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Travis Kalanick To Uber CEO Candidates: I'm 'Steve Jobsing' It And Will Return (recode.net)
Kara Swisher, reporting for Recode: Warring factions within factions, conflicting back-channeling, intense media scrutiny, questionable foreign influences and a capricious leader whose jarring moves leave everyone in a state of perpetual uncertainly. The Trump administration, right? Well, yes, but also Uber, as it nears its much anticipated decision on who will be its next CEO. And, according to sources, that top leader is not going to be a woman, as the board of the car-hailing company struggles to move forward. To add to the drama: Some directors worry that its former CEO Travis Kalanick -- who was ousted -- is trying to game the outcome in his favor, after he told several people that he was "Steve Jobs-ing it." It is a reference to the late leader of Apple, who was fired from the company, only to later return in triumph.
Everyone, esp. in SV, wants to be Steve Jobs. But I have yet to see someone else pull off the Reality Distortion Field, the black turtleneck, or the fired and return CEO.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Steve Jobs was clearly a genius while Kalanick maybe has an MBA
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
Travis continues to have delusions of grandeur, while pissing investors' money away. Steve Jobs actually built companies. This guy just spends other people's money.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I mean, it's what Jobs would do....
This should be interesting.
Nobody expects The Spanish Inquisition!
The thing that these sorts of people fail to realize is that real leaders don't imitate; they define.
The moment somebody tries to replicate what a successful leader did, this person has inherently become a follower, meaning they can't be a leader.
To make matters worse, the imitator likely couldn't even fully or properly imitate their inspiration, either. This means that the imitator will have a greater chance of failure than even the imitated leader did.
This isn't just true for people. It's true for organizations and open source projects, too.
Look at Firefox. It's like it has tried to imitate Chrome, the true leader among web browsers. But it's like the developers behind Firefox just don't "get" what makes Chrome the leader. So Firefox tries to mimic the look of Chrome, but it's never anywhere near as good as Chrome is.
It's the same for GNOME 2, which tried to imitate Windows in many ways, and GNOME 3, which tried to imitate OS X. Neither version of GNOME could really compete with the desktop environment that was being imitated.
Systemd is another example. It tries to imitate the Windows approach, but with Linux as the kernel. And it's a total disaster, in my opinion.
A real leader, like Theo of the OpenBSD project, sets his own goals and his own direction. He doesn't try to mimic somebody else. He doesn't measure himself compared to others. He knows what he wants, and he gets it. He's a real leader, not an imitator.
The job of a CEO is to ensure the growth and financial success of a company. Poisoning the well of potential CEOs is a sure-fire way to spike that future growth. Not only does that prove you are NOT CEO material - it also means, Travis, you probably cost yourself several billion dollars. And guaranteed you will never come back because those with enough power/leverage to oust you will ensure you never return (lest they look like fools, and bring back a man who they not only rightfully pushed out - but one who negatively impacted the growth of the company once forced out).
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Not far from Gom Jabbar which you want to avoid with your neck
love is just extroverted narcissism
So Travis, you're going to go off, start another self-driving company that is technically more advanced, wait for Uber to be almost dead, and then be bought out and brought back by the original company as a hail mary? And then re-invent the smart phone, which arguably saved the company more then anything else did? *grabs popcorn*
Yeah, um, create two other companies, one hugely successful and one that gets acquired by Uber, and then we'll talk.
Steve Jobs-ing it is "You're all fucking idiots, I'm out of here." It wasn't some big plan where he was going to go chill out in the woods for a bit and come back stronger. Jobs intended NeXT to take over everything, he was just 10 years or so too early.
Further, "Steve Jobs-ing it" is selling all of your shares but one, because who wants to invest in idiots? Then after Apple acquired NeXT, he sold almost all of _those_ shares, too.
He doesn't even have Jobs's ego. Ego usually describes a person's inflated idea of their own genius. Jobs really was about as good as he thought he was.
The more assholes that die from ignoring medical advice from experts, the better off the world will be. (Sorry Apple fans but Steve was a real dick)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
It may also be a reference to the late leader of Apple, who killed himself by trying to cure cancer using quack remedies rather than actual medicine.
Log in or piss off.
Not far from Gom Jabbar which you want to avoid with your neck
Thank you Muad'Dib.
"No, you're not. Now shut up while we find a grown-up to run the company, because we want our money."
Uber is a classic case of what you get when the problem is dictating the solution.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Since you can't return "in" a motorcycle in a conventional sense, maybe it was in a sidecar bolted to the motorcycle.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
...he plans to die?
He's a shining example for most CEOs I know, that much I have to give him.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Travis may end spending some time in the big house first, and I think that means he cannot be a CEO of anything.
Since you can't return "in" a motorcycle in a conventional sense, maybe it was in a sidecar bolted to the motorcycle.
Seems like you studied under George Carlin:
About this time, someone is telling you to get on the plane. "Get on the plane. Get on the plane." I say, "fuck you, I'm getting IN the plane! IN the plane! Let Evil Knievel get ON the plane! I'll be in here with you folks in uniform! There seems to be less WIND in here!"
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Let's not give Steve Jobs too much credit for employing Jony Ive.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
Uber's present model has lost billions of dollars which it cannot, will not make back -- at least not for decades and a change in the livery business other than calling a car by tap instead of a phonemail. Jobs 2.0 made Apple one of the biggest moneymakers -- and highly profitable -- on earth. What does Travis and his board of lackeys have in mind to turn Uber into a huge, profitable moneymaker? Anything?