With the death of Steve Jobs, one of the most significant business tycoons of all time, on the level of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Alexander Graham Bell, we have lost one of the great business leaders of all time, not just for his innovations in technology, but also as a model for keeping out of the public spotlight!
Jobs, a perfectionist often difficult to relate to in private, was a person who avoided publicity like the plague, but whenever he uttered his thoughts or introduced new technology, he always came across as a person with a good heart and instincts. His commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005, in which he said one should follow his dreams as we all eventually will die, was a brilliant example of the decency and vision of this man!
At the same time, we have Donald Trump, best described as a publicity hound, a person who wants constant attention, has had three wives, gone bankrupt a couple of times, loves to fire people on his TV show, enjoys being courted by Republican Presidential candidates, and makes a habit of saying and doing things that divide us in a difficult time. He is, without question, a real “character” with a tremendous ego that he loves to display!
This is not saying that Steve Jobs has not done anything in his private life that is questionable, since anyone is capable of having a so called “skeleton in his closet”, but Jobs avoided publicity, while Trump savors it to the extreme, showing he has a problem with his own self esteem! Nothing embarrasses him, but he is, without question, a real embarrassment!
And ultimately, Jobs changed America! When Trump passes from the scene, will anyone be able to say he made a difference in the same manner? The answer is clearly NO!