Steve Jobs stayed tag-less by leasing a new car every six months - Page 2

Are you sure? We assume he did not but he may have been so arrogant that he parked in the handicapped spot while his reserved spot remained open.

Interesting that Isaacson couldn't get this out of Jobs or anyone else he talked to about the lack of a license plate.

I'm finding the first half of the book to be ho hum - most if not all of the details can be found in previous books or articles. Hoping the second half is more enlightening.

Self deluded is very true in Steve's case... He was deluded about lots of things... That's how he pushed the people around him to achieve great things...

But I will say that if someone thinks they know better than a doctor when it comes to cancer... Then I call that person arrogant. I will always defer to an expert when making a decision.

Bipolarity is a medical condition that can only be diagnosed by some qualified. It's not an adjective we should throw around lightly.

You can speak anyway you want of the deceased. They aren't going to waste time in oblivion (or heaven or hell for that matter depending on your preference) plotting how to come back and haunt some anonymous poster on a fan blog for douching on their lifestyle choices.

And for the record, a total shitbag would have not only parked in the spot, but then kicked over the guy in the wheelchair - yelling and screaming that thye need to get off their lazy ass and walk - that's a shitbag move. You need to raise your standard of total shitbaggery some. We can't have you lowering total shitbagness to such a meaningless level. ;D

With some people, ignoring medical experts and going with unproven alternative treatment is a sign of being gullible. With others, like Jobs, it's more than just arrogance; it's hubris. He really believed he was special, if you believe Isaacson, and could overcome anything with the power of his will.

At the same time, he was a tragic hero who, like other tragic heroes, predicted his own early death and proceeded to fulfill his own prophecy.

I seriously doubt SJ would have driven a Prius. He would have found it entirely too cheap feeling. My wife had one as a company car for 3 years and the thing would never have met his (SJ's) standards. It was a tin can and the interior trim was very plasticky. Obviously, Toyota did this to save weight and they sell a boat-load of 'em, but it certainly doesn't have the same "feel" of quality like so many Apple products (not that I go around comparing cars to computers, phones, tablets etc).

I did a quick check you are not even close. Eveyone on this thread are not making excusing and the sentiments are running heavily in favor of "he's an ass". Try again. And there's no maybe about it. He was a flawed human being who was arrogant.

I don't know ... parking in a spot reserved for the disabled is pretty low all on its own. This is also a man who neglected his first born, only paid child support when Apple was about to go public so as to ensure his former GF would not come after his new wealth, flagrantly favored his son over his daughters, denied his best friend of stock options, ...

It was as if he wanted to fulfill the role of an artistic genius, one who could only be creative when endowed with a seriously flawed personality.

Well most geniuses are a bit weird and have strange habits.

Driving without license plate is something I would consider to be on the more harmless side.

I remember when reading the Wozniak Biography iWoz, a good read if you want a different look at the history of Steve and Apple, that Woz once called the police to get Steve car towed away because he was parking in the handicapped space and without license.

he knew quite well who's car it was, was just his way of playing a prank on Steve.

I was disappointed when I read that part too. It was a pretty low blow.

Someone who directly employed 60,000 well paid people and indirectly probably another 100,000+.

How many people do you employ as one of the 99%?

Jobs was awesome.

Soooooo, we're a cancer expert are we? As a cancer survivor, I don't care for how you characterize a personal decision where you had no input, were not involved in the diagnosis and apparently know everything there is to know about pancreatic cancer. I lost a friend recently to the same prostate cancer I was successfully treated for, simply because his was a rapidly metastasizing version where mine was not. By the time his was diagnosed it had spread and moved into other organs. My oncologist readily admits that they are still miles way from definitive treatment and understanding in detail the etiology of cancers. Mine was contained and treated successfully. WTF is this fascination with tagging every act by Jobs as arrogance? Maybe he preferred to try the alternative medicine approach because of religious belief as a buddhist, maybe it was a lifestyle thing. Not everyting Jobs did was driven by his arrogance, and to second guess his decisions about things without knowing the whole story seems really obtuse behavior on your part. Maybe you just need to get over the arrogance thing and let Jobs be the flawed human being who was able to drive some pretty cool devices that he was.

