The 180 Degrees Between Warren Buffett And Steve Jobs On Cancer Disclosure - For
one of the most surprising elements ofceo ’s disclosure tuesday that he has stage 1 prostate cancer is how much detail he provided about , including the fact that he had a cat scan and an mri and when his radiation treatment will start (in july). it stands in stark contrast to the silence fromabout his pancreatic cancer when he was diagnosed in 2003.of course, the two cancers could not be more different. prostate cancer is very unlikely to kill buffett, as he pointed out when he disclosed the news. the five year survival rate is nearly 100%,jordan shoes for sale, and the 10-year rate is 98%, according to the . the stats for pancreatic cancer are much grimmer: the five year survival rate for people with stage 1a pancreatic cancer is. it’s arguably much easier to be upfront with news that, in terms of cancer, is relatively positive.
the downside to jobs’ reticence about his health was that reporters spent a good deal of time trying to unearth details about his condition,cheap jordan 5, and investors worried about the future of the company as jobs got progressively thinner in public appearances. in his biography on jobs, walter isaacson notes that the sec started an investigation intobecause of its disclosures (primarily the lack of them) about jobs’ health. jobs finally acknowledged in early 2009 that his health problems were “more complex” than he had initially thought and thus was taking a medical leave of absence.
another contrast between buffett and jobs: deciding how to treat their cancer. jobs first used “” to treat his cancer. as formerceo andy grove told walter isaacson: “steve talked to me when he was trying to cure himself by eating horseshit and horseshit roots, and i told him he was crazy.” ?others, including apple board member and former genentech ceo art levinson, felt the same way.
buffett, meanwhile, has chosen what some might say is an aggressive treatment,jordan 13, given his age. “if you get to 80 years old, you could make an argument that prostate cancer shouldn’t even be tested for” because it’s very likely that the prostate cancer won’t be the disease that kills you, says dr. joshua fiske,cheap jordan 6, a urologist at overlook medical center in summit, new jersey. “a lot of our patients in their 80s do watchful waiting, and don’t even do the biopsy ?because the biopsy has some small risk of bleeding and infection.”
it’s fair to say, as forbes contributor davia temin that in announcing his cancer, buffett is controlling the message. and as my astute colleague matthew herper said tuesday, “in this, as in so much else,jordan shoes on sale, buffett is the model.”
i discuss the differences between buffett and jobs in the video above with my colleague .
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