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Since the founding of Apple Computer in 1976, fans and the media grasped for any hint at the personal life of Steve Jobs, the man behind all the innovations at Apple. But Jobs was so successful at keeping the details of his life out of the celebrity pages. Perhaps now those closely guarded secrets of Steve Jobs will now be open to the public.
From ABC News:
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Jobs most public display of a personal life included his wife, Laurene Powell, and their three children: Reed Paul, Erin Sienna, and Eve. Powell and Jobs had been married for more than 20 years. The two were married in a small Buddhist ceremony in Yosemite National Park in 1991, and lived in Woodside, Calif.
But prior to married life, Jobs had played the field.
In college, Jobs dated singer Joan Baez, according to Elizabeth Holmes, a friend and classmate. In "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs," Holmes tells biographer Alan Deutschman that Jobs broke up with his serious girlfriend to "begin an affair with the charismatic singer-activist." Holmes confirmed these details to ABC News.
Deutschman's book also says Jobs went on a blind date with Diane Keaton; went out with Lisa Birnbach, author of "The Preppy Handbook;" and hand delivered computers to celebrities he admired.
He also had a less well-known family life. He has a daughter, Lisa Brennan Jobs, born in 1978 with his high school girlfriend, Chris Ann Brennan.
Fortune magazine reported that Jobs denied paternity of Lisa for years, at one point swearing in a court document that he was infertile and could not have children. According to the report, Chris Ann Brennan collected welfare for a time to support the child, until Jobs later acknowledged Lisa as his daughter.
Jobs' reluctance to accept Lisa is ironic since he was given up for adoption as a child and has refused to speak to his biological father, despite the father's efforts to contact Jobs.
Abdulfattah "John" Jandali, a Syrian man who fathered Jobs, had emailed his son a few times in a tentative effort to make contact. The father never called the son because he feared Jobs would think the dad who had given him up was now after his fortune.
And Jobs never responded to his father's emails.
"I really don't have anything to say," Jandali, vice president at Boomtown Hotel Casino in Reno, Nev., told the International Business Times when asked about his son's death.
Jandali, a Syrian immigrant, had been quoted by the New York Post recently saying he didn't know until just a few years ago that the baby he and his ex-wife, Joanne Simpson, gave up grew to be Apple's CEO.
Jandali told the Post that had it been his choice, he would have kept the baby. But Simpson's father did not approve of her marrying a Syrian, so she moved to San Francisco to have the baby alone and give him up for adoption. Jandali, who is 80, said at the time that he would have been happy to just have a cup of coffee with the son he never knew before it was too late. Stories of Jobs' battle with a form of pancreatic cancer and his liver transplant were public and Jobs' health had deteriorated to the point where he was forced to resign as CEO of Apple.
He was quoted as saying, "This might sound strange, though, but I am not prepared, even if either of us was on our deathbeds, to pick up the phone to call him."
Jobs also had a biological sister with whom he became close in later years. Mona Simpson, the acclaimed writer of books like "Anywhere But Here," offered Jobs information on his birth parents and wrote a book based on their relationship entitled "A Regular Guy."
Though Simpson had a relationship with their 80-year-old biological father, Jobs rebuffed him to the end.
He made his own daughter live on welfare just to spite his ex girlfriend? No real man would do that to his own child. I don't think pointing out some facts of Jobs' life is being a hater as some of Jobs' fans say. It's cool for people to celebrate the products he produced through his company, but the fact is the guy had some serious flaws also (e.g. abandoning his daughter, cheating Wozniak out of money) just to name a few. He was a great leader, but he was far from a shining example of a human being.
And now from the New York Times:
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With Time Running Short, Jobs Managed His Farewells
Over the last few months, a steady stream of visitors to Palo Alto, Calif., called an old friend's home number and asked if he was well enough to entertain visitors, perhaps for the last time.
In February, Steven P. Jobs had learned that, after years of fighting cancer, his time was becoming shorter. He quietly told a few acquaintances, and they, in turn, whispered to others. And so a pilgrimage began.
The calls trickled in at first. Just a few, then dozens, and in recent weeks, a nearly endless stream of people who wanted a few moments to say goodbye, according to people close to Mr. Jobs. Most were intercepted by his wife, Laurene. She would apologetically explain that he was too tired to receive many visitors. In his final weeks, he became so weak that it was hard for him to walk up the stairs of his own home anymore, she confided to one caller.
Some asked if they might try again tomorrow.
Sorry, she replied. He had only so much energy for farewells. The man who valued his privacy almost as much as his ability to leave his mark on the world had decided whom he most needed to see before he left.
Mr. Jobs spent his final weeks — as he had spent most of his life — in tight control of his choices. He invited a close friend, the physician Dean Ornish, a preventive health advocate, to join him for sushi at one of his favorite restaurants, Jin Sho in Palo Alto. He said goodbye to longtime colleagues including the venture capitalist John Doerr, the Apple board member Bill Campbell and the Disney chief executive Robert A. Iger. He offered Apple's executives advice on unveiling the iPhone 4S, which occurred on Tuesday. He spoke to his biographer, Walter Isaacson. He started a new drug regime, and told some friends that there was reason for hope.
