Who is Jobs with? Steve Jobs - Founder of Apple
“The thought of imminent death is the best way to get rid of the illusion that you have something to lose. It's like you're already naked, and there's no reason not to follow your heart. Death is the best invention of life"
Steve Jobs ( Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple)
Speech to Stanford students, 2005
Jobs' character later softened, but he still committed eccentric acts. For example, in 2005, he banned the sale in Apple Stores of all books published by John Wiley & Sons, which published the unauthorized biography of Jobs, iCons. Steve Jobs,” written by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon.
Steve Jobs was the primary inventor or co-creator of many designs, from computers to user interfaces. Among his inventions are sound speakers, keyboards, power adapters, as well as objects that are far from the world of computer technology, such as ladders, fasteners, belts and bags. Jobs said about his prolific inventive creativity: “Looking back, I can say that my dismissal from Apple was the best event of my life. I got rid of the burden successful person and regained the lightness and doubts of a beginner. It freed me and marked the beginning of my most creative period." (Stanford Alumni Address, 2005).
In 1991, Steve married Laurene Powell. The couple has a son and two daughters. Jobs was also the father of Lisa Brennan-Jobs, born in 1978 from a relationship with artist Chrisann Brennan.
Since his trip to India, Jobs remained a Buddhist and did not eat animal meat. Eastern philosophy is reflected in his worldview and attitude towards life and death: “Remembering that I will die soon is a great tool that has helped me make all the most important decisions in life. The thought of imminent death is the best way to get rid of the illusion that you have something to lose. It's like you're already naked, and there's no reason not to follow your heart. Death is the best invention of life." (Speech to students at Stanford, 2005)
In the summer of 2004, Jobs informed Apple employees that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Malignant tumor was successfully fixed surgically, but the disease was not completely defeated, and Jobs had to undergo regular hospital treatment.
On January 17, 2011, Jobs was forced to take long-term leave to "focus on his health." However, on March 2, 2011, he spoke at the presentation of the iPad2.
On August 24, 2011, Jobs announced his resignation as CEO of Apple in an open letter. He thanked the corporation's employees for their excellent work and strongly recommended appointing Tim Cook, who replaced Jobs during his treatment, as his successor. Apple's board of directors later unanimously elected Jobs as chairman.
Upon learning of his death, many Americans came to Apple Stores, lit candles and left flowers and cards of condolences.
US President Barack Obama expressed condolences over the death of Jobs, calling Jobs “the embodiment of American ingenuity,” and Bill Gates noted in his speech that “there are very few people in the world who can make a contribution similar to Steve’s, the effects of which will be felt for more than one generation.”
Steve Jobs was not just a successful leader of one of the largest companies in the world, but also a genius of the IT industry who brilliantly implemented bold ideas that seemed crazy to many. His contribution to the development of computer technology is invaluable, but we can already note several revolutionary achievements that were achieved thanks to Jobs: affordable smartphones, the iPad Internet tablet - a possible PC killer, and Apple's unique business model, which made it one of the most successful companies in the world .
Steve Jobs Quotes
Understanding that I will soon die is the most important tool, which I have ever had, necessary in order to make important decisions in life. Because almost everything - all the expectations of others, all the pride, all the fear of embarrassment and failure - all these things recede in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. The thought of imminent death is the best way to get rid of the illusion that you have something to lose. It's like you're already naked, and there's no reason not to follow your heart. Death is the best invention of life.
Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't mean anything to me. Going to bed thinking that we have created something beautiful is what is important to me.
Do you want to sell for the rest of your life? sweet water or do you want to come with me and try to change the world?(Jobs asked PepsiCo President John Sculley this question in 1983, when he lured him to the post of CEO of Apple)
The desktop market is dead. Microsoft is completely dominant without bringing any innovation to the industry. This is the end. Apple lost, and the history of personal computers entered the Middle Ages. And this will continue for about ten years.
I didn't have my own room, I slept on friends' floors, I traded Coke bottles for 5 cents to buy food, and I walked 7 miles every Sunday to have a nice dinner at the Hare Krishna temple once a week. And it was wonderful!
We are here to make a contribution to this world. Otherwise why are we here?
