In high school, a student interested in taking
apart and rebuilding machines approached the
CEO of Hewlett-Packard and asked for some
parts to help him complete a class project.
Duly impressed, the CEO made arrangements
for the student to get the parts.
And years later, he was probably thrilled
to be able to say he took the time to do so.
The confident, driven student who asked for
the parts was Steve Jobs, a man who would
go on to become the CEO of Apple Computers
and a pre-eminent figure in the tech industry…
Early Life
Steve Jobs was born to two unmarried graduate
students in 1955 (curiously, just 9 months
before Microsoft founder Bill Gates).
His parents gave him up for adoption, and
Jobs was 30 years old and well in the midst
of tech stardom before he learned about his
birth parents, the Simpsons.
Growing up, the only family he knew was his
adoptive parents, a couple from Mountain View,
California who fostered his interest in taking
apart and rebuilding machines.
His father, Paul Jobs, was a machinist who
taught Jobs about electronics from an early
age.
Working in the family garage, the two spent
hours tinkering on projects.
During these work sessions in the garage,
Jobs’ father taught him a lesson that has
made its way into Apple products of all shapes
and sizes.
Jobs later described this, saying, “When
you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest
of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece
of plywood on the back, even though it faces
the wall and nobody will ever see it.
You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going
to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back.
For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic,
the quality, has to be carried all the way
through.”
Though Jobs showed an early interest in mechanics
and design, he did not show early promise
in school.
His mother had taught him to read as a toddler,
but he was bored in school and often goofed
off, a habit that frustrated one teacher to
the point of bribing him to behave.
This teacher saw potential in a young Jobs,
and Jobs later credited Mrs. Hill with being
one of the “saints” of his life.
Jobs so excelled in that fourth grade class
with Mrs. Hill that he skipped over the fifth
grade entirely and headed straight for middle
school.
This jump ahead was tough for him initially:
he was bullied and became a bit of a loner.
Indeed, he disliked middle school so much
that he told his parents that if he couldn’t
switch schools he would just stop going to
school altogether.
To keep Jobs in school, the family moved from
Mountain View to Los Altos, and Jobs settled
into the Cupertino School District.
It was here, that he met and befriended Bill
Fernandez, another student interested in electronics.
Fernandez later played a critical role in
the creation of Apple computers when he introduced
Jobs to his neighbor - another electronics
aficionado, and someone you might have heard
of…
His neighbour was Steve Wozniak (more on him
in a minute).
Early Work
By the time he entered high school, Jobs was
already working at Hewlett-Packard, where
a cold call to the CEO had earned him a job
offer.
But while he was in high school his interests
began to diversify quite a bit.
Jobs discovered a love for the classics and
for literature in general - Dylan Thomas and
Shakespeare were particular favorites.
During his senior year, Jobs was so excelling
in English that he was able to take classes
at Stanford.
When it came time to attend college, though,
Jobs opted to attend Reed State in Oregon.
But, well, that didn’t last long.
After only one semester, Jobs’ previous
aversion to formal education reared its head
and he dropped out.
He continued dropping in on classes that interested
him, though he wasn’t earning credits and
wasn’t paying for anything.
Interestingly, one of those drop-in classes
greatly affected his future.
Something that he explained in his famous
2005 Stanford commencement address (something,
by the way, that is well worth watching).
"If I had never dropped in on that single
calligraphy course in college, the Mac would
have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally
spaced fonts."
Career Beginning
Despite being a college dropout, Jobs was
able to secure a job with Atari computers
in 1974.
He worked as a tech, assisting the engineers
who were doing the heavy duty coding work.
Jobs didn’t have a lot of money at this
time, and he was trying to scrape funds together
to travel to India to study Eastern religion
- his interests in things outside technology
had stuck around.
The head of Atari, Neil Bushnell, years later
said he thought Jobs was saving money by actually
living in the office...
“I'm not sure about this but I actually
think Steve was living there, so people used
to complain that he didn't smell that well...
I'd come in on the weekend and he'd be there,
I'd come in late at night and he'd be there."
The time at Atari also marked a key point
in the friendship between Jobs and his old
friend Steve Wozniak.
Jobs was assigned to design a circuit board
for the video game Breakout, and he approached
Wozniak to help because Atari was offering
a bonus if it could be designed using fewer
chips.
Jobs also needed the project completed in
only four days.
