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

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  • Reply 41 of 131
    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.
  • Reply 42 of 131
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JONOROM View Post


    NOT



    I knew two people who tried alternative therapies for their cancers rather than surgery or chemo. They both died. Neither one was arrogant.



    Self- deluded is the correct term I believe.



    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.
  • Reply 43 of 131
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Johnny Mozzarella View Post


    He is bipolar in this regard. At times increadibly arrogant and at others increadibly humble.

    This was his handicap.



    Bipolarity is a medical condition that can only be diagnosed by some qualified. It's not an adjective we should throw around lightly.
  • Reply 44 of 131
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ShaolinDave View Post


    i hate to speak badly of the recently deceased, but parking sideways in a handicap spot? what a total shitbag.



    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
  • Reply 45 of 131
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bloodline View Post


    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.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JONOROM View Post


    NOT



    I knew two people who tried alternative therapies for their cancers rather than surgery or chemo. They both died. Neither one was arrogant.



    Self- deluded is the correct term I believe.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bloodline View Post


    +1



    His arrogance may well have driven Apple to make great products... But it was ultimately the cause of his untimely death.





    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.
  • Reply 46 of 131
    rob55rob55 Posts: 1,291member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ruel24 View Post


    This seems strange and hypocritical of a man that advocated "green". The AMG SL55 and SL63 are both gas hogs... I could see Jobs driving a Prius, instead.



    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).
  • Reply 47 of 131
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Hellacool View Post


    Funny how everyone on this thread are making excuses for him. Sure maybe he knew no one worked there was handicapped (Not sure how he would know no visitors would not be handicapped) or maybe he was just a pompous jerk.



    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.
  • Reply 48 of 131
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by fecklesstechguy View Post


    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 shitbag would have not only parked in the spot, but then kicked over the guy in the wheelchair - that's a shitbag move. You need to raise your standard of shitbaggery some. We can't have you lowering shitbagness to such a meaningless level.



    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.
  • Reply 49 of 131
    tkutku Posts: 6member
    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.
  • Reply 50 of 131
    rob55rob55 Posts: 1,291member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by stelligent View Post


    ...denied his best friend of stock options, ...



    I was disappointed when I read that part too. It was a pretty low blow.
  • Reply 51 of 131
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ConradJoe View Post


    This is how the 1% lives.



    Legal loopholes.

    New Mercedes every 6 months.

    Parks in handicapped spaces sideways.



    What sort of a person does this shit?



    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%?
  • Reply 52 of 131
    Jobs was awesome.
  • Reply 53 of 131
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bloodline View Post


    Having just finished reading the official biography (spoiler alert), the doctors were delighted to have found the cancer so early, much earlier than normal, a usually you wait until you have symptoms before being checked out... But Steve's cancer was picked up on a CT scan for kidney stones, and the biopsy showed that it was in the very early stages and almost certainly hadn't spread... Steve refused to have it removed for 9 months... Preferring new age healing crap, giving the cancer time to spread and become untreatable... His arrogance lead to his early death, had he had the cancer removed earlier then he would have at the very least lived longer than he did.



    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.
  • Reply 54 of 131
    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.
  • Reply 55 of 131
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by gaurav_1711 View Post


    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.



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



    Quote:

    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.



    Now THIS I believe. I remember, uh…



    Know what, here it is.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Story about Steve Jobs during the Mac 128k production


    Steve Jobs was not the most considerate individual at Apple, and he had lots of ways to demonstrate that. One of the most obvious was his habit of parking in the handicapped spot of the parking lot - he seemed to think that the blue wheelchair symbol meant that the spot was reserved for the chairman.



    Whenever you saw a big Mercedes parked in a handicapped space, you could be sure that it was Steve's car (actually, it was hard to be sure otherwise, since he also had a habit of removing his license plates). This sometimes caused him trouble, since unknown parties would occasionally retaliate by scratching the car with their keys.



    Anyway, the story is that one day Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassee, who had recently transferred to Cupertino from Paris, had just parked his car and was walking toward the entrance of the main office at Apple when Steve buzzed by him in his silver Mercedes and pulled into the handicapped space near the front of the building.



    As Steve walked brusquely past him, Jean-Louis was heard to declare, to no one in particular - "Oh, I never realized that those spaces were for the emotionally handicapped...".



    One day in October 1983 I got a phone call at my desk at Apple from the Cupertino police department saying something like, "You reported that Mercedes parked in the handicapped space at your lot at Apple. Well, we sent a car out there but we can't really tow it away because the handicapped space is improperly designated."



    I had no idea what he was talking about. A few hours later, I found out that Apple's other cofounder, Steve Wozniak, who was a prolific prankster, called up the Cupertino police and reported that a silver Mercedes was illegally parked in a handicapped space and told them the person reporting it was Andy Hertzfeld, giving them my phone number at work. I decided not to inform Apple's facilities department about the improperly marked space, just in case Woz decided to try it again.



  • Reply 56 of 131
    crunchcrunch Posts: 180member
    Some of you might as well wear shirts that say "We are the 99%"



    Money....is....awesome!
  • Reply 57 of 131
    sipsip Posts: 210member
    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.
  • Reply 58 of 131
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sip View Post


    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.
  • Reply 59 of 131
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lamewing View Post


    People that may be great businessmen or businesswomen, but ultimately do not care about the average person at all.



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



    However, they have little time for idiots.
  • Reply 60 of 131
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by gregarious119 View Post


    And the ones that have the money to do whatever the <> they want.



    Here Here, Steve.



    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".
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