John Sculley and Steve Jobs. Some random thoughts

In the Steve Jobs chapter of Apple Computer mythology, the name of the villain is John Sculley, ex-president of Pepsi-Cola. He was hired by Steve Jobs himself, In 1983  he became the CEO and stayed for 10 years as the highest paid CEO on Silicon Valley. He is the guy who pushed Steve aside.

He then tried to run Apple Computer as a commodity corporation. One lesson the world learned is that one can not replace a resourceful, genial  founder with an equally resourceful bureaucrat.

The need to hire non-conformists and underdogs

This is a  blog I wrote in April 2014, in essence long quote from David Brooks, the New York Time columnist and thinker.

Bias hiring decisions against perfectionists. If you work in a white-collar sector that attracts highly educated job applicants, you’ve probably been flooded with résumés from people who are not so much human beings as perfect avatars of success. They got 3.8 grade-point averages in high school and college. They served in the cliché leadership positions on campus. They got all the perfect consultant/investment bank internships. During off-hours they distributed bed nets in Zambia and dug wells in Peru.

When you read these résumés, you have two thoughts. First, this applicant is awesome. Second, there’s something completely flavorless here. This person has followed the cookie-cutter formula for what it means to be successful and you actually have no clue what the person is really like except for a high talent for social conformity. Either they have no desire to chart out an original life course or lack the courage to do so. Shy away from such people.

Who won?

Steve was born in 1955 and died in 2011 at the age of 56. He was 16 years younger than Sculley. who was born in 1939 and is turning 77 years old this year

Steve was an university drop-out. John was a graduate from the top Ivy League East Coast schools: Brown University  in Rhode Island, whose graduates  are John D. Rockefeller Jr., John F. Kennedy Jr., Ted Turner and the like, plus he is a  Wharton MBA graduate.

Steve Jobs married only once

Marriage with Laurene Powell in a Buddhist ceremony in Yosemite in 1991  

 John Sculley had three wives. His latest marriage at the age of 74 took place in 2013

Since the beginning of his career, the marriages helped his career

He married Ruth Sculley, stepdaughter of PepsiCo president Donald Kendall in 1960, which ended in divorce in 1965... Then in 1978, he then married Carol Lee Adams, ex-wife of a former PepsiCo vice president, ultimately divorcing in 2011.

Ruth Sculley is his 3rd wife and she is featured on Mr. Sculley twitter home page.

Steve Jobs' family on the father side is from Syria. Now, in this political climate of 2016, not accepting immigrants from Syria could have meant not having an American Apple Computer.

Steve Jobs rests in a non-denominational cemetery in Palo Alto

Is life just?

Those who only judge Steve Jobs as legendary, almost supernatural hero. have a distorted view of this world. John Sculley is completely different from the mythology, And so is Steve Jobs. Both men are exceptional and both made mistakes. One of them proved to be a Messiah. After all, Steve invited John to join Apple, in the same way as he saw the iTunes  later on. Both were good ideas, at one time,

John Sculley works with two other brothers investing in startups. Having worked at Apple is his greatest asset. He wrote new book and he  is available as a speaker, consultant for some hefty fees. The former "bad" guy" is now "a good guy".

We never know whether we are going to be winners or losers. We simply do what we do best, but it is not for us who decide.  This is one of my answers at what it makes us happy every day

Read Miha Ahronovitz's answer to What are 5 daily things to do to feel happy each day? on Quora