Innovation comes from people meeting in hallways or calling each other at 10:30 pm to share a new idea or simply realizing something that will revolutionize our understanding. These are impromptu meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he's figured out the coolest thing ever and who wants to know what others think about it.
You know that we eat food that other people grow. We wear clothes that other people have made. We speak languages that were invented by other people. We use mathematics, but other people developed it too... I think we all say this all the time. This is a great reason to create something that could be useful to humanity.
There is only one way to do great work - to love it. If you haven't come to this, wait. Don't rush into action. As with everything else, your own heart will help you suggest something interesting.
Steve Jobs timeline in photographs
1977 Apple co-founder Steve Jobs unveils the new Apple II. Cupertino, California. (AP Photo/Apple Computers Inc.)
1984 From left to right: Apple Computers Chairman Steve Jobs, President and CEO John Sculley and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak present new computer Apple IIc. San Francisco. (AP Photo/Sal Veder)
1984 Apple Computer Chairman Steve Jobs and the new Macintosh computer at a shareholders meeting. Cupertino, California. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
1990 President and CEO of NeXT Computer Inc. Steve Jobs demonstrates the new NeXTstation. San Francisco. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
1997 Pixar CEO Steve Jobs speaks at MacWorld. San Francisco. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
1998 Steve Jobs of Apple Computers introduced the new iMac computer. Cupertino, California. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
2004 Apple CEO Steve Jobs shows off the iPod mini at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Steve Jobs, diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer, begins to noticeably lose weight. This series of images is dated (top series from left to right): July 2000, November 2003, September 2005, (bottom left to right) September 2006, January 2007 and September 2008. He took an extended leave because his health problems were more complex than he thought. Investors are shocked; the company's shares fell 10 percent in January 2009. (REUTERS)
2007 Steve Jobs holds an Apple iPhone at the Macworld conference in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
2008 Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds the new MacBook Air. Presentation at Apple's MacWorld conference. San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
2010 Presentation of the new iPad by Steve Jobs. (REUTERS/Kimberly White)
October 2011. Steve passed away on Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at the age of 56. Apple iPhone displays a photo of Steve Jobs. New York, Apple Store. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
Good luck to you friends. Take care of yourself.
Steven Paul Jobs is an American inventor and entrepreneur. One of the founders of Apple Corporation and the Pixar film studio. He went down in history as the man who revolutionized mobile gadgets.Childhood
Steve was born in 1955 in San Francisco. His parents are unregistered Syrian Abdulfattah (John) Jandali and German Joan Schieble, who met at the University of Wisconsin. Joan's relatives were against this union and threatened to deprive the girl of her inheritance, so she decided to give the child up for adoption. 
The boy ended up in the family of Paul and Clara Jobs from Mountain View, California, who named the newborn Steven Paul Jobs. My adoptive mother worked in an accounting firm, and my father worked as a mechanic in a company that produced laser systems.
At school, Steve was a restless bully, but thanks to the efforts of teacher Mrs. Hill, little Jobs began to demonstrate amazing academic performance. So, from the fourth grade he went straight to the sixth at Crittenden High School. Because of high level crime in the new area, Steve’s parents were forced to use their last funds to buy a house in the more prosperous Los Altos.
At age 13, Jobs called Hewlett-Packard President William Hewlett at home. The boy was assembling an electrical appliance and needed some parts. Hewlett talked with the boy for 20 minutes, agreed to send everything he needed and offered to work in his company for the summer.
As a result, Stephen dropped out of the University of California, Berkeley, where he was attending classes, and began working at Hewlett-Packard. There Jobs met a man whose meeting determined the boy's future fate - Stephen Wozniak.
Education and first job
In 1972, Jobs entered Reed College in Portland, but dropped out after the first semester because the university was too expensive and his parents spent all their savings on their studies. With the permission of the dean's office, the talented student attended creative classes for another year for free. During this time, Steve managed to meet Daniel Kottke, who became his best friend on par with Wozniak. 
In February 1974, Steve returned to California, where his friend and technical genius Wozniak invited Jobs to work as a technician at Atari, which produced games such as the famous arcade game Pong.
