Madmen, confident that they can change the world, actually change it /
from Apple's "Think Different" commercial
Apples can be different: sour, sweet, rejuvenating, the kind that fall not far from the apple tree right on Newton’s smart head. And they can also be gnawed. One of these apples became the logo (from the English “apple”).
Today we will talk about Steve Jobs, the co-founder of this company, an innovative businessman who gave another definition to the word “Apple”.
The world lost this talented man in 2011. Steve Jobs, who never minced his words, during his lifetime spoke about this eternal topic:
And although there is no ready-made recipe for success suitable for everyone, we will try to highlight those qualities of Mr. Jobs that helped him reach heights, and which can be safely adopted.
His unusual story begins with this fact. Immediately after birth, his biological parents abandoned him. They were not at all disadvantaged - their mother, Joan Schible, was the daughter of German immigrants who settled in Wisconsin and were farmers, and their father, Abdulfatt Jandali, worked at the university. Joan's father was against their marriage and threatened to disinherit his daughter. Because of this, the couple did not get married, but gave their child up for adoption. The adoptive parents were given the condition that the boy must receive a higher education, and the couple who adopted Steve will subsequently keep this promise.
This is how little Steve ended up with the Jobs, whom he called dad and mom: “They are my real parents 100%.” Subsequently, some colleagues saw in Steve’s behavior the influence of the “abandoned child” complex, but Jobs himself denied such an opinion: “I knew I was adopted and felt more independent, but never abandoned.”
Steve's adoptive father, Paul Jobs, served in the Coast Guard and then worked as an auto mechanic, and his mother, Clara Agopian-Jobs, worked as an accountant. Paul was a kind, calm and hardworking man. Steve fully adopted this last quality from his father, who from childhood tried to involve his son in his work. Steve recalled: “I didn’t like fixing cars, but I enjoyed being with my dad.”
The habit of involving “little helpers” in joint work is worth taking note of.
This is a good technique in raising children and strengthens family relationships. And although the “younger generation” sometimes causes more harm than real benefit, such moments are not forgotten. Steve always watched his father work with delight.
The lesson taught by Jobs Sr. is etched in his memory: “ It is necessary to carefully finish the back side of the fence“, he taught his son. “It doesn’t matter that she’s not in sight.” Steve will continue to maintain this attitude of excellence when developing his own products.
As a child, Steve considered himself a humanitarian, but at the same time he was also attracted to technology. The first time he saw a computer terminal in Ames, he simply “fell in love with computers.” Having once read a phrase about how important people are who solve problems at the intersection of the humanities and exact sciences, Steve made a decision in life: “This is exactly what I want to do.”
Jobs was one of the first to understand that to achieve success in the modern world, it is necessary to combine creativity and technology.
He liked it when a thing combined beauty and functionality, and it was Jobs who later brought culture to computer production. "We made the buttons on the screen so cute you'll want to lick them"– this is exactly how he will position the new operating system.
As a child, his parents supported Steve's endeavors. Their belief in the exclusivity of their son was the seed that later bore fruit in adulthood. According to Jobs, this had a greater influence on the formation of his character:
Parents should not forget that it is their attitude towards their child that forms his self-esteem and determines his future place in the world.
Steve grew up as a resourceful and independent child, but he started having problems at school. The wayward boy did not recognize authorities and did not want to learn. He was expelled from school for poor discipline, but at his new school Steve was lucky to meet a real teacher.
She taught mathematics and managed to find an approach to the contradictory child. Thanks to this, in the 4th grade, Steve passed the exam in the subject with the result of a tenth grader. He “jumped” a year of study, but, unable to find a common language with high school students, he applied to another school.
Quite often, when looking at the biographies of successful people, we are faced with the fact that during their school years they were “black sheep.”
Parents should always be on the side of the child in such a situation, because the “dissimilarity” of your child from other children may indicate his unique abilities.
Jobs later met his namesake, Steve Wozniak, who later became the co-founder of Apple. Their first joint operation defined the principles of the partnership: Wozniak came up with a brilliant invention, and Jobs decided how best to adapt it to the needs of the consumer and benefit from it.
In 1972, Steve entered the expensive Reed College in Portland, but dropped out in his first year. Pay attention to this fact. Steve Jobs did not have the higher education that every person today strives for. That is, what you achieve in life is influenced by completely different things.
In 1976, he founded the company with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. There are a couple of versions of the origin of the “apple” name. One of them says that Steve wanted to see the company on the first pages of the telephone directory, hence the name with an “a”. The second story claims that during a brainstorming session the name of the company did not come together, and the expressive Steve exclaimed:
The version looks plausible, since Steve’s colleagues always noted his categoricalness: “... everything with him was either “amazing” or “poor.”
