Scott Berkun:
I’m sad Steve Jobs is gone. I’m sadder still to see the vultures of shallow thinking circling his name. There is a fallacy around great men, a notion we can learn best from their behavior on how we ourselves can achieve. But that’s only true if we study them with an honest eye. When writers are clouded by mythology and hero worship, they do more harm than good, as sloppy thinking is often the mortar used to put men on pedestals.
4 Comments
Robert Bigelow
When I think about people like the late Steve Jobs, I’m reminded of a Ken Burns’ documentary entitled, Empire of the Air about the early days of radio and people like Lee de Forest, Edwin Howard Armstrong and David Sarnoff.
Eric S. Mueller
That’s a great point. Putting a man like Steve Jobs on a pedestal and emulating his behavior seems to create a “cargo cult” of the man. I’ve heard of young managers trying to emulate the Mark Zuckerberg they saw in the movie, as if being a butthole to everybody is the secret to success.
Dewbie
I am in total agreement with this statement and maybe be even guilty of it. I think that when ‘we’try to emulate great people we fail but when you take the lessons that great men have and evolve them. You create more greatness.
bignose
I think a lot of people get swept up in the romance of Steve’s story.
It is important to take away from it the things like not compromising, and having the focus he did. But with your own methods that fit your personality.
If you are already an asshole, perhaps his methods would work. But you have to be a stellar asshole, not a mediocre one.