Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

An Insider's Take on Steve Jobs

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the quite-a-bit-of-new-money-to-go-with-it dept.

Jerry Rivers writes "Business Week has an interesting, if short, interview with Edgar Woolard Jr., the man who brought Jobs back to Apple in the dark days of 1996. "Old money" Woolard offers some interesting insights into the man behind the iMac and the iPod, including his take on Jobs' 'five special characteristics' that make him the success that he is."

1 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The Five Characteristics - Remix by mshurpik · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    1. Incredibly creative and has great vision.

    Failed engineer.

    2. Absolute perfectionist.

    Autistic.

    3. Great ability to attract outstanding people to work with him.

    Unlike retail, office or construction work, engineers typically enjoy being over-stressed. This isn't Jobs strength, it's a flaw of everyone else around him. You don't get a lot of points for being the chest-beating alpha male (Jobs) at the asylum (Apple).

    4. If he respects you, he will interact with you and modify his ideas

    That's because none of his ideas are realistic.

    5. The damn guy knows how to make money!

    Steve Jobs reminds me a lot of Philip Greenspun of ArsDigita fame. You could say many of these things about Philip too...vision, authority, culture, etc. But what do Phil Greenspun, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates all have in common?

    * All 3 tried to program a computer.
    * All 3 failed.
    * Then they met legions of nerds to do the work for them.