In the late 70s, Apple introduced the Apple II series of personal computers. They sold over 5 million worldwide and paved the way for the PC manufacturing industry once and for all.
At the age of 29, Steve becomes the youngest American to be included in the ranking of rich people according to Forbes magazine.
In general, if you trace the chain of growth of the Apple founder’s capital, then according to him, at the age of 23, his net worth was a million dollars, at 24, it exceeded ten million dollars, and at 25, he had more than a hundred million.
One day, or rather a night, in the life of Steve Jobs was remarkable, when in one night his fortune increased to 217.5 million dollars. This happened in December 1980, when Apple's initial public offering (IPO) took place on the stock exchange.
What allowed him to reach such heights?
Speaking of Steve Jobs, we definitely recognize him as a talented businessman and innovator. He was convinced that it was “Innovation distinguishes the leader from the catcher.”
Jobs always had an intuitive sense of what the consumer wanted:
I think we should take on board his recommendation to Stanford graduates: “Stay hungry. Stay reckless." Jobs argued that " It's great to have a newbie's opinion." and emphasized the important role of an unconventional view of things.
In 1985, US President Ronald Reagan awarded Jobs and Wozniak medals for the development of technological progress. Jobs’s innovation was also noted by his competitor, who commented on his colleague’s work at the D5 conference in 2007:
"..what Steve did, simply phenomenal... Steve's team did a great job and was even a little ahead of its time..."
Thus, another secret of Steve Jobs' success was his ability to assemble a team. He was a charismatic business leader whose drive and energy commanded everything and everyone. Steve knew how to identify talent and surrounded himself with professionals:
He was not an ideal leader and could offend people. But at the same time, Jobs, like no one else, knew how to inspire productive work. Here, for example, is how Jobs formulated a technical problem:
And the Apple specialist agreed that in this case he would have found a solution. And Jobs shared with him a simple calculation:
“If 5 million people use a Mac every day and it takes an extra 10 seconds to turn it on, then reducing that time would save people up to 300 million hours every year, which equates to 100 lives saved.”
In 1985, Jobs left Apple due to management conflicts. In the same year he founded the company NeXT. In 1986, Jobs co-founded the animation studio Pixar, which under his leadership released such cartoons as “Toy Story” and “Monsters, Inc.” In 2006, Jobs became a member of the board of directors of Disney, which bought the Pixar studio.
In general, if you have watched the amazing cartoons that were created by the Pixar studio, you should imagine what kind of person Steve Jobs was.
Of course, he did not take part in the creation of the cartoons themselves. He was always a first-class manager, an executive who could attract the best people for his business. And more often than not, he seduced them not with high wages, but with an idea.
He always wanted to make the world a better place. All his thoughts were aimed precisely at this. And this quality needs to be adopted and cultivated in yourself. Only with this attitude can you become great and change the world like Jobs did.
In 1991, Steve Jobs married Laurene Powell, the couple had three children - a son and two daughters.
Meanwhile, by the end of the 1990s, Apple was already suffering millions in losses. Jobs returned to the company in 1996, and thanks to his innovations, the company opened up new market segments.
Think differently, think differently
Steve Jobs is a legendary figure in global business. The man, thanks to whose perseverance the world learned what real personal computers are for the common user. In addition to computers, Jobs created the industry of computer animated cartoons, gave the world the legendary iPod, and finally, under his leadership, Apple introduced the iPhone communicator, which is changing the foundations of the mobile industry before our eyes. Our story today is about him. About his journey, about how this extraordinary personality was able to achieve truly phenomenal heights in business, despite all the blows of fate, which more than once forced Jobs to get up from his knees.
Birth of a rebel
Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1954 in San Francisco, California. Steve's parents, American Joan Carol Schible and Syrian Abdulfattah John Jandali abandoned the child a week after his birth. The baby was adopted by a couple from the town of Mountain View, located in Santa Clara County, California. The adoptive parents of the future founder of Apple, Paul and Clara Jobs, gave the child his first and last name.
One of the main conditions of this adoption was that the adoptive parents had to ensure that Steve received a higher education. (although neither Paul nor Clara had it, it should be noted that Steve himself ultimately did not graduate from college)
Steve was expelled from school after third grade. The transfer to another school became a significant moment in Jobs’ life, thanks to a wonderful teacher who found an approach to him. As a result, he pulled himself together and began to study! The approach, of course, was simple: for each completed task, Steve received money from the teacher. Not much, but quite enough for a fourth grade student. Overall, Jobs' success was great enough that he even skipped fifth grade and went straight to high school.
