Steve Jobs: Life Path

Steven Paul Jobs was an American inventor, designer and entrepreneur with his biggest accomplishment being the co-founder, chief executive and chairman of Apple Computer, Inc. but he was also involved with other companies such as NeXT & Pixar. Jobs was born in San Francisco on the 24th of February, 1955 to his biological parents, Abdulfattah Jandali and Soanne Schieble. His biological father grew up in Homs, Syria and was born into a Muslim household. He was a student activist and actually ended up spending time in prison for his political activities. He studied to get PhD at the University of Wisconsin where he met Jobs’ mother, Joanne Schieble. Her parents were not happy she was dating a muslim and threatened to cut her off completly if she continued dating him. He was adopted by Paula and Clara Jobs at his birth. On Steves 5th birthday the family moved to Mountain View, California and that is where Steve grew up all the way until he graduated from Homestead highschool in 1972. After graduating, he decided to move away from home and attend Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He went to Reed College but did not last very long. He decided to drop out after just one semester to travel to India and attempt to study eastern religions and buddhism. He returned to California in 1974 and Jobs heard about a group called the Homebrew Computer Club and decided to give it a try. One member of the group, a technical whiz named Steve Wozniak was attempting to build a computer. When Jobs saw this the only thought he had was how much marketing potential such a computer could have. In 1976 the two of them ended up forming their own company. They named it Apple Computer Company. They managed to raise $1,300 to start the business they made the money money by selling Jobs’s volkswagen and Wozniak’s calculator. They first sold circuit boards (the boards that hold the internal components of a computer) while they worked on the computer prototype to make extra money.

Family:

Steve Jobs had three daughters, Lisa, Erin and Eve and one son called Reed. He married his wife, Laurene Powell in 1991. The met at Stanford University. The 54 year old widow is listed the richest women in tech. Sources from ABCnews.go.com explain that steves personal ;ifr was actually kept quite a secret. “Though he was one of the world’s most famous CEOs, Steve Jobs kept his private world — wife and family, illegitimate daughter, father who gave him up for adoption, long lost sister — hidden from public view”. They also explain that not many news sources or celebrity pages could get ahold of him. “But Jobs was so successful at keeping the details of his life out of the celebrity pages that a Pew poll in June 2010 found that only 41 percent of Americans correctly identified Jobs as head of Apple. A CBS poll that year concluded that 69 percent of Americans didn’t know enough about Jobs to have an opinion about him. in the wake of his death, stories about Jobs’ private life once again became fodder for his fans, who wondered, in part, where Jobs’ $6.7 billion fortune would land”.

Steve Wozniac:

Steve Wozniak was born in San Jose, California, in 1950. He received a B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science from UC Berkeley (1986).

Wozniak (‘Woz’) built his first computer when he was 13 years old, and was an electronics prodigy in high school. At 19, he met 14-year-old Steve Jobs and the two teenagers built an electronic ‘blue box’ enabling them to hack the public telephone network and make toll-free calls.

Apple I:

Their next collaboration was a kit computer, designed by Wozniak, first shown at the Homebrew Computer Club in Menlo Park, California, in 1976. Called the Apple I, it was meant for hobbyists, but the two Steves received an order for 50 assembled kits from a local store, suggesting to the business-savvy Jobs that there might be a market for personal computers.

Wozniak remains an Apple employee and has enjoyed a diverse career in teaching and entrepreneurship as well. In 1985, he was awarded the U.S. National Medal of Technology (with Steve Jobs).

Apple II:

Jobs was one of the first entrepreneurs to figure out that a personal computer would appeal to a lot of people. Jobs encouraged Wozniak to design a better computer and the Apple II was invented. This computer had a keyboard and a plastic case. It looked much better than the first model. Sales of the Apple II were brisk and the newly formed Apple Computer became a large company.

Jobs was able to get financing for his company even though he didn’t look like a businessman. Apple Computer was incorporated in 1977, this was the same year the Apple II computer was finished. The Apple II was a great success. In 1981 Apple had a record setting public stock offering and in 1983 in made it onto the Fortune 500 list of top American companies.