Since university, Stephen was interested in the hippie subculture, so after six months of work he went to India. The journey was not easy: Jobs suffered from dysentery and lost 15 kilograms. Later on the trip, Kottke joined him and they set out together in search of a guru and spiritual enlightenment. Years later, Steve admitted that he went to India to resolve the inner feelings caused by his biological parents abandoning him.
Steve Jobs' legendary speech to Stanford graduates
In 1975, Jobs returned to Los Altos and rejoined Atari, volunteering for as soon as possible create a circuit diagram for the video game Breakout. Steve had to minimize the number of chips on the board, for the removal of each of which there was a reward of $100. Jobs convinced Wozniak that he could complete the job in 4 days, although such work usually took several months. In the end, the friend managed, and Wozniak gave him a check for $350, lying that Atari paid him 700 instead of the real 5000. Having received a large sum, Jobs quit his job.
Inventor's career
Steve was 20 years old when Wozniak showed him a computer he made and convinced his friend to build a PC to sell. It all started with the production of printed circuits, but eventually young people came to assembling computers. 
In 1976, draftsman Ronald Wayne was hired and Apple Computer Co. was created on April 1. For starting capital Steve sold his minivan, and Wozniak sold his programmable calculator. The total was $1,300.
A little later, the first order was received from a local electronics store, but the team did not have the money to buy parts for 50 computers. They asked suppliers for a 30-day credit, and within ten days the store received its first batch of computers, called Apple I, each costing $666.66.
The world's first mass-produced computer from IBM appeared the same year Wozniak completed work on the Apple II, so Jobs ordered the launch of an advertising campaign and the creation of beautiful packaging with a logo to beat the competition. New Apple computers have sold 5 million copies around the world. As a result, at the age of 25, Steve Jobs became a millionaire.
At the end of 1979, Steve and other Apple employees went to the Xerox (XRX) research center, where Jobs saw the Alto computer. He immediately became obsessed with the idea of creating a PC with an interface that would allow him to give commands with a cursor.
At that time, the Lisa computer was being developed, named after the daughter of Steve Jobs. The inventor was going to implement all Xerox developments and lead the project of an innovative computer, but his colleagues Mark Markulla, who invested more than 250 thousand dollars in Apple, and Scott Forstall reorganized the company and removed Jobs.
In 1980, computer interface specialist Jef Raskin and Jobs began work on a new project - a portable machine that was supposed to fold into a miniature suitcase. Raskin named the project Macintosh after his favorite apple variety.
Even then, Stephen was a demanding and tough boss; working under his leadership was not easy. Numerous conflicts with Jeff led to the latter being sent on leave and later fired. A little later, disagreements forced John Sculley to leave the corporation, and in 1985, Wozniak. At the same time, Steve founded the NeXT company, which worked in the field of hardware.
In 1986, Jobs took the helm of the Pixar animation studio, which produced many world-famous cartoons, such as “Monsters, Inc.” and “Toy Story.” In 2006, Steve sold his brainchild to Walt Disney, but remained on the board of directors and became a Disney shareholder with 7 percent of the shares.
In 1996, Apple wanted to buy NeXT. So Steve returned to work after many years of suspension and became the manager of the company, joining the board of directors. In 2000, Jobs entered the Guinness Book of Records as the CEO with the most modest salary - $1 per year.
Presentation of the first iPhone. When the world changed forever
In 2001, Steve introduced his first player called the iPod. Later, the sale of this product brought the main income to the company, as the MP3 player became the fastest and most capacious player of that time. Five years later, Apple presented the network multimedia player Apple TV. And in 2007, a touchscreen went on sale mobile phone iPhone. A year later, the thinnest laptop on the planet, the MacBook Air, was demonstrated.
Stephen skillfully used all his old knowledge: his passion for calligraphy during his university years allowed him to create unique fonts for Apple products, and his interest in graphic design made the iPhone and iPod interface recognizable all over the world.
Jobs had a keen sense of what the customer needed, so he sought to create miniature car, capable of satisfying every whim of the modern user. Stephen's ideas were not always innovative; he skillfully used existing developments of others, but brought them to perfection and “packed them in a beautiful wrapper.”
Steve Jobs and his 10 rules for success
In 2010, Jobs introduced the iPad, an Internet tablet, which caused confusion among the public. However, Stephen's ability to convince the buyer that he needed this product raised tablet sales to 15 million copies a year.
