Steve Jobs - The Great Entreprneur
Steve Jobs - undoubtedly is one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time. A name that defines innovation, excellence and passion. He gave us products that
have made our lifestyle easy by many folds and we will truly remain thankful to him for generations to come. The following article covers his life in short.
Early Life and childhood
Steve Jobs a name most of us are familiar with. Many of us love the products he gave us. He was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco to an unmarried mother Joanne Simpson. She was a graduate and the Steve’s father was a Syrian professor. As the mother was unmarried she gave her child for adoption. Being a graduate herself she wanted her child to have parents who were well educated and assure that her child is sent to college when he grows up. Though her wishes were not fulfilled and she had to give her child to Paul and Clara Jobs who had come forward for adopting her child. She agreed for the adoption by the couple on one condition that her child will be sent to school and college once he grows up.
The couple named their adopted child Steve Paul and three years later in 1958 they adopted another child a baby girl who they named Patti. A complete family by then, moved to the Silicon Valley when Steve was a kid. Steve is said to be an unstable kind of a child in his early schooling days with not much interest in studies until the 4th grade. A teacher by the name of Teddy Hill is said to have diverted his interests and Steve jumped to Middle school directly without attending the 5th grade. The middle school he had just joined didn't impress him much as the students there would bully their fellow mates. Thus Steve told his parents that he won’t go to the school anymore. Thus his parents had to move to Los Altos and transferred Steve to Cupertino Junior High.
The Growing Years
In his growing years Steve became interested in electronics and in Homeland High School he enrolled himself in an electronics class. His personal life had too many ups and downs. He had found his biological parents, the Simpsons after years of search in the 1980s. His parents had married after a few years of giving him in adoption and had a daughter named Mona. By the time Steve met her in 1985 she had become a well recognized writer. During his growing years his father introduced him to Heathkits. These were kits that came with manuals on how to assemble them and Steve found them amazing. He developed a interest that gave helped him new heights. Steve was often quoted saying that his childhood had been fortunate as he had learned a lot by using Heathkits that were in kit form. Steve gained a lot of confidence as he knew how things were electronics were made and put together.
During the year 1990 Steve wanted to marry his girlfriend Tina Redse. But when he proposed to her she turned down his proposal. Later during that time he started dating Lauren Powell who was a student at Stanford University pursuing MBA. Lisa was the first child of Steve Jobs born in 1978 with his partner Chris Ann Brennan. He accepted her as his daughter only after a few years and took good care of her education. Lisa being the first child of Steve Lauren gave birth to Steve’s second child, a boy who they named Reed Paul. Later the couple was blessed with two daughters Erin and Eve in 1995 and 1998 respectively.
During his days at Homeland High School Steve had joined an electronics class. It was during this time that he had a new friend in his life who too had interest in electronics, named Bill Fernandez. Later Bill introduced Steve who was a 14 year kid at that time to Stephan Woznaik aged 19years then known by the name of Woz. Woz had a keen interest in computers. It was in Homeland that Steve met his first long time girlfriend Chris Ann Brennan.
Steve and Woz designed their first phone around 1972. They tried and were able to make one and that was the time they together showed their entrepreneurial skills. It was Steve who gave the idea of selling the product they had made. They used to go to students’ rooms and sell their product. Though it was an illegal venture and they soon had to stop it.
College
After finishing High School Steve wanted to join Reed College in Oregon. It was a private college and so the fee was high, high enough for his parents to afford. But still they gave up their hard earned savings for his college fees. They had promised his biological mother that they would provide him good education so they kept their promise and send him to Reed College. However Steve was unclear like most of the kids are at the time of college about what he wanted to do and how could the classes at college help him in attaining his goals in life. So he soon dropped out of college after only going for a few months. He thought he was wasting his parents money on something he didn't wanted to do, for the classes he didn't wanted to attend. In Reeds he came across books that encouraged him to try weird experiments with his diet. He became a fruitarian that is had only fruits as food. He had read that eating only fruits will help his body get rid of the mucus and thus there will be no need of bathing. He would often fast for a number of days on a go.
In 1974 Steve joined Atari, the first video game company founded by Nolan Bushnell. Steve was young and enthusiastic and was highly motivated by Nolan Bushnell. These inspirations he derived from Nolan Bushnell along with his entrepreneurial skills gave way to the birth of Apple.
