With every other best selling business book I hear about being about “leadership, customer service, and respecting or honoring your tribe,” the outpouring of admiration and regrets over Steve Job’s stepping down from his position at Apple bothers me deeply.

Those people we admire most, the business leaders we believe to be most admirable and trustworthy are praising a narcissist, one of the most emotionally devastating and abusive personalities known to man. Only the sociopathic serial killer does more damage to society.

Don’t mistake being a great innovator and genius for being a great human being, otherwise you send the wrong message and we end up creating more monsters, not more technology. As a society we’re far too quick to look the other way when abusers bring money, art, talent or better economics to the societal table. It makes us whores, willing to sell our standards for the best design, the sexiest films, the most outrageous products. Do you truly value caring, compassion, authenticity and your tribe? Or are you after a buck, attention and success at any price?

Praise Jobs where he excelled, but don’t dare cast him as a caring, concerned or compassionate leader. He’s a narcissist who abused, cheated and whored his way to the top abusing others. He’s a shark. There’s a place in the world for sharks, but you might notice that people choose to swim with dolphins and away from sharks. There’s a reason. Well known for publicly humiliating subordinates, Jobs left more than great computer designs and innovations in his wake. He left broken spirits, broken hearts and ruined lives behind as well. Recovering from the abuse of a narcissist is one of the most difficult betrayals anyone can heal from. Ask anyone who has worked for him directly.

Jobs is not alone in his narcissistic approach to business, a scary development for creatives. The Harvard Business Review says narcissists are changing the face and personality of business - a dangerous precedence in a world where creativity is projected to rule the next two decades or more. Love the technology. Love the design, but take seriously the impact of how the Steve Jobs and narcissists of the world are changing business more than the Seth Godins, and ask yourself which way you really want things to go. Don’t romanticize the man. He’s not the designs he created. Admire his teeth from afar.