Steve Jobs is regarded by many as one of America's technology pioneers, credited with his success at Apple. Nobody will deny that his legacy is a great one or that he didn't innovate constantly, but some of the deepest and darkest secrets of Steve Jobs may turn some of his biggest fans against him. Steve Jobs has throughout the years, maintained a close bond with Bill Gates, founded of Microsoft, the world's largest software company and the most powerful technology company of all-time. Jobs dreamt of stealing that title from Microsoft, and although it failed and is unlikely to ever do so in the future, Apple has uncovered a niche of its own under the leadership of Steve Jobs. What few people realize is the malicious nature and evil sense of humor that Steve Jobs was sometimes known to possess and the lack of empathy for others in the tech sector. Unlike Bill Gates, Steve Jobs didn't dabble much in philanthrophy, and in the years approaching his death turned into a bit of a jerk. Why? One can only speculate, but perhaps the most famous and well-known example of Steve's bad attitude goes back to Bill Gates and the Dinner Party, one of the most classic love-hate relationship stories between plenipotentiary tech companies. Gates frequently entertained, and had on this occasion invited Jobs to enjoy a meal with him.
The complete story is more than I care to tell here. For further details on Bill Gates and the dinner party, you can visit the following resources (it really is a shocking and insightful story):
- http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/05/13/bill-gates-on-steve-jobs.html
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/bill-gates-steve-jobs_n_3266268.html
- http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bill-gates-on-steve-jobs-we-grew-up-together/
So, what's the deal? Well, for one thing we can see for ourselves how Steve Jobs acted in the absence of media. How a many truly acts is defined by how they interact with others off-camera, after all. Initially, this story never made it to the media, but after it leaked to the public it caused much controversy over what type of person Steve Jobs was. Soon it became apparent that Steve Jobs was at heart a nerdy jerk. Brilliant, but extremely rude even at the best of times! Bill Gates isn't bothered by what Steve Jobs did (and we can't blame him anyways, he's dead), and at best it even seems to amuse him. So, what did Steve Jobs do that turned the world upside down and led to many of his believers becoming haters?
On one particular night, when several people were gathering for a dinner party that Jobs had been invited to, Jobs decided to not go at the very last moment. Gates recalls Jobs telephoning his secretary to cancel.
"He said to my secretary, 'If he wants to know why, tell him I’m an a**hole,'" Gates remembers.
So what did it all mean? You decide for yourself what you think Jobs truly meant — was he simply taken ill and unable to attend or was he in fact perfectly composed and just hoping to make a fool of himself? For one of Silicon Valley's most successful entrepreneurs, Jobs certainly had a lot to learn about social interaction, and Jobs will be forever remembered as the guy who bailed out on Bill Gates and his dinner party.
Today, people point to Apple and talk of it as the world's most valuable company. But it was only roughly two decades ago that Apple was faced with the prospect of bankruptcy and had to be bailed out by Microsoft. Yes, something else the Apple diehards never want to talk about…