Who’s The Richer Man, Me Or Steve Jobs?
October 9th, 2011 § 2 Comments
There have been quite a number of news stories about the recent death of Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs. Looking back at Steve’s life and work it’s easy for a normal, boring, middle aged guy like me to be a bit envious of the success and accolades that come with a life like his. I guess I am kind of insecure like that.
But there is a flip side to this story. A Reuters piece over at Yahoo Finance had this bit I think is worth exploring.
“I wanted my kids to know me,” Jobs was quoted as saying by Pulitzer Prize nominee Walter Isaacson, when he asked the Apple Inc co-founder why he authorized a tell-all biography after living a private, almost ascetic life.
“I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did,” Jobs told Isaacson in their final interview at Jobs’ home in Palo Alto, California.
I was kind of blown away by that. Someone who so zealously guarded his private life that he once tried to sue someone for writing an unauthorized biography was allowing a book to be written just so his kids would “know” him because in his words he “wasn’t always there for them”.
There is also this bit from a story over at the New York Times.
“Steve made choices,” Dr. Ornish said. “I once asked him if he was glad that he had kids, and he said, ‘It’s 10,000 times better than anything I’ve ever done.’ “
I thought this was an interesting comment. Steve founded and ran what is likely the most influential technology company in history. It’s products are so successful and so desired that when new ones arrive in stores, people line up for hours and pay premium prices for them. These products have changed the way the world works, creates and communicates. Steve’s personal net worth is estimated to be $6.5 billion dollars.
In spite of all this success, he confided to a friend that having children was “10,000 times better” than anything he’d ever done. While reflecting on these comments, I got to thinking about the legacy I am leaving behind with my kids.
I likely won’t have a biography written about me for my kids or anyone else. But there have been plenty of times that I have been able to share stories from my life with my son while we lie in a tent on a Boy Scout camp out before we drift off to sleep. And there are those times that may daughter and I laugh and talk over Starbucks while on a Daddy-Daughter date.
I avoid business trips and conferences so I can be home every night with my wife and kids. I make every tennis match my daughter has and take my son to every Boy Scout meeting he has. I get up every at 4AM during the week so I can get a run in and still be back in time to see my kids and make them breakfast in the morning before school.
These sacrifices, and the decision to be a husband and father before all else will probably knock me out of the running to be CEO of just about anything. I kind of doubt that when the end came for Steve Jobs, he wished he could have spent just a few more moments at the office instead of spending those moments with his wife and kids.
I may not be a billionaire technology visionary, but I think I just might be richer still.
I love the products that Steve envisioned. But on another level I am deeply grieved the choices he made. At times absolutely brutal to some employees, denied paternity of a child, and the choice to allow a book to define a father to his child. My heart breaks.
Honestly I would probably make a terrible employee or executive or leader to Apple as the choices I have made limit the time and effort that work can take. We all only have 24 hours in a day.
I have a friend who applied for a sales manager position at a local company. They told him the hours were 7am-6pm Monday through Friday, 7am to 1pm on Saturday and Sunday was considered a “travel day”. Fortunately, he’s smarter than that and didn’t take the job. What kind of asinine hubris does it take for a boss to demand that of an employee?
Better yet, what kind of person would willingly do that to their family? Is that kind of slavish devotion to your job God honoring? Life’s too dang short to spend it always at work. I will likely never end up on the cover of a magazine. I’ll be lucky if my net worth ever ends up as a positive number. But my kids will know who I am. In the end, who’s the better man?