depends on him he lacks the will power to execute he frankly is nice at the wrong time. Ill encourage you to read lisa hickory article on how been nice almost got her fired. In contrast to LBJ (Lyndon Johnson) Vice- president who later became president and succeeded in passion the civil right act, kenedy's administration wrote . He intimidated senator threatened them when neccesary and what the nation get Civil Rights for Minority big achievement. Yes been ass asshole is one the important tools of been a leader that would achieve a true legacy.Its alright to romance his Assaholicism that is what made the difference for him believe it or not.
If Obama tried half of LBJ or FDR did he'd be impeached, indicted, sued, and thrown out of the White House by the end of the year. He issues executive orders and the entire GOP from the municipal level up cries "imperialism!!"
I get what you're saying, Tom. But what do we tell our kids? Please hone your bullying tactics so you can be a success in later life? Do we teach them about empathy while also encouraging them to push people around? Not quite sure how to balance those two…
Pauline, I understand your concerns as a parent Jobs was a very empathetic person, He cared so much for humanity that when he saw those starving Nigerian kids from the Biafra war, He denounced christianity . Then his response was to create devices that could meet at the crossroad of humanity and Technology .The point i am driving at here is Passion, encourage your kids to put passion behind causes they have a conviction for. Steve Jobs wasn't a bully per Se, he reacted appropriately to his surrounding with tactics that other consider bully because they couldn't stand the heat.
Tell them[Your kids] they are special, give them resources to succeed, fund there dreams and don't expect disappointment, in future they would believe they can achieve anything by using there leadership skills and resources appropriately.
Sometimes an asshole is just an asshole with no mitigating positive track record of accomplishments. Talking about how you/someone else has lately turned the corner into being Mr. Nice Family Guy is the worst sort of humblebragging.
Spot on! Julius Caesar had to make decisions Jobs would never have had the steel to make. Many strike the contemporary person as reprehensilble, even if one concedes the rectitude of his cause. He would never have stooped to having someone else pen a rationalization of his life and deeds that he knew would be posthumously disseminated. And for all that, Caesar, unlike Jobs, knew how to extend mercy and magnanimity to enemies, many of whom took up arms against him, some of whom were involved in his assasination.
That Steve Jobs—a prevaricator, thief and snake-oil salesman if there ever was one—was ever lionized in the first place tells me that we of the twenty-first century have a lot to learn if we are going to create a civilization whose ruins will be sifted through by millions, a few millenia from now.
If Steve Jobs made the best bagels in the world, would you are about his personality?
He gave you products that fit your world, ripping off the Beatles record label to do so.
Go forth, create and don't be an asshole. This is what Steve was trying to do for people.
He was the scapegoat for intellectualizing industry. He gave it right back. Enjoy your
freedom. Wear a turtleneck instead of a suit and tie.
You discount your entire article when, at the conclusion, you seem to say – actually, I'm not really an assaholic, I'm just very intense and it's required for my success' – it just required OTHERS to wrongly assess you as an asshole? There's some real delusional justification Tom.
Alyson, Tom stated his explanation in this Quotes
" ……. I think it's more like an otherworldly intensity that expresses itself only through constantly questioning who else sees the deeper truth of the situation and who is just standing around and getting in the way." He seems to ask in a subtle way, who else share their passion and that intensity is a way of questioning other people commitment
"Who esle [Others] sees the deeper truth" Delusion is when only you see a vision nobody else sees, In this case it a positive attribute. When other CEO's saw profit, Jobs saw innovation GUI(Graphics User interface), A simpler design. He seems to see the only person with the deeper vision that if you want to get to profit, innovation and simplicity is the route.
So Tom's ability to divine, thru his otherworldly intensity, the deeper truth and that those around him that don't share this particular vision of the deeper truth can be discounted and written off as getting in the way …that justifies the assaholic treatment? I don't take issue, at all, with Jobs ability to see beyond what others saw and honor him for that… I just hear in Tom's words a justification for treating others who don't see things his way as being clearly wrong and as such deserving of his wrath…. we can agree to disagree,
It doesn't even qualify as wrath. It was a puerile inclination to bully for the sheer joy of bullying, enacted only because Jobs knew he had a captive audience and could get away with it. It's of a piece with denying the paternity of his first child. It's enormously satisfying to remember that the only thing Apple was allowed to keep in the look-and-feel suit was the trash can. Which is where Steve Jobs' legacy belongs.
The truth is that intense passion leave not room for pleasantries. True assholes are those that wake up every morning thinking ill make everybodys life hell. Far from it people like Jobs and Tom wake up saying i will not fail.
Good of Jobs and Matlack confirm that the only way to get ahead in life is to be a raging, manipulative self-superior asshole, and that a personable demeanor is for losers, failures and nobodys.
So does the book talk about how Steve Wozniak made Jobs and Apple into what they were, only to be stabbed in the back?
Sort of. Jobs comes across as seeing Wozniak as affable, though ultimately dispensable.
there are many, many other ways to bring out the best in people other than verbal abuse, physical threats and emotional attacks.
I went to college with Steve Jobs. I can't say I knew him, but other close friends did. He was an asshole in college, too. I have friends who were very high up in Apple and Steve didn't really change (at Apple, anyway) in that behavior. He seems to have been pretty consistent in being an asshole all his life.
This shouldn't be meant to be an opinion on the qualities of Apple, his brilliance as an innovator, or even his effectiveness at running Apple. In fact, I am willing to cede that he was very good at all of these things BECAUSE he was an asshole. But my distinct impression is that working with Steve or knowing Steve in person was always a real challenge.
You are a Dough bag!
Meh. I think Apple's success comes in no small part from convincing people selling planned obsolescence to consumers.
Even people like Gandhi could get testy (in his youth, seems to have vanquished this after eons of hunger strikes), also John Paul II. I love reading about the personalities of very successful men, sometimes they really surprise you (i.e. Ronald Reagan wrote fabulous love letters to Nancy) and sometimes, as with Jobs, they don't.
Entertaining review. I am now on talk radio, where assholism is the coin of the realm. I hate that, on the other hand, there is this weird feeling that at last, I have found the element wherein nasty political invective "works" for me, whereas it has usually just gotten me called the b-word. So I do understand what you mean.
Daisy, if you're on air, then meanness and invective may have a place. It's not as if the station's employees work for you. This is the difference between you and Steve Jobs.