Jobs graduated from high school in Cupertino in 1972 and tried to get a higher education at Portland College, Oregon. However, Jobs was expelled after the first semester. In 1974, Jobs returned to Cupertino, where he showed increased interest in computer technology and new developments. He became an active member of the local computer club Homebrew Computer, at one of whose meetings he subsequently became friends with his future Apple partner, Steve Wozniak.
One day, Steve Jobs decided to assemble his electronic frequency counter, but during assembly he realized that he was missing a number of parts. Without thinking twice, Steve called Hewlett-Packard co-founder Bill Hewlett and told him about his problems. Jobs got the parts he needed. Moreover, in the summer he was invited to work for a couple of months at HP. Steve worked with undisguised enthusiasm and all the time tried to prove to his bosses that technology was everything to him. At one of these moments, Steve talked about his love for electronics and asked a project manager named Chris (who directly supervised Jobs) what he loved most in the world. Chris was short: “Fuck.” Soon Jobs' life began to take on new colors. However, it should be noted that before Steve became a millionaire, he wasn’t very good with women. He didn’t know at all what to talk to them about, considering all conversations with women empty.
Soon after his first sexual experience, Jobs became addicted to recreational drugs such as marijuana and LSD. (It’s interesting that even now, having abandoned this addiction, Steve does not at all regret that he used LSD. Moreover, he considers it one of the most significant events in his life, which turned his worldview upside down.)
When Steve Jobs was 16 years old, he and Woz met a then-famous hacker named Captain Crunch. He told them how, using special sounds made by a whistle from a set of Captain Crunch cereals, they could fool the switching device and make calls around the world for free. Soon Wozniak made the first device, called the “Blue Box,” which allowed ordinary people to imitate the sounds of Crunch’s whistle and make free calls around the world. Jobs started selling the product. The blue boxes sold for $150 each and were very popular among students. Interestingly, the cost of such a device was then $40. However, it was not possible to achieve much success. First, problems with the police, and then with some hooligan who even threatened Jobs with a gun, brought the “blue box business” to naught.
After his first unsuccessful experience in entrepreneurship, Steve Jobs retreated into his personal life. At that time, he met his first true love, who was a girl named Chris-Ann. Steve spent a lot of time with her. Including one of the most famous moments in his life, when he took LSD with her in a wheat field. Jobs claims that this moment was very important in his life and helped to “expand” his consciousness. Later, Chris-Ann will give birth to a child from Steve, whom he will not recognize for a long time, and will not even pay child support, although he will be a millionaire at that time. All this will be confirmation of his rather great emotional experiences at that time. But that will come later, but for now Steve decides to go to Reed College.
Reed College is one of the most expensive liberal arts colleges on the West Coast, but that is where Steve went, despite the lack of money. (his parents did find funds for his studies) True, young Jobs studied there for only about six months. However, even after this, he was present at the college, lived in the dormitory (sometimes he occupied the rooms of students who, for a number of reasons, were currently absent from the college, and sometimes slept on the floor in the rooms of friends). Steve actively attended various courses at Reed, including taking a course on calligraphy (this would later affect the personal computer industry, they would have really beautiful fonts)
In 1974, Steve Jobs took a job at Atari. It was there that Jobs managed to persuade management to pay for his trip to India. Jobs was already very interested in Eastern philosophy at that time, and therefore really wanted to see the guru. Atari paid for Jobs' trip, although he also had to visit Germany, where his tasks included resolving production problems. He did it.
Jobs went to India not alone, but with his friend Dan Kottke. Dan Kottke was a pretty good pianist at that time, but that didn't mean he had the money to travel to India. However, Steve Jobs promised to pay all of Kottke’s expenses. Fortunately, this did not have to be done, since the latter’s parents, having learned that he was going to India, paid for a round-trip ticket and also gave him money for expenses in a foreign country.
Only after arriving in India, Steve exchanged all his belongings for the shabby clothes of a beggar. His goal was to make pilgrimages throughout India, hoping for the help of ordinary strangers. During the trip itself, Dan and Steve almost died several times due to the harsh climate of India. Communication with the guru did not bring Jobs enlightenment. However, the trip to India left an indelible mark on Jobs' soul. He saw real poverty, completely different from the one that hippies in Silicon Valley adhered to. (“pictorial”)
Returning back to Silicon Valley, Jobs continued working at Atari. Soon he was entrusted with the development of the game BreakOut (Atari at that time was making not only a game, but a full-fledged slot machine, and all the work fell on Jobs’ shoulders.). For this job, Steve was supposed to use no more than 50 parts. This was the main condition. Of course, Jobs himself would never have been able to put together BreakOut. However, he brought Wozniak on board, and everything was ready within 48 hours. Jobs' job was to run for cola and sweets. For this work, young Jobs received $1,000, but he told Wozniak that he was paid 600. As a result, in the pocket of Woz, who did all the work, there were 300 dollars, and in Jobs’ pocket 700. Later, Woz learns about this act of Jobs from third parties faces, and according to eyewitnesses, tears will even appear in his eyes.
