
Ask HN: What about Steve Jobs? - clevershot
Steve Jobs was very successful. Everybody agrees on that. However, his character traits are very controversial. There is the notion that he was successful <i>despite</i> his flaws and thus you should not emulate him if you seek success.<p>I wonder what HN is thinking about these points:<p>(a) Was he really as “bad” as people think&#x2F;say he was? I’d love to hear from people who actually worked with him<p>(b) Do you think that he was successful <i>despite</i> his traits or is this whole notion of “soft skills and being a coach and supporter” just BS?
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smt88
Regarding (b), a lot of success is related to timing, background, and
resources -- basically luck. It would be impossible to try to separate all
those factors out and draw a conclusion, especially because it's a single data
point.

There are, however, studies with more than one data point. These can isolate
factors to some extent. These suggest Steve Jobs would've been more successful
if he were less emotionally explosive/unpredictable and more open[1].

1\.
[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0953732090349858...](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09537320903498587?journalCode=ctas20)