Personal life of Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs called Chris Ann Brennan his first love. He met a hippie girl in 1972, after running away from his parents. Together they studied Zen Buddhism, took LSD and hitchhiked. 
In 1978, Chris gave birth to a daughter, Lisa, but Stephen stubbornly denied his paternity. A year later, a genetic test proved Jobs's relationship with his daughter, which obligated him to pay child support. The inventor rented a house in Palo Alto for Chris and Lisa and paid for the girl’s education, but Steve began communicating with her only years later.
It would be strange to talk about the death of a person without explaining his biography. In the case of Jobs, there is no choice at all. His colorful life became a source of inspiration for millions of people.
Childhood and youth
If the story of Steve Jobs doesn't impress you, then it's unlikely that anything else will surprise you. The future founder of Apple was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco. His parents gave the child to an orphanage, where he was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs. The baby received a name. Quotes suggest: he always considered his adoptive parents to be his family.
Since childhood, his social environment was programmers and engineers, who felt especially comfortable in California. In addition, his mother worked as an accountant in one of the pioneer companies of the future. Steve's father was an auto mechanic. So he unwittingly introduced his son to the basics of electronics.
At school, Jobs became friends with Stephen Wozniak, his main colleague and partner for many years. Both were interested in new technologies and rock music of the 60s, primarily Bob Dylan. The hippie counterculture that emerged at that time had a huge influence on Jobs’ character and worldview.
Steve's first job was at Atari, which was famous for its video game machines. Under these conditions, he and Wozniak founded the “Homemade Computers Club,” which brought together lovers of microcircuits and other tricks.
Founding of Apple
It was then that Wozniak created his first computer. It was called the Apple I. Steve realized that the invention had enormous commercial potential. He persuaded a friend to start a company and start selling his products.
Even then, the different roles of these two people in the future project were outlined. If Wozniak created a product, then Jobs gave it the form that would be most popular with customers. For example, this was the case with the new user interface technology, where everything happens on the now familiar desktop with a cursor and folders. Before this, computers had only system directories and dull lists of their names. Steve Jobs' company combined, firstly, enormous creative technical potential, and secondly, precise commercial acumen.
1984
Apple's main success in its early years was the creation and promotion of the revolutionary new Macintosh computer (the abbreviation Mac is also often used in spoken language).
It had several important innovations for the industry, from the already mentioned user interface to accessibility for every ordinary buyer. That's when computers became personal. They were purchased by ordinary buyers, not just programmers and geeks. Another component of success is the advertising campaign that accompanied the start of sales.
It all happened in 1984, and Jobs suggested making a video with references to the novel by George Orwell, the title of which was this date. It was a book about a totalitarian society in a fantasy future. Jobs wrote a plot in which Apple buyers with new technology in their hands were radically different from the backward majority in the novel. “Think different” is the main slogan of everything Steve did.
Dismissal
However, things subsequently went poorly for the company. Sales were down, and new products were generating losses. Jobs was fired from his own creation. He did not give up and created other projects - Next and Pixar. The latter of them achieved success, and now it is the largest studio regularly releasing popular cartoons. Pixar's use of computer graphics in animation was a revolution. The first such cartoon was the film “Toy Story” in 1995.
Return
In the late 90s, Apple began asking for Steve Jobs to return. The reason for the “death” of the company is poor products and marketing. All this made many employees remember the founder. In 1997, he again became the head of the enterprise.
In the next decade, several super-successful devices and services appeared, for which the masses today know about Apple. These are smartphones with innovation for the 2000s operating system, iTunes music service and much more. Steve Jobs came up with all this one way or another. Quotes from the entrepreneur indicate that the thought of death forced him to become 100% active every day. He demanded the same from his subordinates.
So why did Steve Jobs die? Largely from my busy daily schedule. However main reason not this.
Deterioration of health
Since his youth, Steve has been interested in alternative medicine: herbal treatment, acupuncture, a vegan diet, etc. He was greatly influenced by Indian culture and the practice of yoga. Let's remember his youth as a hippie with drugs and LSD. So when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, he refused traditional surgery.
