Friday, September 2, 2011

Signature Speaks: Steve Jobs and Charity- Not quite poles apart!



The Wikipedia page on Steve Jobs says-
After Bloomberg accidentally published Jobs' obituary in 2008, Arik Hesseldahl of BusinessWeek magazine noted that "Jobs isn’t widely known for his association with philanthropic causes", compared to Bill Gates' efforts.[89] After resuming control of Apple in 1997, Jobs eliminated all corporate philanthropy programs.

After i came across the above information, I starting feeling quite intrigued. Several thoughts started running in my mind like-
- For a man who is so widely admired for his absolute genius, shouldn’t he be "expected" to be good at giving as well.
- Like all we know about Steve Jobs, he wont do anything unless he total sure of a perfection. May be Charity is an aspect he would like to do differently like he has approached each and every thing about his work.
- For a man who is so admired for his single mindedness may be he would think about the Charity with his legendary single mindedness now since he is retired.

Nobody could deny the fact that Steve is so whole-heartedly involved with Apple and the turn- around could not have been possible if he had not put his entire energies to uplift the company when he re-joined in 1997. If we take out the condition for Public giving, it was well known that Jobs took a One dollar-a-year salary from Apple before stepping down as CEO (though he earned his fortune through Stock options).

Lets look at a different view to this situation i.e. Does Steve Jobs's Handwriting or Signature throw any light on this (giving) aspect of his personality ?
The Signature sample of Steve Jobs shows a long final stroke at the end, extending to the right by 45 degrees or more. This is especially shown in the last letter "n" of the first name.


Such a characteristic in handwriting is the representation of Generosity. One more aspect of Steve Job's signature reflects Generosity (though it would have been better to check with larger sample of handwriting) and its the specing between the words. Generosity is also reflected by larger spacing between words and letters.
Generosity is willingness to share. Generally such a person derives happiness by being generous to others.

So, it is evident that Steve Job's Signature reflects Generosity. Its not that there are no records of Jobs not being involved in Public Giving as Andrew Ross Sorkin says in his article
While many high-growth technology companies have philanthropic arms, Apple does not. It does not have a company matching program for charitable giving by its employees like some other Fortune 500 companies. The company did donate $100,000 in 2008 to a group seeking to block Proposition 8, a ballot measure that would have banned same-sex marriage in California.

This may be one of this hidden trait of his that he will bring about in public sooner than later. And who knows, like some people, he may be keeping his involvement in Charitable causes a secret. The same secretness he is so vividly known to have kept till the launch day of iconic products.
Watch out world, till this secret unveils!

References and Credits:
Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs
Signature Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs

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