In any case, in 1975 the Altair personal computer was introduced. Already at this time, both Steves understood what they wanted to do.
Creation of Apple Computer
At the time of the creation of Apple Computer, Inc. in 1976, Steve Jobs worked for Atari, a computer games company. At Jobs's initiative, Wozniak created the personal computer. The model turned out to be so successful that Jobs and Wozniak decided to begin serial production of computers. The beginning of the collaboration between Jobs and Wozniak is considered to be April 1, 1976 - the official founding date of Apple.
For 10 years, under the leadership of Jobs, Apple managed to maintain a leading position in the computer market. The success of Apple's first computer model, called the Apple I (about 200 of these machines were sold, which is a very good indicator for a start-up company), was consolidated in 1977 with the release of the Apple II, which was considered the most popular personal computer for 5 years.
However, by 1985, amid the release of a number of unsuccessful computer models (the commercial failure of the Apple III), the loss of a significant market share and ongoing conflicts in management, Wozniak left Apple, and some time later Steve Jobs also left the company. Also in 1985, Jobs founded NeXT, a company specializing in hardware and workstations.
A year later, Steve Jobs co-founded the animation studio Pixar. Under Jobs' leadership, Pixar released films such as Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. In 2006, Jobs sold Pixar to Walt Disney Studios for $7.4 million in company stock. Jobs remained on the board of directors of Pixar and at the same time became the largest individual shareholder of Disney, receiving 7 percent of the studio's shares.
Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, when the company founded by Jobs decided to acquire NeXT. Jobs joined the company's board of directors and became the interim manager of Apple, which was experiencing a serious crisis at that moment. In 1998, on Jobs' initiative, work on Apple's frankly unsuccessful projects, including the PDA Newton, was suspended.
In 2000, the word interim disappeared from Jobs’ job title, and the Apple founder himself was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the executive director with the most modest salary in the world (according to official documents, Jobs’ salary at that time was $1 per year).
In 2001, Steve Jobs introduced the first iPod. Within a few years, selling iPods became the company's main source of income. Under Jobs' leadership, Apple had significantly strengthened its position in the personal computer market by 2006, helped by the transition of Macintosh machines to high-performance processors made by Intel.
I think we're having fun. I think our customers really like our products. And we always try to make them even better. Steve Jobs
His successes and reputation help define an era and change the world. It changes the understanding of computers, offers us perfect hardware and software that changes us.
This man with boundless energy and charisma is also an expert at throwing dust, exaggeration and attention-grabbing phrases. And even when he tries to talk normally, brilliant expressions pour out of him.
Here is a selection of some of his most interesting sayings that will help you achieve success in life:
1. Steve Jobs says: “ Innovation distinguishes the leader from the catcher.»
There are no limits to new ideas. It all depends only on your imagination. The world is constantly changing. It's time to start thinking differently. If you're in a growing industry, think about ways to get more results, nicer clients, and easier customer service. If you are associated with a dying industry, quickly quit and change it before you lose your job. And remember that delay is inappropriate here. Start innovating now!
2. " Be the standard of quality. Some people were not in an environment where innovation was a major asset.»
This is not a fast track to excellence. You should definitely make excellence your priority. Use your talents, capabilities and skills to make your product the best and then you will leapfrog your competitors, add something special, something they don’t have. Live by higher standards, pay attention to details that can improve the situation. Having an advantage is not difficult - just decide right now to propose your innovative idea - in the future you will be amazed at how this merit will help you in life.
3. “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. »
Do what you love. Look for activities that give you a sense of meaning, purpose, and satisfaction in life. Having a goal and striving for its implementation brings orderliness to life. This not only improves your situation, but also gives you a boost of vigor and optimism. Are you happy to get out of bed in the morning and look forward to the start of a new work week? If you answered no, then look for a new activity.
4. “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. »
Try to make changes in your world first and maybe you will be able to change the world.
