Nearly a year after Jobs’ death, his legacy inspires fierce debate among entrepreneurs.
Was Steve Jobs what every entrepreneur should aspire to? Ben Austen at Wired found start-up founders to be stubbornly divided: He talked to business owners who are such fans of Jobs that they virtually wanted to wear jeans and a black turtleneck to work and also to those who run as far from the Apple co-founder’s legacy as possible. Austen nicknamed them the Acolytes and the Rejectors.
What They Believe
“[Acolytes are] businesspeople who have taken the life of Steve Jobs as license to become more aggressive as visionaries, as competitors, and above all as bosses,” Austen writes. “They’re giving themselves over to the thrill of being a general–and, at times, a dictator. Work was already the center of their lives, but Jobs’ story has made them resolve to double down on that choice.”
On the other hand, there are the Rejectors. “These are entrepreneurs who, on reading about Jobs since his death, have recoiled from the total picture of the man–not just his treatment of employees but the dictatorial, uncompromising way that he approached life,” he notes.
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