What Jobs didn’t tell Wozniak was that Atari
had offered Jobs a large bonus for using fewer
chips - a bonus Jobs received and kept for
himself even though Wozniak did the majority
of the work.
When Wozniak found out about the lie ten years
later, he is reported to have cried.
But Wozniak didn’t know of Jobs’ deceit
at the time, and the two continued experimenting
with technology together.
But, their tinkering was put on hold for seven
months, though, when Job’s alleged living
in the office had saved him enough money to
travel to India.
He went to India in search of spiritual enlightenment,
something that was rather in fashion in the
60s and 70s.
He did this trip on an incredibly tight budget
- he slept on the street, sweated on crowded
buses, and ate the bare minimum…
He also must have eaten some pretty sketchy
food, reportedly getting dysentery and losing
forty pounds.
During this time he was also meditating and
learning about Zen Buddhism.
He wanted to go to Tibet, but after his travelers’
checks were stolen he decided to head home
to the U.S.
Back home, he continued his practice of meditation,
as well as another habit he’d picked up...
his use of psychedelic drugs.
Jobs was a big fan of LSD, a drug he started
using in college and would credit with expanding
his creativity and vision of the world:
“Taking LSD was a profound experience, one
of the most important things in my life.
LSD shows you that there’s﻿ another side
to the coin, and you can’t remember it when
it wears off, but you know it.
It reinforced my sense of what was important—creating
great things instead of making money, putting
things back into the stream of history and
of human consciousness as much as I could.”
The Beginning of Apple
Back in the United States, Jobs had no money
and lived in his parents’ toolshed that
he had converted to a bedroom.
But he and Wozniak continued to work on computers,
with Jobs convincing Wozniak that at least
one of Wozniak’s early products was sellable.
Wozniak had built a product, known as a ‘blue
box’ that could mimic the tones of a telephone
system and essentially trick a phone into
making a free long distance call for the user.
With technology today we don’t think twice
about calling someone on the other side of
the planet, but In the 1970s this was a big
deal.
Now, as you might have guessed, these blue
boxes were totally illegal, but they still
sold well.
Yep, Steve Job’s first business…
Selling illegal devices to make long distance
phone calls for free!
Now, the next brainchild that Wozniak had
was much more legitimate...
It was a product that would become the Apple
I.
In 1976, Jobs suggested selling it, and he
and Wozniak officially started Apple Computers.
The company was first run out Jobs’ parents’
garage, and most of their customers were hobbyists.
But enough computer hobbyists were laying
out money for the Apple I that Jobs and Wozniak
had cash in their pockets.
Jobs began searching for investors, and Wozniak
kept designing.
In 1977, just a year after the company launched,
they put out another version of their computer,
the Apple II.
This time, it had color graphics and was much
more user-friendly allowing for it to be used
outside of just the hobbiest market.
They sold $3 million of the Apple II in their
first year alone, but this figure was about
to become dwarfed...
Two years later, they had sold $200 millionworth,
but again, this seemingly huge number was
about to be dwarfed again...
In 1980, only four years after their launch,
Jobs and Wozniak went public.
By the end of Apple’s first day of public
trading the company was worth an astounding
$1.2 BILLION.
Steve Jobs was only twenty-five years old.
Family
During the nascent years of Apple, Jobs was
dealing with much personal turmoil.
His longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend
Chrisann Brennan had moved in with him, and
she got pregnant.
Jobs was, by all accounts, not thrilled about
this news.
He later told Brennan: “I never wanted to
ask that you get an abortion.
I just didn't want to do that."
Brennan had been offered a job at Apple, but
given Jobs’ reaction to her pregnancy she
did not want to take it.
She left him and their house, and began working
as a cleaner.
Despite asking for support from Jobs, he did
not provide any support for his child until
a paternity confirmed that he was the father.
Even then, despite his company being worth
over a billion dollars, he was only required
to provide $500 a month in child support.
Despite these early problems, Lisa and Jobs
later reconciled, and Lisa even lived with
Jobs during her high school years.
She then attended Harvard, and today works
as a writer in New York City.
Though it took him years to admit to it, Jobs
named one of Apple’s early products after
his daughter.
But the LISA computer was not as successful
as the Apple II had been.
This failure was followed by another - the
Apple III, which again failed to live up to
expectations (and not just Job’s expectations,
but everyones).