5. " This phrase is from Buddhism: A beginner's opinion. Great to have a newbie's opinion»
This is the kind of opinion that allows one to see things as they are, which can constantly and in an instant realize the original essence of everything. A beginner's perspective - Zen practice in action. It is an opinion that is innocent of preconception and expected outcome, evaluation and prejudice. Think of the beginner's perspective as that of a small child who views life with curiosity, wonder, and amazement.
6. “We think that we mostly watch TV to give our brains a rest and we work at the computer when we want to turn on our brains. »
Many scientific studies over the decades have clearly confirmed that television has a detrimental effect on the psyche and morals. And most people who watch TV know that their bad habit is dulling them and killing them a lot of time, but they still continue to spend a huge portion of their time watching the box. Do what makes your brain think, what develops it. Avoid passive pastime.
7. “I’m the only person who knows what it’s like to lose a quarter of a billion dollars in a year. It shapes the personality very well. »
Do not conflate the phrases “making mistakes” with “being a mistake.” There is no such thing as a successful person who has never stumbled or made a mistake - there are only successful people who made mistakes, but then changed their lives and their plans based on those same mistakes made earlier (without making them again) . They consider mistakes as lessons from which they gain valuable experience. Avoiding mistakes means doing nothing.
8. " I would trade all my technology for a meeting with Socrates.»
Over the past decade, many books featuring lessons from historical figures have appeared on bookstore shelves around the world. And Socrates, along with Leonardo Da Vinci, Nicolaus Copernicus, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein, is a source of inspiration for independent thinkers. But Socrates was the first. Cicero said of Socrates that “he brought philosophy down from heaven, giving it to ordinary people.” So, use the principles of Socrates in your own life, work, study and relationships - this will bring more truth, beauty and perfection into your everyday life.
9. " We are here to make a contribution to this world. Otherwise why are we here?»
Do you know that you have good things to bring to life? And did you know that those good things were abandoned while you were pouring yourself another cup of coffee and you made the decision to just think about it instead of making it a reality? We are all born with a gift to give life to. This gift, or this thing, is your calling, your goal. And you don't need a decree to achieve this goal. Neither your boss, nor your teacher, nor your parents, no one can decide this for you. Just find that one goal.
10. “Your time is limited, don't waste it living another life. Don't get caught up in a creed that exists on other people's thinking. Don't let the views of others drown out your own inner voice. And it is very important to have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you really want to do. Everything else is secondary. »
Are you tired of living someone else's dream? Undoubtedly, this is your life and you have every right to spend it the way you want without any obstacles or barriers from others. Give yourself the opportunity to develop your creative talents in an atmosphere free from fear and pressure. Live a life that you choose and where you are the master of your own destiny.
Steve Jobs has long been elevated to the rank of god. But he had many quite earthly shortcomings: lack of restraint, pettiness, greed and irresponsibility. Today, the documentary film “Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine” was released in the United States, which examines his personality from a critical point of view. The Atlantic magazine wrote an article about the importance of rethinking the figure of Jobs, and The Secret selected the most interesting episodes from it.
Like any technical device, the iPhone has a motherboard, modem, microphone, microchips, battery, and gold and silver conductors. The indium tin oxide coating on the screen conducts electricity and thus brings the iPhone back to life with one touch. Of course, the iPhone is much more than a simple smartphone. Thought, memory, empathy - these things are usually called the soul. The metal, coils, parts and chips of the iPhone are designed so that a person can simultaneously have grocery lists, photos, games, jokes, news, music, secrets, voices of loved ones and messages from close friends at his fingertips.
It doesn’t matter how many years have passed since 2007, and the outgoing and coming generations of iPhones mean nothing. There is some kind of anthropological alchemy in this device, something magical and mystical at the same time. They say about Apple technology that these are the first devices that began to evoke affection and love among consumers. Apparently, this is why the man who gave life to the iPhone is already included in the pantheon of inventors who changed the world beyond recognition. Gutenberg, Einstein, Edison - and Steve Jobs.
However, what did Jobs actually do and what were his methods? These questions are the subject of Alex Gibney's new documentary, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, about the man who insisted that technology has a self of its own. The film does not question Jobs' merits or his place in history. The director argues that Jobs and we deserve more than a banal and convenient biography. Gibney's work reconsiders Jobs' legacy, debunks myths and complicates already known facts with circumstances. The film opens with a scene at a makeshift monument erected in Jobs' honor after his death in 2011. “It’s not often that the entire planet mourns a loss,” Gibney notes. And in one of the many enthusiastic obituaries of Jobs on YouTube, a ten-year-old schoolboy says: “The head of Apple invented the iPhone, iPad, iPod. He created everything for us."