After nine months of self-medication, he finally agreed to see qualified specialists. He underwent surgery and the tumor that appeared was cut out. However, the examination showed that metastases had appeared in Jobs’ liver - new cancer cells, which develop over time and spread to other organs. They could only be treated with courses of chemotherapy. The entrepreneur publicly stated that he had gotten rid of the disease, and in the meantime he began to recover necessary procedures secretly.
This was all Steve Jobs. The cause of death (later it became cancer) gradually made itself felt more and more. First of all, this affected his appearance. Jobs became very thin and, just before his death, admitted that he had cancer. The public paid close attention to this also because he continued to give presentations to large audiences, where he presented the company’s new products in his signature bright style.
Steve was supported by his family - his wife Lauren and three children. For all this he was eternally grateful to them.
Death
No matter how Steve Jobs passed away, the cause of this man's death did not mean that his work was in vain. He could be sure that he had not lived in vain, thanks to the fact that he had built the largest corporation in the world, whose products reached almost every American and the citizens of many other countries.
In August 2011, Steve announced that he was leaving his leadership position at Apple. He named Tim Cook as his successor, who continues to serve today. Steve himself stated that he would remain on the board of directors. However, a couple of months later, on October 5, he died at home.
His attending physician stated that his death was due to neglect of his own health. Despite this, his passing away occurred peacefully and calmly. Of course, the outstanding entrepreneur already understood everything and was internally prepared for the upcoming outcome.
In particular, he agreed with the writer and journalist Walter Isaacson that he would conduct many interviews with him in order to prepare material for a book biography. Isaacson recorded a large number of monologues, the author of which was Steve Jobs himself. Death interrupted this long cross-cutting interview, which lasted until last days businessman.
In addition, Walter interviewed about a hundred people who were in close relationships with Steve. The book was supposed to be published in November 2011 during his lifetime, but due to his death its release was postponed a month earlier. In particular, the biography contained the answer to the question of why Steve Jobs died. The new product immediately became a bestseller.
No matter how Steve Jobs had previously assured, the cause of death was his own alternative treatment, whereas with such a serious diagnosis it was immediately necessary to contact professionals. His stubborn character never allowed him to admit his mistake.
Steve Jobs- American businessman, talented leader, co-founder, ideological inspirer, director and chairman of the board of directors. Until 2006, he was the director (CEO) of an animation studio. Pixar(Pixar), it was Steve Jobs who gave it this name.
short biography
Steve Jobs ( full name – Steven Paul Jobs) was born February 24, 1955 in San Francisco, USA, California. His biological mother is Joan Schible. Biological father - Abdulfattah Jandali.
Stephen was born to unmarried students. Joan's father was against their relationship and threatened to disinherit his daughter if she did not end it. That is why Steve's future mother went to San Francisco to give birth and gave her son up for adoption.
Adoptive parents
Joan set conditions for adoption: Stephen's adoptive parents had to be wealthy and have higher education. However, the Jobs family, which could not have their own children, did not have the second criterion. Therefore, the future adoptive parents gave a written commitment pay for a boy's college education.
The boy was adopted Paul Jobs And Clara Jobs, née Agopian (American of Armenian descent). They were the ones who gave him his name Stephen Paul.
Jobs always considered Paul and Clara to be his father and mother; he was very irritated if someone called them adoptive parents:
“They are my real parents 100%.”
According to the rules of official adoption, the biological parents knew nothing about the whereabouts of their son, and Stephen Paul met with his birth mother and younger sister only after 31 years.
Schooling
School activities disappointed Steve with their formalism. Primary school teachers Mona Loma characterized him as a prankster, and only one teacher, Mrs Hill, was able to see extraordinary abilities in her student and find an approach to him.
When Steve was in fourth grade, Mrs. Hill gave him "bribes" in the form of sweets, money, and DIY kits for doing well, thereby encouraging his learning.
This quickly bore fruit: soon Steve Paul began to study diligently without any reinforcement, and at the end of the school year he passed the exams so brilliantly that the director suggested transfer him from fourth grade straight to seventh. As a result, by decision of his parents, Jobs was enrolled in the sixth grade, that is, in high school.