Getting Sent to “Siberia”
Despite Apple being Job’s company, the fact
that is was public, meant that the Apple board
had the power to oust him as CEO.
And in 1983, they did just that.
They didn’t fire him though, they just sent
him to “Siberia” (not literally of course,
but he referred to the office he was put in
as Siberia, illustrating well the fact that
he was in some sort of exile.)
Most Apple employees were probably pleased
to see him go....
He was notoriously difficult to deal with,
and a former Apple employee described Jobs’
attitude toward work as "management by character
assassination."
By 1985, he was tired of hanging out in Siberia
and decided to leave the company he had founded
and start a brand new one.
"What had been the focus of my entire adult
life was gone, and it was devastating," Jobs
said of this experience.
"I even thought about running away from the
valley.
But something slowly began to dawn on me-I
still loved what I did.
And so I decided to start over.”
He started “Next Computer Company,” which
brought its first product to market in 1988.
That computer, though, it had a price of $10,000,
a price way higher than most consumer were
willing to pay.
Needless to say, it didn’t sell well.
It wasn’t a good start for Job’s fledging
company and so he decided to shift the company
to building software.
Pixar
But Jobs’ focus was drawn elsewhere... somewhere
rather unusual - the movies.
In 1986, he bought Pixar from George Lucas.
As part of his dream for this company, Jobs
wanted to be responsible for the first movie
done entirely with computer-animation.
It took four years, but he eventually achieved
that dream.
That movie was Toy Story.
It was released in November 1995 it became
a favorite film for kids and adults, and to
this day maintains a perfect 100% score on
Rotten Tomatoes..
A year after the release of Toy Story, there
was even better news...
Jobs took Pixar public and in something of
a deja vu situation, his shares were worth
one BILLION dollars after the first day of
trading.
This first day of trading was the first in
a string of good days for Jobs.
Shortly after Pixar went public, Apple put
out the welcome mat for Steve Jobs to return.
When he returned in 1997 the company was operating
at a loss, and they needed Jobs’ vision
and drive back at the helm.
Apple also announced that they would buy the
struggling Next Computer Company - turning
a previous failure of Jobs into a success...
Return to Apple
Jobs triumphantly returned to the company
that he founded.
The company wanted him to bring Apple to the
forefront of the personal computer market.
Within months of his return, Jobs was named
CEO.
He paid himself a salary of only one dollar
a year, and in exchange brought both business
acumen and creative design ideas to the company
He negotiated a financial deal with Microsoft
that brought Apple cash flow it needed to
stay afloat, while helping Microsoft avoid
the perception that they were a monopoly.
Then, he envisioned the big idea that helped
bring Apple back to profitability in its own
right - the iMac.
It was in 1998 that Apple released the brightly
colored, egg-shaped desktop computer called
the iMac.
The iMac is even still made today… although
it looks rather different today!
From the iMac forward, Apple and Jobs just
couldn’t miss.
They revolutionized the way people listen
to music in 2001 with the iPod, and then the
way they communicated in 2007 with the iPhone,
and then were pioneers in the tablet market
with the 2010 release of the iPad.
Jobs once said of Apple, "We started out to
get a computer in the hands of everyday people,
and we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams."
Today, it’s nearly impossible to walk down
the street without seeing someone with an
Apple-made device in their hands.
Through these years of professional success,
Jobs had still found the time to focus on
his family.
In 1986 his adoptive mother was diagnosed
with lung cancer, and this, for the first
time, prompted Jobs’ interest in his biological
parents.
When his adoptive mother passed away, Jobs
spoke to his father about contacting his birth
parents, whose names he had on documents from
his parents.
Jobs met both his birth mother, Joanna Scheible,
and his biological sister, Mona Simpson, shortly
after his adoptive mother died.
Scheible and Jobs’ birth father had divorced
in 1962 when the Syrian migrant opted to return
to Syria after earning his PhD.
When Jobs was introduced to Mona, she was
still searching for their father.
Jobs joined her in the search, and what they
found out was surprising.
Their father was not in Syria working in academia...
Rather, their father was living in California
and running a restaurant.
Incredibly, Jobs said he had met the man Mona
identified as their father, he had shaken
his hand, had eaten in his restaurant... but
never knew he was his father.
Jobs had no interest in getting to know his
father as he had gotten to know his mother
and Mona, though, explaining his decision
by saying, “I learned a little bit about
him and I didn’t like what I learned.”
