Who is Steven Jobs?

Steve Jobs is a hero because he and his associates made personal computing a reality. Yes, he is a very rich man and yes, we tend to favor those who are successful and wealthy-but there is more to Steve Jobs than that. He is the quintessential self-made man-someone who rises above his station in life, who has insight into something new and different-and, most importantly, takes a chance.

He is our hero because he is also the ultimate entrepreneur. Starting a computer company was not enough for him; he saw the newest technology could be used in a range of applications and introduced the world to an array of visual delights.

What made him the Entrepreneur?

Very few people in private industry can claim that their creations changed the world, but Steve Jobs could. Jobs, along with Steve Wozniak, created the first truly personal computer in the Apple I and Apple II. The new machines made people rethink what a computer was and what it could do for them. Later, Apple would release the phenomenally successful Macintosh computer that further expanded the capabilities and ease of use of a personal computer.

Jobs was an orphan adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, California, on February 24, 1955. He did not like the schools at Mountain View, and his parents decided to move to Los Altos, California, so Jobs could attend Homestead High School. He was described, at the time, as something of a loner and as a student who was always willing to take a fresh look at problem solving.

Jobs started attending lectures at the Hewlett-Packard campus in Palo Alto, California. He was eventually hired as a summer employee and met the man who would change his life-Steven Wozniak, who was regarded as an engineering whiz kid who loved to invent gadgets. One of those inventions was the infamous blue box, an illegal pocket-sized telephone attachment that allowed users to make long- distance phone calls for free. Jobs, the emerging businessman, helped Wozniak sell these devices.

After graduating from high school in 1972, Jobs started attending Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but stayed there only for one semester. Even though he was not an official student, he hung around the campus for another year, taking philosophy classes and immersing himself in the early 1970s counterculture.

During the next few years, Jobs drifted. He took a short-term job as a video game designer at Atari in 1974, then left that to travel to India in search of spiritual enlightenment. When Jobs returned to California, he got back into contact with Wozniak, who had started the Homebrew Computer Club, which encouraged creating a computer that could be easily used by a large number of people. Unlike Wozniak, who loved creating electronic products, Jobs was more interested in the marketability of those products.

“He conceived the idea of a personal computer and persuaded Wozniak to provide the technical expertise”.

The Apple I computer was initially designed in Jobs’ bedroom and built in his garage. The initial reaction to the product was positive, and Jobs and Wozniak sold everything they could to raise operating capital to market the new computers. Jobs came up with the company name, Apple, because it reminded him of a happy summer he had spent as an orchard worker in Oregon.

Jobs and Wozniak began marketing the Apple I in 1976, selling it at a fairly reasonable price of $666. The Apple I was the first single-board computer with a built-in video interface and on-board ROM, allowing it to load programs from an external source. The first computer was designed primarily for computer enthusiasts.

For the general consumer, Jobs and Wozniak created the Apple II. The design varied little from the Apple I, but it quickly built up a reputation as the Volkswagen of personal computing, thanks to its ease-of-use and durability. Jobs brought in professional marketers and money from venture capitalists, and within 3 years of its creation, the Apple II had earnings of almost $140 million. The company went public in 1980 and Jobs and Wozniak found themselves instant millionaires.

Apple started facing a serious challenge from IBM’s new line of personal computers and Jobs realized he would have to market computers that could be used in the business environment that IBM dominated. After stumbling with the Apple III and the Lisa (the first personal computer to be controlled with a mouse), Jobs hit pay dirt with the Macintosh in 1984. The computer used a unique interface that allowed users simply to point and click with the mouse to operate the computer, rather than having to type in MS-DOS commands. The new computer was still not compatible with IBM, so Jobs had to try to market it on its own merits. One of the most successful of those was the Macintosh’s ability to do desktop design and publishing. Jobs also worked hard to portray Macintosh users as young, informal and still living a counterculture life.

Just as sales of the Macintosh were soaring, an internal revolt at Apple resulted in the board of directors stripping Jobs of most of his responsibilities. Jobs felt he had been forced out of the very company he had worked so hard to create. Soon, Jobs had no say in how the company was operated. He took his money and left.

Jobs spent some time bicycling and traveling, but felt lost. In September 1985, after meeting with Nobel laureate Paul Berg, Jobs came up with the idea of creating computers that would benefit higher education. Jobs officially resigned from Apple and took five employees with him for his new venture. Jobs created NexT to build hardware and software for object-oriented computers. The efforts failed at first, and Jobs is still struggling to create new software at NexT, concentrating on reference material.

Meanwhile, Jobs had married Laurene Powell in 1991 and had three children with her (he also has a daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs with Christine Brennan, whom he never married).

NexT was bought by Apple in 1996, and Jobs returned to the first company he had created. Jobs was made interim CEO and immediately canceled several Apple projects. He used the NeXTSTEP software to create the Mac OSX operating system. In 1998, Jobs introduced the iMac, an all-in-one personal computer with a unique and charming design.

Jobs would enter the entertainment industry in 1986 when he bought Lucasfilm’s computer graphics division, renaming it Pixar. After a series of successful short films, Pixar released the first full-length computer-animated feature Toy Story, distributed by Walt Disney. The success of that film and its followers made Pixar a superstar. Disney and Pixar could not negotiate a new contract in 2003-2004, and Jobs said that Pixar would find a new partner. However, Robert Iger, the new CEO of Disney, patched up relations and bought Pixar in 2005. Jobs became the largest single shareholder in Disney with 7 percent of its stock.

The Legacy of the Steven Jobs

Steve Jobs will always be considered an amazingly successful entrepreneur who made money by providing a valuable product at a reasonable price. His management style was aggressive and demanding and not for everyone’s taste, but it was well suited to the wild days of PC development in the 1980s.

His work with Pixar has created some of the best-loved animated features in recent history, and he is still pursuing new technologies in hardware and software for Apple and Pixar. Still only in his early 50s, it is likely Jobs will conquer other worlds before he is ready to retire.

Jobs certainly made his share of mistakes and erroneous assumptions as he developed his businesses, and his management style resulted in the burnout of many key employees, but he was still a true visionary who saw a way to substantially improve people’s lives and make a lot of money doing it.

Courtesy

More information on Steve Jobs, Apple and Pixar can be found at ivwtv.apple.com and www.pixar.com.

Jobs has been the subject of several unauthorized biographies and has yet to write an autobiography. Books about him include The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, Broadway, Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of the World’s Most Colorful Company, No Starch Press, 2004; Steve Jobs: The Journey Is the Reward, Lynx Books, 1988; and Steve Jobs and the Next Big Thing, Scribner’s, 1993.