Further training
After graduating from school, Steve Jobs decided to apply to Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Studying at such a prestigious college specializing in humanities, was insanely expensive. But once upon a time, Stephen's parents promised the young woman who gave birth to their son that the child would receive a good education.
His parents agreed to pay for his studies, but Stephen’s desire to join student life lasted exactly one semester. The guy left college and went deep in search of his destiny. This stage of Jobs' life was influenced by the free ideas of hippies and the mystical teachings of the East.
Birth of Apple
Stephen Paul became friends with his classmate Bill Fernandez, who was also interested in electronics. Fernandez introduced Jobs to a graduate who was interested in computers, Stephen Wozniak (“Woz”), his senior by five years.
Two Stephens - two friends
In 1969 Woz and Fernandez began assembling a small computer, which they nicknamed "cream soda" and showed it to Jobs. This is how Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak became best friends.
“We sat with him on the sidewalk in front of Bill's house for a long time and shared stories - we told each other about our pranks and about the devices we developed. I felt that we had a lot in common. I usually have a hard time explaining to people the ins and outs of the electrical devices I assembled, but Steve picked it up on the fly. I liked him immediately.”
From the memoirs of Steve Jobs
Apple Computer
Steve began working with Woz on circuit boards for computers. Wozniak was a member of a circle of amateur computer scientists at the time. Homebrew Computer Club. It was there that the idea of creating his own computer came to him. To implement the idea, he needed only one board.
Jobs quickly realized that his friend's development was a tasty morsel for buyers. A company was born Apple Computer. Apple began its ascent in Jobs' garage.
Apple II
Computer Apple II became the first mass product of Apple, created on the initiative of Steve Jobs. This happened in the late 1970s. Jobs later saw the commercial potential of mouse-controlled graphical interfaces, which led to the advent of computers Apple Lisa and, a year later, Macintosh (Mac).
Leaving Apple is a new round of success
Losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs left Apple and founded NeXT- a company that developed a computer platform for universities and businesses. In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm, turning it into .
He remained Pixar's CEO and major shareholder until the studio was acquired in 2006, making Steven Paul largest private shareholder and a member of the Disney board of directors.
"Resuscitation" Apple
In 1996 the companyApple boughtNeXT. This was made to use the OS NeXTSTEP as the basis for Mac OS X. As part of the deal, Steve Jobs received the position of advisor to Apple. By 1997 Jobs regained control of Apple, heading the corporation.
Rapid development
Under the leadership of Steve Paul Jobs, the company was saved from bankruptcy and became profitable within a year. Over the next decade, Jobs led the development iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone And iPad, as well as the development Apple Store, iTunes Store, App Store And iBookstore.
The success of these products and services, which provided several years of stable financial profits, allowed Apple to become the most valuable publicly traded company in the world in 2011.
Many call Apple's resurgence one of the greatest accomplishments in business history. At the same time, Jobs was criticized for his tough management style, aggressive actions towards competitors, and the desire for total control over products even after they were sold to the buyer.
Merits of Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs has received public recognition and a number of awards for his impact on the technology and music industries. He is often called a "visionary" and even "father of the digital revolution". Jobs was a brilliant speaker and brought innovative product presentations to new level, turning them into exciting shows. His easily recognizable figure in a black turtleneck, faded jeans and sneakers is surrounded by a kind of cult.
October 5, 2011 After an eight-year battle with pancreatic cancer, Steve Jobs died in Pal Alto at the age of 56 years old.
February 24, 2016 would have been 61 years old for Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Corporation, the most valuable company in history, which, without exaggeration, is the locomotive of the current US digital economy. Jobs had a huge impact on the development of the computer industry and became a role model for many venture capitalists around the world.
Jobs is without a doubt an extraordinary person, and much has been written about him and his company. Even more, his name is associated with legends and various interpretations of the events of his life and the impact that certain facts of the biography of the Apple founder had on his future success.
IN in the right place at the right time
Steven Jobs is an adopted child, abandoned by his biological parents, Syrian Abdulfatt Jandali and Wisconsin native Joan Shible Simpson, due to family and financial problems.
Jobs's colleagues and closest friends and his biographer Walter Isaacson attribute this childhood trauma to Steve's manic desire to control everything, to be the first in everything and to achieve perfection.
