Jobs' adopt family matters more than his birth parents, beyond margin. He grew up middle class (maybe upper middle class, honestly) but his parents weren't executives or VPs, they had a more typical background and he did as well. I think that makes it vastly more relatable. I believe strongly this contributed to his fanaticism around his ideas and thoughts, as well as why he essentially failed as a CEO twice (Apple the first time and NeXT computer was heading toward financial instability). Contrast this with Zuckerburg, who hit out of the park with Facebook.
Zuckerburg by contrast had a bigger ecosystem around him to lean into and a lot more exposure to executive types and "elites". Facebook didn't happen after a string of failures, and I don't believe ever came realistically close to failing either.
That's not to say either are talent-less. Zuckerburg was a very talented engineer and by all accounts has a good business acumen for the markets he's addressing. Steve Jobs likewise had a very good litmus test ability and really good foresight into technology, design, and user experience. I don't want to diminish that. However, not accounting for their ecosystem will do little to understand how they got to where they are.
> he essentially failed as a CEO twice (Apple the first time and NeXT computer was heading toward financial instability). Contrast this with Zuckerburg, who hit out of the park with Facebook.
This is not entirely accurate. Jobs didn't become CEO of Apple until 1997, after Apple acquired NeXT. He was not CEO of Apple before that. Zuck set up the IPO so that he could never lose control of Facebook. Jobs didn't have the benefit of that situation, and he did lose control of Apple in a power struggle with Apple CEO John Sculley, which led to his departure from Apple and founding of NeXT.
To talk about Apple, we need to talk about Steve Wozniack too. Jobs wasn't even an engineer, while Woz was a brilliant engineer, and Jobs had the amazing bit of luck to be introduced to Woz by a friend while still in high school! Of course Jobs was able to see the potential of Woz's inventions, but the Apple II computer would not have been possible without Woz.
Zuckerburg by contrast had a bigger ecosystem around him to lean into and a lot more exposure to executive types and "elites". Facebook didn't happen after a string of failures, and I don't believe ever came realistically close to failing either.
That's not to say either are talent-less. Zuckerburg was a very talented engineer and by all accounts has a good business acumen for the markets he's addressing. Steve Jobs likewise had a very good litmus test ability and really good foresight into technology, design, and user experience. I don't want to diminish that. However, not accounting for their ecosystem will do little to understand how they got to where they are.