I committed to a year-long real estate class that meets once a month. It is called iProduce, and the core reading is the biography of Steve Jobs. Admittedly, this man was a creative genius, an American icon, and changed our world. I am quite dependent on his inventions to do my work. For example, the little “key” that opens lock boxes so real estate agents can show homes plugs into an iPhone, and is quite a tiny miracle.

It is fascinating to me that our real estate company chose this man’s life as the basis for a real estate class. Real estate, to me, is about listening, integrity, kindness, and human connection. I want what the client desires–my opinions are not important.

So why would they choose the life of a man who didn’t listen, who was notably cruel to those around him, who was often unkind and arrogant, and who had outrageous difficulty with relationships in the workplace? Steve Jobs had some stunning attributes, but he was also a bully, had no sense of boundaries, and pushed people in an unhealthy way. These are not the qualities of any decent real estate agent, much less a high-functioning one.

In this class, each of us has to give one speech based on this book. You can gather the gist of mine–quite different from the ones I’ve heard so far extolling Jobs.

I believe Mr. Jobs, in the process of dying, came around to a different way of being–but the end certainly did not justify the means.

© Amrita Skye Blaine, 2013