It’s every journalists dream to get into a flame war with a top CEO. Looks like one guy from Gawker got more than he bargained for when he tried to flame Steve Jobs, who fired back remarkably open and level-headed responses at 2 in the morning.
My favorite line is the last one from Steve (after a long series of flames from the Gawker guy):
“… You can disagree with us, but our motives are pure.
By the way, what have you done that’s so great? Do you create anything, or just criticize others work and belittle their motivations?”
I may not fully agree with Apple’s or Steve’s position on everything, but the fact that Steve Jobs is dishing out personal and lucid responses at 2 in the morning to a third rate journalist cements the fact that there’s good reason why Steve Jobs is the #1 CEO in the world.
Steve Jobs: **Respect** +10.
Gawker: Credibility -10.
Here’s a link to the full thread.
This brings to mind Teddy Roosevelt’s famous quote, which I can’t resist adding here:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”