While getting to know his birth family, Jobs
also decided to start a family of his own.
In 1989, Jobs gave a lecture at Stanford Business
School and he was riveted by a woman in the
front row.
"She was right there in the front row in the
lecture hall, and I couldn't take my eyes
off of her ... kept losing my train of thought,
and started feeling a little giddy," this
is how he described feeling when he first
saw Laurene Powell.
Laurene Powell was an MBA student at Stanford,
and Jobs struck up a conversation with her
after the lecture.
He invited her out to dinner that night, and
the two began a romantic relationship.
A Zen Buddhist monk presided over their wedding
ceremony at Yosemite National Park in 1991,
and over the next seven years the couple had
three children.
They remained married until Jobs’ death
in 2011.
Sickness
Amidst all of the successes of the early years
of the 21st Century, Jobs was not free from
worry.
And neither was Apple Computers.
In 2003, Jobs received the news all of us
dread - he had cancer.
His doctors had found a cancerous tumor in
his pancreas, and though operable it was a
rare form of cancer...
Jobs refused to listen to his doctors and
have an operation right away, though.
Instead he opted to explore other options,
namely veganism and acupuncture.
In 2004, with these alternative methods not
improving his condition, Jobs opted to have
the tumor surgically removed.
Several cancer specialists have since said
that period of waiting may have cost Jobs
years of his life.
In 2005, Jobs gave a commencement address
at Stanford University that frankly and poignantly
discussed his thoughts on life and death now
that he had to confront the matter head-on.
The fifteen minute speech reflected on three
moments in his life that helped get him to
where he was, and in telling those stories
he imparted a message to the graduates - and
to the world - to do what you love, remember
you are going to die, and have trust in your
inner voice.
"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the
most important tool I've ever encountered
to help me make the big choices in life.
Because almost everything-all external expectations,
all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure-these
things just fall away in the face of death,
leaving only what is truly important.
Remembering that you are going to die is the
best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking
you have something to lose.
You are already naked.
There is no reason not to follow your heart,"
he said.
He closed the speech with simple words from
the 1970s counter-cultural magazine The Whole
Earth Catalog: “Stay hungry.
Stay Foolish.”
The commencement address struck a chord around
the world.
It has been viewed over 27 million times on
YouTube and serves as an inspiration, and
a stark reminder of our limited time on Earth.
It is a speech that truly every human can
relate to, given by a man whose mind and drive
were far more extraordinary than most humans…
Death
Jobs continued to work at Apple following
the surgery, but in 2008 people began asking
questions about his health as his appearance
began to show his illness.
He was gaunt, graying, and just didn’t seem
healthy.
The company continued to explain this away...
After questions were raised at one tech event
Apple attributed his appearance to a simple
bug and said he was taking antibiotics.
Shareholders continued to worry, and in 2009
the truth came out - Jobs was suffering from
ill health and ended up having a liver transplant.
Tim Cook, Apple’s head of Worldwide Sales,
filled in as CEO while Jobs was recovering
from the procedure.
Jobs managed to return to his post and continued
to be involved in the day-to-day operations
of Apple with his prognosis being described
as “excellent”.
But it was not to be.
Only a year and a half after returning to
the helm of Apple Jobs had to step down as
CEO.
In providing his reasons to the company’s
board, he stated:
“"I have always said if there ever came
a day when I could no longer meet my duties
and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be
the first to let you know.
Unfortunately, that day has come."
Though he stepped down as CEO and handed Tim
Cook the reins of his company, Jobs did serve
as Chairman of the Apple Board.
Sadly, it was for only six weeks that he would
work for Apple in this capacity.
On October 4, 2011, Jobs lost consciousness.
He stayed at home, surrounded by his family,
and died of complications from his pancreatic
cancer on October 5th.
He was only 56 years old.
The world greeted the death of this technology
icon with shock and grief.
California’s Governor issued a proclamation
for a Steve Jobs Day to be celebrated, and
the companies with which he was associated
all issued statements about the life, creativity,
and innovation of their founder and partner.
His family held a private funeral, the details
of which are still unknown.
In 56 years of life and 30 years in the tech
industry, Steve Jobs was at the helm of guiding
the world into the future.
He was certainly a difficult man to deal with,
but he was an innovator, a businessman, and
a visionary whose ideas shaped the world we
live in today.