Sculley:

John Sculley was hired to be Apple’s CEO in 1983. He was the president of PepsiCo before working for Apple. In 1985 the Macintosh computer was introduced and it was an amazing publicity campaign. The first Macs were underpowered and expensive so their sales were not good. The company had to work on improving the Mac and sales improved. Jobs was said to be slow at correcting the problems with the first Macs and Sculley convinced Apple’s board of directors to fire Steve Jobs.

Other Businesses:

Jobs started another company called NeXT Inc. This was a computer designed for the education market but it did not do very well and there were better, less costly computers for sale like Sun Microsystems. In 1996, Jobs acquired Pixar. Over the next 10 years Jobs made Pixar a major animation studio and they produced the first full length feature film that was fully animated. The company made Jobs a billionaire. In 2006 Jobs sold the company to Disney.

iMac and Beyond:

In 1997, Jobs was asked to come back to run Apple. The company wasnt doing very well at this time until Jobs connected with the Microsoft Corporation. He also make an award winning marketing campaign that turned things around for Apple. In 1998 the iMac was introduced and by the end of the year it was the nation’s highest selling personal computer. In 2001 Job introduced iTunes and the iPod. By 2006 more than a billion songs and videos had been sold through iTunes. In 2007 the iPhone was released and it changed the world!

Illness:

In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. He tried alternative medicine at first but in 2004 he had a major surgery called the Whipple operation. He had a short recovery then went back to running Apple. In 2009 Jobs had a liver transplant. He had to wait 48 days for the liver transplant vs. the national average of 306 days. In 2011 Jobs took another medical leave of absence. In August he resigned as CEO and died two months later.

Business Traits of Steve Jobs:

We can all learn the good business practices that Steve Jobs used to be successful. He would always be very focused on his goal. He would pick the products carefully and focus on a few good ones to make successful before moving onto the next thing. He connected his own image with the image of his companies. A very important thing to do to grow a successful company is to surround yourself with the best people you can hire people to do the things you cant you cant. He believed you should always be looking for ways to Improve what is currently offered on the market. Instead of inventing new things, make things that are already out there, better. Always keep the customer in mind. What do they want now? what will they want in the future? They are the ones that will buy your product. Learning from failure if a very important thing to do in any business. Get rid of the things that don’t work and focus on the things that do work. Think big, dream big and persevere, these are the things every great entrepreneur must do. Demand the best in your business, your products and expect people to work hard.

Honors and Awards:

1985: National Medal of Technology (with Steve Wozniak), awarded by US President Ronald Reagan

1987: Jefferson Award for Public Service

1989: Entrepreneur of the Decade by Inc. magazine

1991: Howard Vollum Award from Reed College

2007: Named the most powerful person in business by Fortune magazine

2007: Inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts

2012: Grammy Trustees Award, an award for those who have influenced the music industry in areas unrelated to performance

2013: Posthumously inducted as a Disney Legend

2017: Steve Jobs Theatre opens at Apple Park

Apple after Steve Jobs:

One key reason for Apple’s continued success is that Jobs created a company in his likeness and has installed in his top executives a deep understanding of his own business and technology philosophy that still guides Apple’s leadership today. Jobs helped his leadership team understand that technology is worthless unless it is ties to elegant form, function and ease of use. A big reason that Apple is still so successful is that they have a special program for management. When a new executive is hired they go through this program and learn the principles of Apple’s vision, leadership and vision.

Work Cited

1. Curry, Colleen. “Steve Jobs Kept Private Life Closely Guarded Secret.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 6 Oct. 2011, abcnews.go.com/Technology/steve-jobs-secret-private-life/story?id=14678496.
2. Remembering Steve Jobs- Apple https://www.apple.com/stevejobs/
3. https://allaboutstevejobs.com/bio/key_people
4. https://www.strategy-business.com/article/00109?gko=2788e