But, mostly, he spent time with his wife and children — who will now oversee a fortune of at least $6.5 billion, and, in addition to their grief, take on responsibility for tending to the legacy of someone who was as much a symbol as a man.
"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.' "
"But for Steve, it was all about living life on his own terms and not wasting a moment with things he didn't think were important. He was aware that his time on earth was limited. He wanted control of what he did with the choices that were left."
In his final months, Mr. Jobs's home — a large and comfortable but relatively modest brick house in a residential neighborhood — was surrounded by security guards. His driveway’s gate was flanked by two black S.U.V.'s.
On Thursday, as online eulogies multiplied and the walls of Apple stores in Taiwan, New York, Shanghai and Frankfurt were papered with hand-drawn cards, the S.U.V.'s were removed and the sidewalk at his home became a garland of bouquets, candles and a pile of apples, each with one bite carefully removed.
"Everyone always wanted a piece of Steve," said one acquaintance who, in Mr. Jobs's final weeks, was rebuffed when he sought an opportunity to say goodbye. "He created all these layers to protect himself from the fan boys and other peoples' expectations and the distractions that have destroyed so many other companies.
"But once you're gone, you belong to the world."
Mr. Jobs's biographer, Mr. Isaacson, whose book will be published in two weeks, asked him why so private a man had consented to the questions of someone writing a book. "I wanted my kids to know me," Mr. Jobs replied, Mr. Isaacson wrote Thursday in an essay on Time.com. "I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did."
Because of that privacy, little is known yet of what Mr. Jobs’s heirs will do with his wealth. Unlike many prominent business people, he has never disclosed plans to give large amounts to charity. His shares in Disney, which Mr. Jobs acquired when the entertainment company purchased his animated film company, Pixar, are worth about $4.4 billion. That is double the $2.1 billion value of his shares in Apple, perhaps surprising given that he is best known for the computer company he founded.
Mr. Jobs's emphasis on secrecy, say acquaintances, led him to shy away from large public donations. At one point, Mr. Jobs was asked by the Microsoft founder Bill Gates to give a majority of his wealth to philanthropy alongside a number of prominent executives like Mr. Gates and Warren E. Buffett. But Mr. Jobs declined, according to a person with direct knowledge of Mr. Jobs’s decision.
Now that Mr. Jobs is gone, many people expect that attention will focus on his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, who has largely avoided the spotlight, but is expected to oversee Mr. Jobs's fortune. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Mrs. Powell Jobs worked in investment banking before founding a natural foods company. She then founded College Track, a program that pairs disadvantaged students with mentors who help them earn college degrees. That has led to some speculation in the philanthropic community that any large charitable contributions might go to education, though no one outside Mr. Jobs's inner circle is thought to know of the plans.
Mr. Jobs himself never got a college degree. Despite leaving Reed College after six months, he was asked to give the 2005 commencement speech at Stanford.
In that address, delivered after Mr. Jobs was told he had cancer but before it was clear that it would ultimately claim his life, Mr. Jobs told his audience that "death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent."
The benefit of death, he said, is you know not to waste life living someone else's choices.
"Don't let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."
In his final months, Mr. Jobs became even more dedicated to such sentiments. "Steve’s concerns these last few weeks were for people who depended on him: the people who worked for him at Apple and his four children and his wife," said Mona Simpson, Mr. Jobs’s sister. "His tone was tenderly apologetic at the end. He felt terrible that he would have to leave us."
As news of the seriousness of his illness became more widely known, Mr. Jobs was asked to attend farewell dinners and to accept various awards.
He turned down the offers. On the days that he was well enough to go to Apple’s offices, all he wanted afterward was to return home and have dinner with his family. When one acquaintance became too insistent on trying to send a gift to thank Mr. Jobs for his friendship, he was asked to stop calling. Mr. Jobs had other things to do before time ran out.
"He was very human," Dr. Ornish said. "He was so much more of a real person than most people know. That's what made him so great."
A man's greatness should be judged by his work and how it benefited society.
Someone in Yahoo's comment section posted this also:
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Wiki- "Arik Hesseldahl of BusinessWeek magazine opined that "Jobs isn't widely known for his association with philanthropic causes", compared to Bill Gates' efforts. After resuming control of Apple in 1997, Jobs eliminated all corporate philanthropy programs." I note Bill Gates, 55 yrs old, seems healthy enough. Karma. What goes around, comes around. Maybe if Jobs had handed out more kindness, he would have had some good karma to overcome this. With all the money he had, he couldn't extend his life any longer? "Jobs also has a daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs (born 1978), from his relationship with Bay Area painter Chrisann Brennan. She briefly raised their daughter on welfare when Jobs denied paternity by claiming he was sterile; he later acknowledged Lisa as his daughter." Jerk. He may have been brilliant, but one can respect the brilliance & recognize he was not a nice person.
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