The kind of person Steve was, he built layers around him to avoid people contacting him whom he didn't want to meet. Also, he wanted to make full use of the time he had in 1 life and not waste even 1 second on anything he didn't want to do. Also, how can one forget his beautiful designs and refusal to accept anything not according to his taste. One should not forget that his mansion didn't have any furniture because he found it hard to choose anything beautiful enough.

1. He didn't have a number plate because he definitely didn't want to own an ugly car. The Merc he had was beautiful but the number plate wasn't. He couldn't design his own number plate, so he chose the other route.

2. He parked in the handicap parking only at Apple Cupertino Campus, and not just any and every handicap slot. He didn't want to waste even a single second finding a parking slot. He knew that there wasn't anybody to use it at Apple. He was a very emotional and good human being. Its just that his duties at Apple demanded him to be rough when working. he wasn't a monster, but just somebody, who wanted to live life by his own rules. Not everybody has the ability to understand him. That doesn't mean that we should abhor him just because we ourselves are ugly creatures and cannot find enough good reasons for his madness.

No, he didn't have a license plate because he didn't have a license plate. The biographer said so.


Now THIS I believe. I remember, uh…

Know what, here it is.

Some of you might as well wear shirts that say "We are the 99%"

Money....is....awesome!

What's the big deal about where SJ parked his Merc? As the founder of the company and CEO, he could have done whatever he wanted, even widened the front doors to allow his car to be parked in a special slot in the foyer.

Or gone the action hero route and NOT widened the front doors; just smashing through them every morning and having them replaced so he could do it again the next day.

You are deluded. The vast majority of wealthy people I've met have been thoroughly nice people.

However, they have little time for idiots.

If someone could edit the commercial to go:

1) Photo of Einstein
2) Footage of Martin Luther King Jr.
3) Black and white photo of Steve's car parked across TWO handicapped spots.

"Here's to the crazy ones".

Maybe if the Prius wasn't hideous.

Before passing judgement maybe a bit more information is necessary If he parked cross ways there must have been a bunch of empty stalls on either side. Was the lot empty at the time, if so it was probably after work hours. Handicap stalls are usually closest to the door so he may have just expected to pop in and out. I parked in a handicap stall last night when I picked up my daughter from work. The parking lot was empty and the stalls are closest to the door where she comes out.

Or extremely scared and willing to defer to an expert, but the "expert" happens to be a new-age healer. That may be stupid, but it is not necessarily arrogant.

Handicap and disabled terms have been watered down. Seems like everyone is disabled now.

My favorite golf course has about 10 handicap spaces. The guys park there and then proceed to play and walk 18 holes.

When I had cancer, I was allowed to park in the Handicapped spots.

This isn't such a bad thing. Wasteful with his money, maybe, but I'm sure he has more than enough. And though some will think negatively of him for it, what's so bad about it? He's not breaking the law or screwing anybody (except perhaps the DMV) out of money. Frivolous, yes, but we're all frivolous in our own ways. Some people update their phones every year! (I update mine every 2 years and some people think even that's wasteful)

He has done it since the beginning of Apple.

I've found it the other way around. Drs tend to be arrogant and will ignore the patients opinions. Not related to Cancer but there have been times when I did know better than my Doctor. I'm the one with the symtoms, while the Dr can only go by how I describe them. At least twice I have had to push for an test that confirmed that I was right. As I'm a male I only go to a Dr once or twice a decade but when I do I do my homework first.

As for Cancer, while I'd trust modern medicine, that is my choice. To seek other forms of treatment is a matter of choice not arrogance.

Why is it that people insist on calling the law a "legal loophole." Sure, the law maight be poorly written, or have unintended consequences, but *it's the law.* And if you're crazy enough to think you can change things...well...here's to you.

But a more entertaining thought would be what Steve might have had for a personalized plate. "AAPL" "MISFIT" "CRAZY1" "REBEL" "1MORTHNG" "INSNLEGR8" "1984"

Your friends may have been self-deluded. But that tells you nothing about anybody else.

The reasons why people do things are idiosyncratic.

Me too.

While the book is skillfully written, the subject matter is already well known, and very little is being revealed.

It is not a particularly flattering portrayal, either. The main thing the author brings to the table is an unflinching demonstration that this was not a particularly nice or a particularly moral man.

If I may ask, allowed by whom? In a private parking lot, I imagine the company can give you such permission.

In a public parking place in most cities, you need a permit to park in spots reserved for the disabled. I think that's the issue - Jobs had no such permit - or perhaps no permit of any kind for his car

Indeed, but yet highly principled. His principles, however, are not always nice or morally admirable.

