, Columnists
The Business of Being Bowie
The rock legend was a visionary businessman whose greatest product was himself.
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David Bowie was that rare kind of rock star: You didn’t have to like his music to admire him. Bowie was a business visionary like the ones who shaped Silicon Valley who just didn’t see the point of building companies: He was his own greatest product.
Bowie, born David Jones, died on Jan. 10 at age 69, a bohemian who had amassed a vast fortune thanks in part to his many instinctive firsts. Cataloging them would probably be a futile exercise, but some are worth recalling in the same spirit as his fans now play his songs to remember him.