The difference between Steve and Bill

The most telling moment in a personrsquos life comes after theyrsquove died and people have to say things about them Some believe one shouldnrsquot speak ill of the dead but if yoursquore watching you can hear what people say or donrsquot say who was beloved and who was tolerated who was a giant and who was a pigmy who had everything but was flawed and who was broken but somehow made everyone feel goodIrsquove been thinking about two men Steve and Bill both legends both visionaries who have changed our lives profoundly in our time You know who Irsquom talking about Steve Jobs founder of Apple and Bill Gates founder of MicrosoftSteve died a decade ago a painful death from pancreatic cancer The thing I remember most clearly about October 5 2011 the day he died was a friendrsquos Facebook post with a single big word that brought tears to my eyes mdash iSadI donrsquot know how or why everyone felt the way they did when Steve Jobs died but a sadness lay all over the world as though something irreplaceable and valuable had goneBill only 65 is still alive and kicking the worldrsquos fourth richest man and its greatest philanthropist having donated the bulk of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or BMGOne day though like his buddy Steve he too will go How will he be mourned Will a great sadness settle over the worldI already know the answer Bill Gates wonrsquot be mourned as Steve Jobs was Bill is admired but Steve was belovedAnd herersquos todayrsquos question mdash what makes a person belovedSteve and Bill were alike in many ways both selfstarters with worldchanging ideas Bill was a nerd and Steve was a geek Bill came from wealth and privilege Steve was an orphan irreverent and confused College dropout student of drugs and mysticism He footled around India in pajamas and kurta for a year but couldnrsquot figure out what he was searching forAt Apple he was charismatic a perfectionist a bully abrasive mdash but always an inspirationHis private life was chaotic three children from his marriage to Laurene Powell but also an illegitimate daughter who he refused to recognize or support Lisa from a childhood sweetheart Chrisann Brennan Despite his wealth from Apple he paid them a paltry 385 a month after a DNA test established his paternityYet he saw Lisa every week and on his death left millions to herBill became the worldrsquos richest man by building Windows an operating system that tried to give users a Macintoshlike interface Steve hated that ldquoYoursquore ripping us offrdquo he shouted at him ldquoI trusted yourdquoSteve thought Bill would have been a better human being if hersquod dropped acid and visited an ashram when he was younger Bill thought Steve was ldquoweirdly flawed as a human beingrdquoWhen Gates donated the bulk of his wealth to philanthropy I thought it was fitting atonement for a lifetime of making money on someone elsersquos idea At BMG they spoke of how driven and passionate he was I revised my opinion of Gates Maybe he had turned a cornerRecently hersquos been much in the news Ten days ago it was because he and his wife Melinda believed they could no longer ldquogrow together as a couplerdquo It sounded civil but make no mistake Melinda was divorcing Bill She no longer liked what she saw Stories emerged of his infidelities and his connections with predatory pedophiles like Jeff EpsteinMore recently he has been arguing that the COVID vaccine patent should not be shared to empower other countries to make their own supplies At a time when the world needs kindness and philanthropy more than ever Bill would restrict the technology so that American pharma may squeeze greater profits from itThe reason why Bill Gates will only be admired not beloved is that even when he is being the worldrsquos greatest philanthropist he is doing it for himself not others He is a true capitalist nothing is free especially philanthropyTheir vision statements are windows into their soulsDuring Microsoftrsquos early days Gatesrsquo vision to the world was about sales mdash A computer on every desk in every home Since Microsoft didnrsquot make computers what he meant was lots of computers all running Windows Lots of moneySteve Jobs truly believed that Apple would liberate the creative energy of human beings and take them to unscaled heights The ad that launched the Apple ended with the line ldquoThe power to be your bestrdquoWhen someone truly deeply wants a better world everyone understands Your human flaws donrsquot matter when you have a vision for others That I think is what makes a person belovedHere viewed from there C Y Gopinath in Bangkok throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai the city that raised him You can reach him at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper