A couple of weeks after celebrating the business failures that helped point Steve Jobs toward amazing success, the latest National Review explores the role Jobs’ often difficult leadership style played in making Apple a huge success. Rob Long’s article labels Jobs “the right kind of tyrant.”
The culture was simple to understand: fear and unforgiving standards. It wasn’t an easy place to work, but that was part of the appeal: Apples’ engineers and designers didn’t love coming to work despite Steve’s insane temper and unpredictable rants, they loved coming to work because of those things. Because they knew Steve was trying to do great things, trying to revolutionize an entire market, trying to put incredible technology into a beautiful package and into the hands of ordinary people.
Oct. 6 update, 1 p.m.: The Rob Long article is now available online.
