A glimpse in to the life of a man who changed the life of so many
people.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/20/steve-jobs-biography-obama_n_1022786.html?1319148475
Steve Jobs Biography Reveals He Told Obama, 'You're Headed For A
One-Term
Presidency'
In one of the most hotly-anticipated biographies of the year,
"Steve
Jobs," author Walter Isaacson reveals that the Apple CEO offered to
design political ads for President Obama's 2012 campaign despite
being
highly critical of the administration's policies and that Jobs
refused
potentially life-saving surgery on his pancreatic cancer because
he felt
it was too invasive. Nine months later, he got the operation but
it was
too late.
Those are just some of the tidbits about Jobs' life revealed in the
upcoming biography, a copy of which was obtained by The
Huffington Post.
The publication date of the official biography of the
notoriously-secretive Apple co-founder was pushed up after his
death in
October. "I wanted my kids to know me," Isaacson quoted Jobs as
saying in
their final interview. "I wasn't always there for them and I
wanted them
to know why and to understand what I did."
Among other details unearthed in the book on the notoriously-
secretive
Apple co-founder:
Jobs' Meeting With Obama
Jobs, who was known for his prickly, stubborn personality, almost
missed
meeting President Obama in the fall of 2010 because he insisted
that the
president personally ask him for a meeting. Though his wife told
him that
Obama "was really psyched to meet with you," Jobs insisted on the
personal invitation, and the standoff lasted for five days. When he
finally relented and they met at the Westin San Francisco
Airport, Jobs
was characteristically blunt. He seemed to have transformed from a
liberal into a conservative.
"You're headed for a one-term presidency," he told Obama at the
start of
their meeting, insisting that the administration needed to be more
business-friendly. As an example, Jobs described the ease with
which
companies can build factories in China compared to the United
States,
where "regulations and unnecessary costs" make it difficult for
them.
Jobs also criticized America's education system, saying it was
"crippled
by union work rules," noted Isaacson. "Until the teachers' unions
were
broken, there was almost no hope for education reform." Jobs
proposed
allowing principals to hire and fire teachers based on merit, that
schools stay open until 6 p.m. and that they be open 11 months a
year.
Aiding Obama's Reelection Campaign
Jobs suggested that Obama meet six or seven other CEOs who could
express
the needs of innovative businesses -- but when White House aides
added
more names to the list, Jobs insisted that it was growing too big
and
that "he had no intention of coming." In preparation for the
dinner, Jobs
exhibited his notorious attention to detail, telling venture
capitalist
John Doerr that the menu of shrimp, cod and lentil salad was "far
too
fancy" and objecting to a chocolate truffle dessert. But he was
overruled
by the White House, which cited the president's fondness for
cream pie.
Though Jobs was not that impressed by Obama, later telling
Isaacson that
his focus on the reasons that things can't get done "infuriates"
him,
they kept in touch and talked by phone a few more times. Jobs even
offered to help create Obama's political ads for the 2012
campaign. "He
had made the same offer in 2008, but he'd become annoyed when
Obama's
strategist David Axelrod wasn't totally deferential," writes
Isaacson.
Jobs later told the author that he wanted to do for Obama what the
legendary "morning in America" ads did for Ronald Reagan.
Bill Gates And Steve Jobs
Bill Gates was fascinated by Steve Jobs but found him
"fundamentally odd"
and "weirdly flawed as a human being," and his tendency to be
"either in
the mode of saying you were shit or trying to seduce you."
Jobs once declared about Gates, "He'd be a broader guy if he had
dropped
acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger."
After 30 years, Gates would develop a grudging respect for Jobs.
"He
really never knew much about technology, but he had an amazing
instinct
for what works," he said. But Jobs never reciprocated by fully
appreciating Gates' real strengths. "Bill is basically
unimaginative and
has never invented anything, which is why I think he's more
comfortable
now in philanthropy than technology. He just shamelessly ripped
off other
people's ideas."
Meeting His Biological Father
Jobs, who was adopted, was a customer at a Mediterranean
restaurant north
of San Jose without realizing that it was owned by his biological
father
-- from whom he was estranged. He eventually met his real Dad --
"It was
amazing," he later said of the revelation. "I had been to that
restaurant
a few times, and I remember meeting the owner. He was Syrian.
Balding. We
shook hands."
Nevertheless Jobs still had no desire to see him. "I was a
wealthy man by
then, and I didn't trust him not to try to blackmail me or go to
the
press about it."
Anticipating An Early Death
Jobs once told John Sculley, who would later become Apple's CEO
and fire
Jobs, that if he weren't working with computers, he could see
himself as
a poet in Paris. "Jobs confided in Sculley that he believed he
would die
young, and therefore he needed to accomplish things quickly so
that he
would make his mark on Silicon Valley history. "We all have a short
period of time on this earth," he told the Sculleys. "We probably
only
have the opportunity to do a few things really great and do them
well.
None of us has any idea how long we're gong to be here nor do I,
but my
feeling is I've got to accomplish a lot of these things while I'm
young."
* * * * *
For his first interview about the book, Isaacson talked to "60
Minutes"
for the Sunday, Oct. 23 episode, telling host Steve Kroft that he
was
shocked about Jobs's decision to initially skip surgery for his
pancreatic cancer -- that such a genius could make such a wrong
decision
about his own health.
"I've asked [Jobs why he didn't get an operation then] and he
said, 'I
didn't want my body to be opened ... I didn't want to be violated
in that
way,' said Isaacson.
"I think that he kind of felt that if you ignore something, if
you don't
want something to exist, you can have magical thinking. ... We
talked
about this a lot," he told Kroft. "He wanted to talk about it,
how he
regretted it. ... I think he felt he should have been operated on
sooner."
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