Stephen was adopted by mechanic Paul Jobs and his wife, daughter of Armenian emigrants, Clara Agonyan. While he was still in elementary school, his father was transferred to the Silicon Valley branch of Palo Alto, and the Jobs family settled nearby in Sunnyvale, where it was a little cheaper to live. Here in the valley, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded the computer giant HP in a garage, the NASA Science Center was located here, and the dean of Stanford's engineering department allocated 300 hectares of institute land so that high-tech companies could launch student designs into mass production. Nearby, in Mountain View, a little later Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore founded Intel. In other words, Steven Jobs grew up in a place where the most advanced computer technologies were concentrated.
His father instilled in his son a love of engineering and first introduced Stephen to computers, which he immediately fell in love with.
genius child
Jobs was undoubtedly a gifted child, but he did not become a brilliant systems engineer like Stephen Wozniak or a programmer like Bill Atkinson, the developer of the first graphics software for the Macintosh.
He learned to read early, but when he went to school, in his own words, the pressure he experienced there almost discouraged him from studying. Stephen misbehaved a lot, and during his three years of study he was expelled from school several times. From childhood, Jobs's adoptive parents instilled in him the idea that he was special in order to cope with the consequences of being abandoned by his biological parents, and they themselves believed in this, so his father constantly defended little Steven and blamed teachers for his reluctance to study.
Jobs was lucky: the teacher of the class where he was transferred, Imogen Hill, saw him as a professional challenge and, with the help of “bribes” in the form of huge candies, increased attention to him and DIY kits, returned Stephen’s interest in studying.
As a result, at the end of the fourth grade, he passed the exams at the level of a tenth grader, which further convinced Jobs himself and those around him of his exclusivity.
The director suggested that his parents transfer him two years ahead, to the seventh grade, in order to maintain the child’s interest in learning, but they agreed to skip only one year. But even such a cautious decision was wrong.
Modern research into the phenomenon of child prodigies shows that teachers, without noticing it, pay much more attention to more gifted children than to the rest of the class, as a result of which the difference in development only increases. This happened with Jobs, who took most of Imogen Hill's attention. At the same time, the difference in the age of children, even a year, is a significant factor influencing the differences in their level general development. A child’s lag behind the average level due to age perpetuates his perception of himself as a retarded or outcast and determines his entire further development.
Jobs was even more unlucky: the high school he transferred to as a result of missing a year was in a disadvantaged area.
Stephen was attacked by bullies and a year later, in the form of an ultimatum, he demanded to be transferred to another school in a more expensive area, which is why his parents faced a serious financial problem.
Of course, childhood and school life Jobs had a significant influence on him, while the research of modern cognitive psychology, which was summarized by Daniel Goleman in his monograph “Emotional Intelligence,” suggests that this period of life only revealed and developed the personality traits of the future founder of Apple that were inherent in him initially.
Hot temper, inability to compromise, delay gratification and gratification are bad qualities for a businessman. At the same time, already at school it was clear that Jobs knew how to “read” other people, establish communication with them, and had the gift of persuasion. He could persuade his classmates to literally give him their shirt off their backs, his teacher recalls.
At Homestead High School, Jobs made smart friends who were interested in math and electronics, but also in “counterculture stuff” and drugs like LSD. Jobs continued to prank, but now all his pranks were related to electronics. At age 15, Jobs tried marijuana.
The Jobs' neighbor, Larry Lang, brought Steven to HP, where he was introduced to the first minicomputers. Even then, Jobs began to show his ability to get anything. To get parts for his school project - a digital frequency meter - he called Bill Hewlett directly, who gave him the parts and got him a job at the HP plant on the assembly line. There Stephen very quickly found mutual language with engineers and learned a lot of new things from them.
First illegal business
Jobs's Homestead classmate introduced him to Steve Wozniak. Wozniak was lonely, as his peers had other interests. He was the first acquaintance of Jobs, who understood electronics better than himself and also loved hooligan antics with electronics, in addition, their musical tastes coincided, so they got along very quickly.
Despite the fact that Wozniak was a pathologically honest good-natured person and did not tolerate lies, this did not stop them, in fact, from engaging in music piracy, phreaking (hacking telephone networks to make free calls) and what is now called telephone terrorism.
