Successful people Part 2 - Steve Jobs (Apple Computer)
“Innovation is the distinction between a leader and a follower.” - Steve Jobs
Biography
The Steve Jobs bio, and the story of the life of a man whose career would rebound more times than many critics thought possible, began in San Francisco, California on February 24, 1955. Born to an unwed American mother and a Syrian father, Jobs was put up for adoption by his parents the week after his arrival in this world. Taken in by Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, California, Jobs dislikes the term “adoptive parents” and considers Paul and Clara the only parents he ever had.
During high school, Jobs was a regular attendee at evening lectures at Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto, California, and even managed to get himself hired as a summer employee for the company. It was there that he would meet his future Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. After graduating from high school, Jobs enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but dropped out after just one semester. He did, however, continue to audit classes for non-credit. In 1974, Jobs returned to California, where he founded the Homebrew Computer Club with former HP colleague Wozniak. From there, he took a job with Atari, a computer game manufacturer, where he worked as a technician.
However, the Steve Jobs bio wasn’t quite ready to settle into the working world just yet. With Daniel Kottke, a friend from Reed College, and also later the first Apple employee, Jobs decided to hit the road and backpack around India. When he returned, he was barely recognizable to his friends. His head was shaved and he was wearing traditional Indian clothing. However, the Jobs inside was the same as the man who had left. He returned to his job at Atari, where he again impressed his bosses by drastically reducing the number of chips in their machines.
Jobs was 21 years old when his life began to take a significant turn. It was then that he saw a computer that Wozniak had designed for his own personal use. Jobs was so impressed with the product that he convinced Wozniak to market the computer, with his help of course. On April 1, 1976, Apple Computer Co. was founded, with Jobs and Wozniak as partners. Initially, their goal was to sell just printed circuit boards, but they wound up creating wholly assembled personal computers. The first personal computer the pair introduced was Apple I, which sold for US$666.66. Apple II was introduced the next year, and both were huge industry successes. The 1984 Apple Macintosh was equally as revolutionary.
In 1986, Jobs was fired from the company he had helped found. He began to work on another computer company, NeXT Computer, but never achieved the same success with it as he had with Apple. In the meantime, Apple was suffering. It wasn’t until Jobs was brought back to the company in 1996 that he began to turn things around. While returning Apple to a profitable state, Jobs earned the Guinness World Records listing for the “Lowest Paid Chief Executive Officer,” with his annual salary of US$1.
Today, as Apple continues to reign as one of the most innovative and dominant computer companies in the industry, the Steve Jobs bio stands out for its determination and commitment in seeing goals through.
