Throughout most of my career, I’ve been an admirer and would-be emulator of Bill Gates. I always thought Microsoft’s theory of software design was the best in the business and the true foundation of their success. I admired Gates’ ability to address the big picture, while remaining competent at the micro-level, reviewing and commenting on the source code of individual Microsoft products right up to his retirement. All throughout my Techfi years, I had grandiose visions of us being the Microsoft of finance, and building a platform that would somehow become the integral “operating system” of our industry.

But over the last few years, I’ve become more and more drawn to the story of Steve Jobs. He was just as driven as Gates, with more style and better design skills, coming up short only in the most fine-grained technical details–the same type of low-level technical skills I’ve been neglecting myself recently. With Gates fully retired from the industry, and Microsoft becoming more IBM-like by the day, I find myself looking to Jobs’ Apple more and more for inspiration.

Jobs was kicked out of his own company when its group of traditional executives turned on him–and it almost destroyed Apple. He returned years later as a hero, easily stepping back into an industry leadership role, recapturing all his old clients, and building Apple into a technological and strategic powerhouse. He is Apple’s creator-in-chief and is listed as “co-inventor” on more than a hundred Apple patents. The personal parallels feel more apt than anything I ever had with Gates/Microsoft.

So my ears perked up when I heard about the recent Fortune article on Jobs; it is one of the best technology articles I’ve read in recent years. It touches on many of the negatives, from backdating stock options to an abrasive personality to hiding his bout with cancer from Apple shareholders. But Jobs emerges looking like the technical visionary he is, with the years proving him right on almost every major issue. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.