After reading an article in Esquire magazine about hacker John Draper, nicknamed Captain Crunch, friends decided to reproduce his device - a “blue box” for sending tones that control telephone switches. AT&T. As a prank, they thought of calling the Vatican on behalf of US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
The fact that they were not imprisoned is one of a series of great successes that accompanied Steven Jobs through life.
Jobs figured out how to sell Wozniak's circuit for $150. They managed to sell about 100 “blue boxes” to students, and only a meeting with a real bandit, who turned out to be one of the buyers, stopped the friends. Jobs and Wozniak are sure that without the “blue box” there would be no Apple, but would this have been a convincing argument for the court at that time?
Product of hippie fashion
At Reed University, the only one that Jobs found worthy of his attention, he quickly realized that most of the lectures were uninteresting to him. The most useful thing for him, in his opinion, was the calligraphy course, where he was instilled with a love of serif fonts and minimalism.
Subsequently, beautiful fonts will become one of strengths Apple Macintosh GUI.
At Reed, Stephen became a convert to Buddhism, frequently took LSD, became a fruitarian (he ate mostly carrots and apples) and lived for quite a long time in a sect on the apple farm of his friend and spiritual mentor, in whom he later became disillusioned.
Steve Jobs himself believed that this period of his life was of great importance for Apple, helping him shape his taste, but rather, what he liked during this time was a consequence of his taste.
Jobs' life experience by this time was already much richer than that of any average person, and deserved interest. It's important for a businessman to have a broad outlook and a lot of life experience to understand what product people need, but is it true that the hippie experience was so necessary to understand that a small business needs an Apple II with VisiCalc spreadsheets?
From this period, Jobs also learned the habit of walking barefoot, not washing or cutting his hair for long periods of time, and not acknowledging that fruitarians stank just like those who eat meat and baked goods. His business partners were able to make him look decent only quite a long time after Apple became a multimillion-dollar corporation.
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Jobs himself believed that from his time at Atari he took away the idea of simplicity of the product for the mass consumer, as in the games Pong, where there is only one task - to hit the ball, and Star Trek - to shoot at the Klingons.
In fact, the main event of this period was a meeting with Ron Wayne, who previously had his own company and had experience in entrepreneurship and bankruptcy. He became an example for Jobs and helped him understand what he wanted from life - his company.
Wayne, being an experienced entrepreneur, perfectly shows how risky an investment of effort, resources and money Jobs was at that time. He got rid of 10% of Apple shares even when the Apple I was already generating income, because he did not want to run from creditors when their simple partnership with Jobs and Wozniak, which was liable for its debts with all its property, went bankrupt. And in those conditions he was absolutely right.
It was impossible to predict Apple's success back then.
“Shuttle diplomacy”, which consisted of obtaining a loan for supplies to a store with a guarantee that Atari would buy a batch of Apple II, was a very risky gamble. Especially when you consider that the product has changed on the fly, from a board for geeks to a complete device for a wider audience of enthusiasts, and then to smaller companies.
Garage in Palo Alto
At the end of 2014, there was a wave of publications on the Internet related to the fact that Wozniak called the famous garage in which Apple was born a myth. It is not known why this caused such a stir, because it is no secret that Wozniak developed the Apple I in HP laboratories, since all the necessary software was there for this. Moreover, as an HP employee, he first offered the computer schematics to his corporation and only after refusal gave them to Apple. The garage was more of a hangout place, meeting with partners and discussing issues and plans for the future.
Part of the amount needed for the parts was given by Jobs’ school friend and his father, and the assembly of the first batch of Apple I took place in the house of Jobs’ parents, and relatives and acquaintances were involved in it.
Studying the biography of Steven Jobs provides insight into just how colorful a personality he was and how that impacted the perception of his company's success. It is impossible to perceive Apple in isolation from Jobs, what he did and how he lived, and this is the biggest illusion for those who take Jobs’ life as a role model. Apple is a unique case, an incredible coincidence of circumstances, a series of rare successes. Often the company got away with it not thanks to Jobs' genius, but in spite of it.
The likelihood of Apple's success was negligible, the chance of repeating Apple's success is negligible squared.