Malcolm Gladwell on entrepreneurship: history will remember Bill Gates, forget Steve Jobs
The two great icons of our industry, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, came up in a talk given by Malcolm Gladwell recently at the Toronto Public Library. In discussing capitalism and entrepreneurship, Gladwell makes the point that amorality — i.e. the absence of a moral compass in making business decisions — is a fundamental prerequisite for being a successful business leader. He considers the entirety of Bill Gates' tenure as Microsoft chief to be that of "the most ruthless capitalist," which is not too dissimilar from his analysis of Steve Jobs' leadership. The difference, says Gladwell, is that Gates turned away from that amoral (note, not immoral) behavior after retiring and took up the task of spending his wealth on philanthropic...