It's fair to say that the child is right in some ways - the iPhone and many other Apple products exist only thanks to Jobs. “He is still not an inventor, but a visionary who was able to sell his vision to the world,” Gibney insists.
Jobs' vision was shaped by Buddhism, Bauhaus design, calligraphy, poetry, humanism - a strong-willed fusion of art and technology. All this was transferred to his products. Jobs hired people who, under other circumstances, might have become artists and poets - but in the digital age, they chose to express themselves through computers. He emphasized artistry and spirituality.
We are used to Steve Jobs being characterized this way. What everyone usually ignores is that he was still a real asshole, says Gibney. Not just a harmless jerk, but a tyrant who prefers threats. Jobs parked his unregistered Mercedes in handicap spaces. He abandoned the mother of his unborn child and admitted paternity only in court. He abandoned colleagues who were no longer useful to him. And he brought the useful ones to tears. And on top of all this is demonstrative contempt for charity, stock exchange fraud and the horrors of Foxconn (Foxconn is a Taiwanese company that produces components for Apple, Amazon, Sony and others. Human rights activists believe that employees work in inhumane conditions at the company’s factories, Child labor is used, after-hours hours are not paid, and industrial accidents occur almost every day. - Ed.).
These and other shortcomings of Steve Jobs, of which there were many, to say the least, are documented in blogs written before and after his death, in biographies and in the feature film Jobs: Empire of Seduction. Some biographers consider his shortcomings to be insignificant: they say, they are inherent in every genius. Others stubbornly try to reduce them to a minimum so as not to denigrate the image of their hero. There are those who do perhaps the worst of all - they assure us that Jobs's negative personal qualities not only do not make him less important, but also strengthen him on the pedestal. His uncompromising nature, his unapologetic bullying, his tendency to put the needs of computers above human ones - all this was necessary, according to supporters of this version. Jobs' goofy personality, as well as his black turtleneck and New Balance sneakers, made him who he was, and therefore gave the world Apple as it is. Jobs could afford to be an asshole because his successes made up for his shortcomings.
The documentary "Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine" does not attempt to exonerate Jobs. His shortcomings are not just mentioned, they are the focus. Alex Gibney in his film offers the viewer the opinions of all sides: both like-minded Jobs and his critics, including former bosses, former friends, ex-girlfriends and former employees. "He was not a good guy," says MIT professor Sherry Turkle. “He had only one speed - full speed ahead!” - says Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, under whose leadership Jobs once worked. “Steve was ruled by chaos: first he seduces you, then he ignores you, and then he denigrates you,” complains Jobs’ former subordinate, engineer Bob Belleville. "He didn't know what a real connection was, so he created a completely different form of connection," says his daughter's mother, Chrisann Brennan.
Every conclusion in the film, every person, reminds us of the sacrifice Jobs forced those around him to make. “What kind of asshole do you have to be to become successful?” - the director asks a question.
But the most incriminating statements in the film come from Jobs himself. Gibney comes across a video of him testifying to the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) in 2008 in connection with the “options scandal.” In it, Jobs is openly irritated, fidgeting nervously in his chair, cursing and casting angry glances. When asked why he decided to ask for a bonus in the form of options, Jobs replies: “It wasn’t really about the money. Everyone just wants to be recognized by their colleagues. But it seemed to me that I wasn’t getting anything like that from the board of directors.” The viewer sees the head of one of the most influential companies in the world pouting with resentment. And this allows you to look at all of Jobs’s actions - betrayal, mockery, an absolutely self-centered view of the world - from a human point of view. Jobs may have been a great man, but he was also a little child: self-centered and desperate to please.
But does all this really matter? Wasn't Einstein the same child inside? And if Edison's actions were questioned and challenged, wouldn't the great inventor begin to sulk? We will never know the answers to these questions, because there were no social networks or blogs in their lives. They lived in blissful times that allowed them to be remembered by the world for what they did rather than for who they really were. Steve Jobs was not so lucky. He lived in our time - when the attitude towards our heroes consists not only of their achievements, but also of their personality. We live in an age of complex idolatry. And the irony is that this century is largely thanks to Steve Jobs.
Cover photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
What is Steve Jobs famous for? What is his biography? What is the story of the biopic "Steve Jobs" and the book of the same name?
Hello, dear readers of the HeatherBeaver online magazine! Edward and Dmitry are with you.
Our article is dedicated to a man whose name has already become a legend. This is Steve Jobs, an American entrepreneur, pioneer of IT technologies, founder of the largest corporation on the planet, Apple.
So, let's begin!
