On Sunday, “60 Minutes” aired a 30-minute interview with Steve Jobs’ biographer Walter Isaacson, whose eagerly awaited biography “Steve Jobs” was released October 24. While the book itself is filled with Jobs’ intensely negative feelings toward Google, he did have some complimentary things to say about Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “60 Minutes” ran several clips of Isaacson’s taped interviews with the late Apple co-founder, who can be heard discussing his thoughts on Zuckerberg in an audio clip released as bonus footage alongside the full interview with Isaacson. Said Jobs of Facebook’s founder, “I admire Mark Zuckerberg. I only know him a little bit, but I admire him for not selling out, for wanting to make a company. I admire that a lot.” (Visit CBS News to view more bonus footage from the “60 Minutes” interview.) Jobs was notoriously critical of those he saw as sell-outs and always maintained that the business choices he made were in the service of creating a great product, not making the most money. He discussed this in another interview with Isaacson where he talks about longtime rival, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates: “Bill ended up the wealthiest guy around, and if that was his goal then he achieved it, but it’s never been my goal, and I even wonder in the end if it was really his goal.” Jobs’ respect for Zuckerberg may have hinged on his perception that they were similarly determined to do what they thought was right for their companies no matter the consequences. According to Forbes, “Where Zuckerberg most resembles Jobs is in the strength of conviction he places in his vision Zuckerberg has managed to court the masses without ever submitting to the so-called wisdom of the crowd.” There were also other, more superficial, similarities. Both men were college dropouts who founded their companies at a young age — Zuckerberg was 19 and Jobs was 21. Zuckerberg’s actions indicate that Jobs’ admiration for him was mutual. Zuckerberg reportedly modeled Facebook’s annual developers conference, F8, on Apple’s MacWorld. Although, at first, people doubted that the awkward Zuckerberg could step into Jobs’ shoes as the tech world’s “rock star,” Zuckerberg is apparently becoming more of a cult figure with each Facebook announcement . In March, M.I.C Gadget started selling a Mark Zuckerberg action figure until Facebook forced them to stop. Several months earlier, Apple had reacted the same way when M.I.C Gadget tried to distribute a an action figure in the likeness of Steve Jobs. When Jobs passed away on October 5, Zuckerberg posted a note to Facebook that read, “Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you.” To watch Walter Isaacson’s entire “60 Minutes interview, plus bonus footage, click here. To see what else Steve Jobs has to say about his fellow tech titans, according to Isaacson’s biography, check out the slideshow (below).
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on October 25, 2011. Filed under