I am reading The Second Coming of Steve Jobs by Alan Deutschman, and although the book was published way back in 2000, it was written at a time when Apple had already made a strong comeback, so I thought that it would still be a relevant case study of Job’s and Apple’s success.

Occassionally, I like to read about business and technology leaders, looking for wisdom and inspiration I can apply to my own career. I really didn’t know much about Steve Jobs beyond superficial news stories that always tout him as a visionary and the epitome of the successful technology entrepreneur, and apparently Jobs tightly controls his public image–in collusion with the mainstream press–to construct this hero mythology about himself. I had heard that he could be a demanding boss, but then again, I also tend to be quite impatient with those around me often, so I suspected that I would be sympathetic to even these imperfections in his character. I was prepared to interpret this aspect of his character as just him being uncompromising in his vision.

But the picture that emerges from this book is quite darker.

In this biography, Jobs is neither a visionary nor a successful entrepreneur. He basically failed at everything he intended to succeed at and his actual successes appear to be quite accidental, occurring despite his actions not because of them. When he succeeded, it was because he had the good fortune to associate with people much more talented than he. He often manipulated these people through flattery and attention, but even more often through threats and intimidation. And when their efforts came to fruition, he promptly betrayed them, jealously hording the money, titles, and glory for himself, leaving them with precious little beyond damaged health and family relationships and time lost making this already rich man even richer.

He is a poor manager of both people and finances. He constantly bet on the wrong technologies. He is egotistical, immature, narcisstic, while completely lacking basic common sense and responsibility for his actions. He is someone who destroys people’s lives on a whim. The book is full of accounts of friends and business associates who created Steve’s success for him, saved him from himself, only to be betrayed by him.

The Steve Jobs depicted in this book is not only the last person you’d want running a company, he’s the last person you’d want to sit next to at a bar. He’s an obnoxious jerk who is completely ignorant about technology, business, management and interpersonal relations. His success as a business and technology leader is an illusion; his real talent is conning the people he works with, and the press.

And keep in mind, I got this impression from a book that is trying to further mythologize Jobs! The author is clearly in awe of Jobs and while trying to present an accurate and balanced picture of the man, he also defends his negative traits and extols his virtues as a visionary leader. I can only imagine what a more objective account would look like.

This is probably why, despite being a professional software developer since the mid 1990’s and a hobbyist personal computer programmer since the early 1980’s, this supposed technology leader has barely ever come up on my radar, and never in any meaningful way. And also, as someone who is interested in developing myself as both a technology and business leader, Jobs just isn’t relevant. I can’t even say that the book is useful as a collection of anti-patterns for success because only someone who is pathologically insecure and unethical would do the things that Jobs has done in his career. And if being successful is only a matter of conning people into believing you can deliver in areas you know you can’t, then I would rather remain a journeyman software developer who is proud of the work I do.