His visit to India
While working at Atari Steve and his friend from the college (Reed) came to India for enlightenment. Though both of them went back disappointed as the guru they thought would lead them to enlighten them turned out to be a con man. They could never meet him and had caught up lice and dysentry while their stay here. He later said that India was far poorer than he had believed it to be. The guru they wanted to meet in India was famously known as Kairolie Baba. In reference to Kairolie Baba Steve said that his trip to India as a teenage boy along with his college friend was a life changer and was once quoted saying:
“It was one of the first times that I came to realize that maybe Thomas Edison did a lot more to improve the world than Karl Max and Neem Kairolie Baba put together. “
After returning Steve resumed his work at Aari and would often spend a lot of time in a hippie group home in Oregon with his Reed college friend Dan Kottke and his girlfriend Chris Ann. There they used to grow apples in the All- One Farm, Oregon.
The start of Steve’s company - The Birth of Apple
The landmark in the field of personal computing came when Ed Roberts launched the Altair, in Mexico. Altair was basically a computer kit that could be assembled by people on their own and used. In 1975 the founder of then recently founded company Microsoft whom we now know as Bill Gates wrote a Basic interpreter for Altair. The combination became famous among the curious engineers and people who had keen interests in computing. By that time Steve’s childhood friend and computer wiz Woz had started working at Hewlett Packard (HP) and he was a part of a group called the Homebrew group that comprised of people who shared a common interest in personal computing. They would meet and discuss various programs and machines and often work on them and then show it to the other group members at the meetings. Altair was based on a Microprocessor and with the belief in himself Woz started to make his own computer with a different Microprocessor base than the one used in Altair. He put in a lot of hard work as he had a job to manage along with his work at his personal computer. His hard work coupled with his knowledge of circuits paid well and he came up with a notably good computer that had a keyboard and a screen. When Woz showed his computer to Steve he was impressed by it and by the praises Woz’s computer was receiving from the hobbyists at the Homebrew group. Steve gave him a suggestion to sell his computer to the machine’s admirers. Thus both these childhood best friends would take the computer to the Homebrew meetings and assemble it there and the sell it to the hobbyists.
Eventually Steve gave the idea to Wiz that they should start their own company that they would own. They needed $1,000 for the initial start up for the company and thus Steve sold his Volkswagen van and Woz sold his HP65 calculator. Meanwhile Steve suggested “Apple” as the name for their company until they could find a better one to replace. And this is how Apple was born. The company’s first logo was designed by Ron Wayne who had worked with Steve at Atari. Ron also helped them with the paperwork that was necessary to set up a new company. Ron thus became 10% shareholder in the company while Steve and Woz both equally had 45% of the shares in it.
The first order Apple computers received was fromPaul Terrel. An order of 50 computers was a big opening for the beginners. With a price of $500 for a single piece they received $25,000 in total. Paul was a member of the Homebrew group and wanted to open a store to sell computers.
Soon they started going from store to store and try selling their product. They also tried selling their computer to the hobbyists at the Homebrew group though didn’t get the expected results. On april 1, 1976 Apple computers was integrated and Steve and Woz became the only shareholders of Apple as Ron Wayne stepped out taking $800.
After the Apple I came the subsequent Apple II that was in many ways better than the first one. It was faster than Apple I and had better graphics and sound. Steve was gradually learning about entrepreneurship and he soon realized he needed investors and thus talked to several venture capitalists. One of them agreed namely Mike Markkula. Mike wanted to invest in $250,000 for 1000 computer machines and also suggested that they need to advertise the computer and for the task he called his friend Regis McKenna. Regis was a well known advertiser and worked on the first advertisement for Apple computers. Also an art director namely Rob Janoff was indulged in to design a new logo for the company. And the famous bitten apple logo that we even see today was given by him. Steve just had one condition he made to the logo designer that the logo should not look cute and so Rob came up with the idea of the bitten apple with stripes of different colors as the logo for Steve’s and Woz’s company.
It was in 1977 in the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco that Apple Computers received an order of 300 Apple II Computers. The first biggest order they had received till that time. Steve had carefully planned their show at the faire and the returns were highly impressive. Apple II had a good design and color features thus it became a good success for Apple Computers. VisiCalc – Software that was launched by Apple became a huge success. It was basically a spreadsheet that made calculations super easy. It worked only on Apple II and thus all who had to work on calculations for their accounts and businesses or all kinds of purposes hugely preferred Apple II. Thus Apple II became a star product of the Apple Computers. Eventually Apple Computers made it big in the market within a short span of 4 years only.
