I can't claim to be an expert on the man, but for quite a long time my impression of him has been not terribly favorable. When first I heard of him, I was under the impression that he was an electronic genius who alongside Steve Wozniak created the Apple II computer.
As time went on, I kept hearing more and more information that led me to believe this wasn't true, so I became perplex as to just what it is he did. I was informed that he ran the "business" end of Apple, while Wozniak was the primary designer.
Hmmm... "Business", huh? The world has always been full of people who could do stuff like that, and I never considered it to be particularly creative or needing a "rare" talent.
So what the H3ll was Steve Job's contributions to the company which every one was raving about? The movie "Jobs" cleared it up a lot.
He was essentially an aggressive and arrogant bullsh*tter who felt entitled to be admired and respected as well as rich. Well, he got funding capital. Obviously no body else in the world could have done that.
When the movie showed that they decided to dump him, it didn't seem very surprising to me. I couldn't see what he was contributing to the company either.
Another scene in the movie shows him expressing disdain for the Sony Walkman by tossing it into the trash as if to demonstrate that it was a piece of sh*t and a genius like him could do far better. Sure he could do better. Once the technology got there, but then so could anyone. Sony even.
When it's all said and done, I am left with the impression of Steve Jobs as the Tech industry version of the "Emperor" with no clothes. I just don't see any "there" there. He just strikes me as an obnoxious person who was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, and lucky enough to have made some good acquaintances when he needed them.
He's more huckster than guru it looks like to me. Oh, and to top it off, I found out a month or so ago, his first business was selling "blue boxes" to people with the express intent of cheating the phone company out of telephone charges, basically aiding and abetting criminal activity. I'm left not understanding why anyone respects this guy. Entitled feeling Spoiled brat is what he looks like to me.
"It wasn't long before the more business savvy of the duo smelled an opportunity: selling blue boxes. 'Steve Jobs suggested we could sell it for $170 or so, he came up with the price pretty early in there,' Wozniak recalls. Before long the two were peddling blue boxes in the dorms at Berkeley."
"(Jobs) concluded: 'If we hadn't made blue boxes, there would have been no Apple.'"
It was Steve Jobs’ genius that brought Apple to where it is today. Pretty much across the business world, people recognize that, even to the point where some are afraid of what will happen with Apple “without” Steve Jobs (but that is another issue).