All that money and he had to write a biography so his kids would get to know him. I guess when you work 7 days a week, and travel all the time, and are never home, for years, all that money and success leaves a few people in your life behind - namely your your kids.
“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.
Par for the course. Captains of industry rarely make good parents (presuming your definition includes being heavily involved in their lives on a daily basis).
What I was trying to say was that Mr. Jobs likely had a genuine love and concern for his children. Could he support them financially? Of course he could, thus not making him a deadbeat dad. Did his job and personal passion impede him from spending a lot of quality time with his children, if any? Undoubtedly.
I’m not sure many kids really “know” their parents, regardless of whether their parents are there a lot or not. I’m sure lots of parents feel like they weren’t there quite enough, or didn’t share quite enough, or have things they wish their kids knew.
I read a few articles calling him a sociopath, giving some examples of how he treated his workers and other companies. But one articles also said a lot of CEOs are sociopaths so I don’t know that I put a lot of stock into this as it is designed to sell magazines. I wonder if he put those kind of less than flatering incidents in his book.
I’ve noticed most successful people do try to make it to their children/s events so you wonder why he would not.
At least he acknowledged that. He didn’t seem the type to be a deadbeat dad. His work was his passion.
Actually, this is not quite true. He knocked up a woman in the 80’s and denied that the baby was his for years. She was on welfare and broke trying to make ends meet. She had to take him to court on a paternity suit, which she then won. But for years he died his fatherhood and ensured the mother and kid got no money. So, let’s not make him out to be a saint of a father.
"Par for the course. Captains of industry rarely make good parents (presuming your definition includes being heavily involved in their lives on a daily basis). "
Agreed, Depending on the definition being used, you could say the same about all the presidents that have kids.
Semantics aside, I obviously had a rosier impression of the man Steve Jobs was then other people on this post. I never attested to whether or not he was ACTUALLY a deadbeat dad at any point in his life, simply that his personality as I knew it implied that he wouldn’t be. I was busy in grade school playing Oregon Trail on an Apple II when that scandal was happening.
Thank you for the Steve Jobs history lesson though. I consider myself better informed as a result.
At least he acknowledged that. He didn’t seem the type to be a deadbeat dad. His work was his passion.
Actually, this is not quite true. He knocked up a woman in the 80’s and denied that the baby was his for years. She was on welfare and broke trying to make ends meet. She had to take him to court on a paternity suit, which she then won. But for years he died his fatherhood and ensured the mother and kid got no money. So, let’s not make him out to be a saint of a father.
He was the definition of deadbead dad for years. Sounds like they had a relationship in recent years, but I think she would define him as deadbeat.
Of course he was not perfect. We can say he was a visionary, but he was human. He wasn’t a great boss, was not a great father, and maybe he wasn’t a good husband for all we know. But people are still mourning his death because he owned the company that invented the iPod? Why are people thinking he was such a great man?
They find him great because he, in a way, revolutionized the way people create and consume electronic information as well as the way they communicate with one another. Many people are thankful and consider him a great man for devoting his time and talent into that contribution to the modern world.