What irks me about the book is not just the rehashing. It's the fact that the various episodes are written in ways very reminiscent of how I have learned of Jobs' history. I feel like I have read all of it before - not just the story, but the structure, the tone, etc.

The license plate is an example of how Isaacson couldn't shed light on a simple mystery, how he didn't investigate enough to find the right person to tell him the real scoop. If Jobs didn't share the truth with him on this, what else did he keep from Isaacson?

Some do, but I don't think your point has anything to do with shirts, per se.

What are you trying to say?

This is how Steve lived

Ridiculous as it is the Merc thing comes under the classification: Billionaire perks. On the whole he didn't seem to indulge that much.

What people have to understand is that their heroes often are not nice people. If you expect them to be you will probably be disappointed. You don't build something like Apple Inc in record time by being a nice guy, a charming person, a loyal friend, a wonderful husband, a great dad, a considerate partner, a caring boss, etc etc. Likewise, those qualities won't help you if you want to become world champion at anything - you have to stay totally focussed on your end goal and yourself.

I am not making excuses [I don't think they need to be made] but perhaps the kind of person who parks like that is the kind of person who is so wrapped up in his own ideas he has no time for shit like parking. So wrapped up in himself and his ideas he doesn't give a flying fuck what anybody thinks. Luckily for Steve Jobs he was so good at what he did that most people would probably not disagree, no matter the level of assholeness.

Why not just put in a "Reserved for CEO" parking spot near each building if that's such a big deal?

This is ironic considering Apple's obvious attention to accessibility issues. Their OS software has always included this and I've rarely been to an Apple Store that didn't have at least one disabled employee perfectly adapted to their job. Apple's demo video for Siri, with the blind person using it to send texts and the Ray Charles song in the background, brought a tear to my eye.

In the past Steve and Apple were absolutely not leaders on the green front. Apple only became green after they were pilloried by various environmental groups and the media several years ago for being very un-green. Apple could have been a leader in this area, but it was not a priority of Steve's until he realized it had marketing and brand value. If being green had been part of his core values he would have lived a very different lifestyle I think.

He's had a tradition of parking in handicapped spaces for a long time, so no, you can't use his illness as an excuse.

But I think I know why he did it. There are legal requirements mandating a specific number of handicapped spaces, even when few handicapped people are employed by you or visit you. So if you own the company, you are probably irked that you have to create and label all these spaces, even though they are used less than 1% of the time. Then the idea pops up: Why not use one (or even two) of your handicapped spaces as a de facto CEO spot?

That seems perfectly reasonable to me, and no actual handicapped people were harmed or even inconvenienced.

*

I do find it amusing he leased a new car every six months. For those not in the know, that's the most expensive way to buy a car, ever. Even Newport Beach barons keep their cars for a year or two.

For those appalled by the ostentation of this policy, remember that a lot of good people were employed building him those cars, and selling and maintaining them. That's something people forget about the toys of rich men - they tend to create a lot of jobs, in all kinds of places.

*

I don't think Steve has ever been all that green, per se. He has been into natural foods, yes, and he was a Democrat, but that doesn't make him particularly environmentally sensitive. He not only owned a SL55/63 but also a Gulfstream V jet, which is one of the most environmentally insensitive forms of transportation invented by man. I am sure the pollution from his car was completely dwarfed by his jet, which he appears to have made pretty heavy use of over the years.

What he really loves is a clean, German-styled design. That defines the SL55. There are no visually appealing environmentally sensitive cars I know of other than the Tesla Roadster. While he could have easily afforded a Tesla, I suspect its rough ride would have caused a lot of pain. The SL55 has a perfect balance of ride and handling so however bad his cancer it would always keep him as comfortable as possible under the circumstances.

D

Hear hear! This is one of the biggest problems humans deal with daily. It is very difficult to try to see the world in the same way another person would. And yet far too many assume other people are like them. They aren't and they never will be.

The rich and successful often have advice for those of us who aren't. Guess what? Your advice won't work, because we are not you. Steve says follow your passion and success will follow. What if you don't have a passion? What if you don't know what your passion is? What if your passion is eating bacon and watching Oxygen? That ain't gonna make you rich, but it is your passion nonetheless.

My advice is don't try to be what you are not. I'm not Steve Jobs and I'm fine with that.