Steve Jobs: Great businessman, not always such a great guy

 by Roland Hulme

Steve Jobs was one of America's most successful businessmen; but he was somewhat less successful as a human being.

Steve Jobs: Bad Apple?

The impact of Steve Jobs' death is quite astonishing. Tributes to the Apple CEO have come pouring in from all corners; with people reposting his inspirational quotes, the incredible story of his success and the impact his company's technology has had on their lives.

Yet while Steve Jobs was undoubtedly an incredibly smart guy, and an astonishing business guy,  he wasn't always such a nice guy. One story springs to mind that people don't seem to be talking about today.

At the age of 23, Steve Jobs vehemently denied fathering the child of then-girlfriend Chrissann Brennan.

Despite the fact that he was already wealthy at the time - while Brennan and her daughter were barely scraping by on welfare - he swore in court documents that he was "sterile and infertile, and as a result thereof, did not have the physical capacity to procreate a child."

He kept up this pretense for two years before finally coming clean; admitting that this little girl was his not out of financial need, or to protect a marriage or reputation. He'd done it because he was going through a period in his life in which he was simply a shitty human being.

Now, we all go through stages of our lives in which we are shitty human beings; and arguably Steve Jobs made up for it later, through the legacy he left on the world of technology and the millions of dollars he gave away in philanthropy.

But it was still a monumentally bad thing to do; and reminds us that for all we can admire about Steve Jobs, he died as he lived; a very human - and occasionally flawed - individual.