Steve Jobs came on the list of the millionaires in 1979. He usually wore turtleneck suits with full sleeves, signature style he developed for himself. With an amazing number of AppleII computers being sold his company earned huge profits. With new members on the board Apple further worked on AppleIII headed by names other than Steve and Woz. Apple III fell flat in the market and was a complete failure. Steve soon started another project by the name of his daughter Lisa whom he initially had not accepted.
The new Board of Directors at Apple suggested Apple to go public and the preparations begun in 1980. The Lisa project too turned out to be low in terms of success. It was on December 12, 1980 that Apple went public. By then Steve became an icon for many around the globe. And Apple Computers became the second largest IPO after the Ford Motor Company, 1956. The relation between CEO of Apple Mike Scott and Steve were not in a very good taste. Mike Scott was removed from his post after a board meeting. The reason for his removal was the day that was called as the “Black Wednesday” when Scott had fired almost half of the Apple II team without even consulting a single Board member. Steve was made to head the Macintosh Project and was excluded of the Lisa Project that he was more interested in.
At the age of 28 Steve met John Sculley who was an executive at PepsiCo and he encouraged him to join his company as the new CEO after Mike Scott’s removal. Sculley became a friend and thus like Steve wanted gave more interest to Macintosh as the other projects had failed terrible and the sales of Apple II had dripped too due to the launch of the IBM PC. Steve’s attitude in the company had become quiet arrogant, he would often praise his Macintosh team while taunting the other teams. Initially Macintosh that was tagged by the company as Apple’s Remarkable New PC appeared to be a success but soon the illusion did not last long and the sales dipped after a short ephemeral hit.
Steve leaves Apple and starts a new venture - NeXT Inc.
After the failure of Macintosh Steve left Apple. Steve thought he would get the support of the board but things didn't turn out as expected. His friendship with Sculley had turned sour and on May 28, 1985 he was informed that he is not included in any of the managerial positions at Apple. In September the same year he resigned from Apple and started his new venture which he called NeXT Inc. Steve hired bright people for his new venture and also introduced many perks in his new company NeXT Inc. he next searched for an investor and Pixar was integrated though Pixar didn't help much and Steve had to look out again. Ross Perot who was a millionaire invested in Steve’s new company. NeXT was introduced on October 12, 1988.
Steve returns to Apple and the launch of some great products
In 1996 Steve returned to Apple when Apple decided to buy NeXT Inc for $427 million. The position of Apple was low in the market as the competitor Microsoft was standing strong. After Steve rejoined Apple Power Mac and Power Book were launched and Apple started regaining its lost stature. Then followed the iMac which was released on May 6, 1998 and went on to become a huge success for Apple. In July 1999 iBook was launched. Thus Steve Jobs restored Apple and took it to new heights and eventually became the CEO. Mac OS X was an operating system launched by Apple that helped Apple in its long run of success. Apple later introduced the digital hub that included the iMovie, then the iMac DVs, iDVDs, iTunes, iCal and iPhoto later. These iApps lead Apple to the top in the market of electronic goods.
The iPod a portable music player with good storage and a sleek design attributed to Apple’s success. In the year 2003 Jobs introduced the iTunes Store and that gave Apple the reasons to celebrate. There was no looking back for Apple after that and in January 2007 came the iPhone that was no doubt one of the major breakthroughs.
His last days
Steve was diagnosed with a tumor in his pancreas in October 2003. He was basically suffering from an ailment called the pancreas neuroendocrine tumor. He was stubborn and refused to undergo surgery for the treatment and thought he could cure his ailment by himself through his diet. Though after no improvements he gave up and agreed for the surgery in August 2004. Steve had lost a lot of weight and there were tensions about his health issues in Apple and outside. In April 2009 Steve had to undergo a liver transplant and resumed work at Apple as the CEO in June 2009. After these medical problems Steve once again came back with an exciting product yet again that was the iPad on January 27, 2010. Not needed to say how successful the iPad was. Steve earlier was not known for charity but in the later years he signed the Product Red Program under which Apple became one of the largest contributors to charity. Steve Jobs announced his resignation from the post of CEO of Apple on August 24, 2011. Time Cook became the new CEO till date. There have been a couple of documentaries on the life of Jobs with a number of books on the legend. Some of the books on him are - The Second Coming of Steve Jobs by A. Deutschman, Steve Jobs a biography by Walter Isaacson . An upcoming movie is being produced on Job's life by Joshua Michael Stern that will star Ashton Kutcher in the lead role playing Steve Job.
Steve died on October 5, 2011 with his family besides him. I end the article with his lines : "I think death is the most wonderful invention of life. It purges the system of these old models that are obselete". (Playboy, 1985)
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