Anyone Still Remembers Steve Jobs Is Human?

Earlier today we have finally received the confirmation that Steve Jobs did have health problems and these health problems are the reason (or at least one of the reasons) for him not to make his traditional keynote at Macworld. But instead of listening to what Mr. Jobs wanted us to hear and what the Board of Directors confirmed, the tech blogosphere instead engaged in a new round of rumors about how bad his health is and when we should expect him to leave the position of Apple CEO.

To me it looked like many reporters either did not want to read the letter Steve Jobs sent to the “Dear Apple Community” explaining his absence from this Macworld event or only saw what they wanted to see: Steve Jobs admitting he does have health problems. At the same time it is evident that it is quite a bitter letter from a person who is tired and who does experience problems with his health but is trying very hard for these problems not to hurt the business of his life and is also not exactly happy about some reporters describing him as being on his deathbed.

So he has made the decision to share very personal information with the community for everyone to be able to relax and enjoy the show beginning tomorrow. But instead he gets into the new flurry of rumors and discussions of how bad his health is and everyone is already discussing what Apple might do without Jobs and who the next CEO will be. As if Steve Jobs has actually died already. And in the letter he actually asked for support from the Apple community in his recovery (that is told not to be very complicated and requires simple treatment) - and instead he received tons of new health rumors again. Watching all of this I know one thing: I would never have wanted to have anyone discuss my health in this manner and it looks like the price for being the CEO of such an admired company is too high. I can hardly imagine what he must be feeling like now - unless he chose to escape and does not read or watch news at all.

To me the imbalance here looks terrible with everyone discussing health of a person as if it only matters in how it influences the company he runs. Apple is still nothing but a company. True, it is a company that also happens to manufacture a number of products that are supposed to be worshipped by many. But it is still a company, a business that is primarily intended to feed some need for people (in this case for cool gadgets and computers) and to make money to its stock holders. But Apple is still nothing but a business (no matter how important it is) and Steve Jobs is still a human being and I can hardly admit there is anything more important or more valuable than a human life.

I am not really a big Apple fan myself but I admire Jobs who manages to stay energetic and run this attention-demanding company after cancer treatment back in 2004. I believe many people would have preferred to simply enjoy lives with their families, relaxing or traveling maybe should they escape death like Steve Jobs has escaped. Yet he has chosen to continue with Apple and invest his strength and energy into this company - even though he could go the easier route that could probably be more enjoyable for him personally.

I do agree with Mathew Ingram that Steve Jobs is a very important person for Apple and for all the stock holders as it means billions in market valuation for them. But unfortunately I am more than uncomfortable about Apple community thinking of their leader in terms of Apple stock price. Stock price or no stock price Apple is still a company that is run by many people, not by Steve Jobs on his own. A company that only depends on one person for everything deserves drastic drops in its market valuation if this person leaves as it can not be described as a healthy company at all.

So I think Kara Swisher is right calling the entire situation “flat-out macabre” while Om Malik has a very valid point mentioning that the only thing a person actually wants to do when undergoing serious health problems is spending quality time with his or her family, not dealing with any business issues that may further damage one’s health. So why don’t we change the tone of publications at least a little and try not to think of health problems of a person - no matter how public the person is - as nothing but a factor influencing the market valuation of a company. It is just not fair and no human being deserves treatment like this one, especially after everything this particular human being has done to the technology community.

Photo: Acaben on Flickr