1. Who is Steve Jobs - biography, official Wikipedia data, success story
Steven Paul Jobs is a gifted businessman, inventor, workaholic and a man who set the direction for the development of modern digital technologies for many years to come.
He looked at the world in his own way and was always guided by indestructible ideals, which helped him achieve fantastic success.
As a talented engineer and pioneer of the era of IT technologies, he made several revolutions in different areas of our lives. Thanks to Steve Jobs, the world has become more perfect, more harmonious and more convenient.
His achievements are varied and numerous:
- he founded Apple, which later became a mega-corporation and the most valuable company in the world;
- created personal computers as we use them today;
- improved the graphical interface and management of computer devices;
- was directly involved in the creation of iPads, iPods (new generation digital music players) and iPhones;
- founded the next-generation animated film studio Pixar, which currently produces cartoons for Disney.
We will definitely talk about all these projects in the relevant sections of this article, but let’s start in order - with the biography of this amazing person.
Biography of Steve Jobs
The year of birth of our hero is 1955. Place is San Francisco, California. Jobs' biological parents (Syrian and German by birth) abandoned their son a week after his birth. The child was adopted by a couple from Mountain View, who gave him their last name.
Steve's adoptive father was an auto mechanic by profession: he repaired old cars and tried to instill in his son a love of mechanics. Steve was not inspired by working in the garage, but it was through car repair that he became acquainted with the basics of electronics.
Stephen also didn’t particularly like school, which affected his behavior. Only one teacher named Hill noticed extraordinary abilities in the boy; the rest of the teaching staff considered him a mischief maker and a slacker.
Miss Hill managed to stimulate Steve's thirst for knowledge with bribes in the form of sweets and money. Soon, Jobs was so attracted to the learning process that he began to strive for education on his own, without additional encouragement.
Result: brilliantly passed exams, which allowed the boy to move from 4th grade directly to seventh.
Steve Jobs saw the first personal computer (a programmable calculator, primitive in modern times) at the Hewlett-Packard research club, where his neighbor, an engineer, invited him.
The thirteen-year-old teenager became a member of a circle of inventors: his first project was a digital frequency counter, which interested the founder of HP himself, Bill Hewlett.
The hobbies of that time were not alien to the young inventor - he talked with hippies, listened to Bob Dylan and the Beatles, and even used LSD, which caused conflicts with his father.
Soon he had an older comrade, Steve Wozniak, who became a friend for life and largely determined the fate of the young genius.
The pair's first joint project was a device called the Blue Box, which allowed them to crack phone codes and make free phone calls around the world.
Jobs proposed organizing the mass production and sale of these devices, and Wozniak improved and simplified the scheme of the invention.
This story laid the foundations for many years of collaboration between two geniuses: Wozniak invents some revolutionary thing, and Jobs determines its market potential and implements it.
Further stages of the long journey: college, work at Atari, a company developing computer games, a trip to India in search of enlightenment (a fashionable youth hobby of those years).
And finally, the revolutionary event that occurred in 1976 was the creation of a personal computer by Steve Wozniak, at the initiative of Jobs.
The model turned out to be so successful that friends decided to start mass production. This is how the Apple company was born, which managed to maintain a leading position in the computer technology market for 10 years.
In 1985, the “founding fathers” left the parent corporation and took up other projects. The hero of our article created the hardware company NeXT, and later became one of the founders of the Pixar animation studio (another revolutionary project).
In 1996, Jobs returned to Apple, sold the Pixar studio to Disney, but remained on the board of directors. In 2001, Jobs introduced the first model of the iPod to the public - the device was a fantastic success in the market and multiplied the corporation's revenues.
In 2004, Jobs made a public statement about health problems - he was diagnosed with a pancreatic tumor. For 7 years, he managed to fight the disease with varying success, but in October 2011, the life of the brilliant entrepreneur and IT revolutionary was cut short.
2. The main projects of Steve Jobs - TOP 5 most famous inventions
The author of many of the developments attributed to Jobs was Stephen Wozniak. However, it is believed that it was Jobs who inspired the brilliant engineer and the person who brought his crude and unfinished inventions to fruition.
It was precisely this scheme that the partners worked on, creating a new market for personal computers in 1976. Wozniak translated technical ideas into reality, Jobs adapted them to sales, working as a marketer and head of the company.
Project 1. Apple
The debut model of a new generation personal computer was called Apple I: within a year, 200 devices were sold at a price of $666.66. For ’76, the number is quite decent, but sales of Apple-II exceeded this result tens of times.
The emergence of serious investors made the new company the sole leader in the computer market. This situation lasted until the mid-80s: both Stephens (Wozniak and Jobs) by this time became millionaires.
