John McAfee - the anti-virus genius with a crazy lifestyle

16 November, 2012

He is a man who has had a colourful life filled with money, women, drugs, lawsuits as well as murders. With every new chapter, his life got more interesting, but equally disturbing.

DOES THE name John McAfee ring a bell? Most of us will not know the man, but many would remember the antivirus McAfee. Well! He is a man who rose from a humble background just like legendary Steve Jobs, built name and fame for himself, but threw that all away recklessly chasing a lifestyle that was both dangerous and unfulfilling.

Silicon valley might be full of such examples but very few people actually go aboard like McAfee. The maker of McAfee computer security firm is currently hiding in Belize for charges of murder levelled against him by his neighbour. He started down this path of self destruction as a software designer at the arms giant Lockheed in the 1980s. It was the time when computer viruses were making appearances and he was able to resolve one such virus all by himself. Thus the way to his fame opened and he soon developed an antivirus company that is now worth billions of dollars annually.

However, unlike Steve Jobs he was more passionate about getting everyone's attention than his business or job. So in 1992 when a virus named Michelangelo came in, his company said that on March 6, when it will be activated and that the 'Millenium Bug' would damage 5 millions machines and this made a lot of headlines. When the day came and passed, the reputation of the company was completely lost.

In 1994, the company went public and they were ousted with $100m. In a bid to fight against his fate, he bought a 400 acre land in Colorado as a yoga retreat but that made no great influence. As was reported by The Telegraph, one of the people from his yoga retreat said that John used to enjoy the fact that people depended on him for money and he had all their attention and also had power over them.

After that his crazy sex life, sharing bed with five women and also men made it to the media more than once. However, this was the attention he craved for and enjoyed. To add another dimension to his whirlwind life, he started to develop and market a new extreme sport called aero-trekking in New Mexico. However this business also hit a dead end when an amateur died while performing the sport and he got himself an expensive lawsuit.

It was in 2009 when he moved to Belize. There also he could not keep himself safe from his nature and soon got into trouble with the law for growing crystal meth. It was in one of the crystal meth raids that the police started uncovering his weird lifestyle and the layers the man has to himself. Recently detectives wanted to question him in the murder of his neighbour Gregory Faull but he went into hiding after claiming his innocence to the media. Some people never learn.