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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