Fun fact: software for Apple computers was developed by another company that later became the leader of the digital universe - Microsoft. The brainchild of Bill Gates was created six months later than Apple.
Project 2. Macintosh
Macintosh is a line of personal computers developed by Apple. Their release was made possible thanks to a contract between Apple and Xerox.
Almost the entire modern interface familiar to us (windows, virtual buttons controlled by pressing keys on the mouse) arose precisely thanks to this commercial agreement.
It can be said that the Macintosh (Mac) was the first personal computing device in the modern sense. The first device of this line was released in 1984.
The computer mouse has become the main working tool. Before this, all machine processes were controlled using commands typed on the keyboard.
Working on a computer required knowledge of programming languages and other special skills: now the device could be controlled by anyone, regardless of education.
Steve Jobs created each of his devices as convenient as possible for people, and the Mac was no exception.
At that time, there were not even the closest analogues of Macintosh computers on the planet that were comparable to them in terms of technological capabilities. Almost immediately after the release of the first machine in the series, Apple production was discontinued.
Project 3. NeXT Computer
Jobs began creating the latest generation of computers after leaving Apple in the mid-80s. The first batch of new devices went on sale in 1989.
The cost of computers was quite high ($6,500), so the machines were supplied only to leading US universities in limited editions.
Soon demand for Next computers became widespread, and modified versions went on sale at retail.
Interesting fact
The OS, which was called NeXTSTEP, included: an Oxford dictionary, a thesaurus, and a set of Shakespeare's works. These digital additions were the forerunners of modern e-readers.
In 1990, the second generation of computers was released, supplemented by a multimedia communications system. The innovation opened up limitless possibilities for communication between device owners and made it possible to exchange graphic, text and audio information.
Project 4. iPod iPad and iPhone
In the late 90s, Apple, where Jobs returned, experienced some stagnation. The impetus for development came from an unexpected direction: the company's new application product, the iPod player for playing digital music, began to enjoy enormous popularity.
The advantages of the new device were truly impressive:
- aesthetic and stylish design;
- convenient control and interface;
- synchronization with iTunes - a media player for playing music and movies online.
The first players came out in 2001 and immediately became a bestseller. Commercial success significantly improved the financial position of the company, which made it possible to engage in further developments.
In 2007, Jobs presented another new product to the public - a smartphone running on iOS. The new device was called the iPhone and was a modified communications device - a combination of a telephone, a media player and a personal computer.
Time magazine declared the iPhone the invention of the year. Over the next 5 years, more than 250 million original iPhone copies were sold worldwide, bringing the corporation a profit of $150 billion.
In 2010, Apple released the iPad, a digital tablet that was designed to replace laptops and personal computers.
The new device was primarily intended for convenient use of the Internet, and due to its larger size than a telephone or iPhone, the iPad became very popular especially among connoisseurs of other Apple products and its founding father, Steve Jobs.
This invention also became successful and the new fashion for Internet tablets was picked up by other companies producing digital devices.
Project 5.
One of Apple's divisions was developing software for working with graphics and producing short animated films. Jobs intended to use the power of a workstation called Pixar Image to create programs that would allow anyone to create realistic three-dimensional images.
However, the consumer was not interested in 3D modeling, and the department's capabilities were directed in a different direction. The studio began creating cartoons. One of them (“Tin Toy”) was unexpectedly nominated for an Oscar. A new type of computer animation interested the Disney studio.
The famous film company entered into an agreement with Pixar on cooperation and production of the film Toy Story: the conditions were unfavorable for the animators, but the studio was on the verge of bankruptcy at that time. The film brought recognition, fame and multimillion-dollar profits to the studio.
Over the 15 years of its existence, Pixar has released a dozen film hits, Oscar nominees and winners, which have become classics of feature-length animation - “Finding Nemo,” “The Adventures of Flick,” “Monsters, Inc.,” “Cars,” “WALL-E.”
3. The film “Steve Jobs” and the book “Steve Jobs Rules” – where to download, read, watch
The film “Steve Jobs” was shot about the life of our hero by director Danny Boyle, which was nominated for an Oscar in 2 categories.
When we watched it, we were delighted with both the actors' performances and the director's work itself.
Watch the movie Steve Jobs Empire of Temptation online in good (HD) quality:
Many books have been written about Steve Jobs, one of the most famous is “
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 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 differences in the level of their 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, Jobs’s childhood and school life 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, originally inherent in him.
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 a common language with the 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 would become one of the strengths of the Apple Macintosh graphical interface.
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.
Learn business
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.