Steve Jobs

Introduction

Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, inventor, and design visionary who co-founded Apple Inc. and turned personal computing, music, mobile phones, and animation into objects of desire. A Zen-infused perfectionist, he merged counterculture aesthetics with ruthless capitalism to create the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Pixar’s Toy Story—products that defined the digital age. His 2005 Stanford commencement address (“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”) remains a cultural scripture. Fired from his own company at 30, he returned at 41 to orchestrate one of history’s greatest corporate comebacks. Time called him “the CEO of the century.”

Early Life

Born in San Francisco to unwed graduate students Joanne Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali, Jobs was adopted by Paul (machinist) and Clara Jobs (accountant) of Mountain View. Paul taught him electronics in the family garage; at age 13, Steve cold-called Hewlett-Packard president Bill Hewlett for parts and landed a summer job.

A loner with intense eyes, he dropped LSD, shaved his head, and trekked to India in 1974 seeking enlightenment. Back home, he wore black turtlenecks, went barefoot, and smelled of patchouli—alienating classmates but bonding with Steve Wozniak, a shy engineering genius five years older.

Education (Briefly)

Enrolled at Reed College (1972); dropped out after one semester but audited calligraphy classes that later shaped Apple’s typography. Slept on friends’ floors, returned Coke bottles for food money, and ate free meals at the Hare Krishna temple.

Career Trajectory

Year	Company	Milestone
1976	Apple Computer (garage, Los Altos)	Apple I – $666.66; hand-built circuit board
1977	—	Apple II – first mass-produced PC with color graphics; $1.3M → $200M in 3 years
1983	—	Hired John Sculley from Pepsi (“Do you want to sell sugar water…?”)
1984	—	Macintosh – Super Bowl “1984” ad; GUI, mouse, 3.5" floppy
1985	—	Fired by board; sold all but one share of Apple stock
1985	NeXT	High-end workstation; $6,500 black cube; Tim Berners-Lee wrote the Web here
1986	Pixar (bought from Lucasfilm for $5M)	Toy Story (1995) – first fully CGI feature; IPO 2006 at $1B+
1997	Apple (returned as “iCEO”)	iMac – translucent bondi blue; saved company
2001	—	iPod + iTunes – 1000 songs in your pocket
2003	—	Diagnosed with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor
2007	—	iPhone – “reinvent the phone”
2010	—	iPad – created the tablet market
2011	—	Resigned as CEO (August 24); died October 5

Design & Leadership Philosophy

• Reality Distortion Field: Hypnotic conviction that impossible deadlines were achievable
• Think Different (1997 campaign): Honored “the crazy ones” – Einstein, Gandhi, Dylan
• 10,000-hour prototype rule: Rejected hundreds of iPhone mockups until one felt “like butter”
• End-to-end control: Hardware + software + retail (Apple Stores, 2001)
• Simplicity: “Simple can be harder than complex… but it’s worth it.”

Personal Life

• 1978: Daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs with painter Chrisann Brennan (initially denied paternity)
• 1991: Married Laurene Powell (Stanford MBA); three children: Reed, Erin, Eve
• Diet: Extreme fruitarian phases (carrot-orange skin); named Apple after an orchard visit
• Style: Uniform of black Issey Miyake turtlenecks, Levi’s 501s, New Balance 992s
• Zen: Practiced with Kobun Chino Otogawa; 1970s Los Altos Zen Center
• Health: Refused surgery in 2003; tried acupuncture, veganism; liver transplant 2009

Final Years

Resigned August 24, 2011; Tim Cook succeeded. Spent last months at home in Palo Alto, walking the garden, reading, and finalizing the Apple Campus “spaceship” (opened 2017). Died of respiratory arrest from tumor metastasis. Family statement:

“Steve died peacefully… surrounded by his family.”

Legacy

• Market Cap: Apple surpassed $1 trillion (2018), $3 trillion (2022)
• Products in Use: >2 billion active Apple devices
• Pixar: 27 Academy Awards; acquired by Disney 2006 ($7.4B in stock → Jobs Disney’s largest shareholder)
• Typography: Multiple master fonts in every Mac trace to Reed calligraphy class
• Cultural Shift: Touchscreens, app economy, “there's an app for that”
• Biases: Criticized for labor conditions (Foxconn), tax avoidance, and abrasive management (“reality distortion” = bullying)

Walter Isaacson’s biography (2011) sold 3+ million copies. The garage at 2066 Crist Drive is a historic site. Jony Ive called him “the most focused person I’ve ever met.”

Jobs didn’t invent the smartphone—he made you want one. His life was a fusion of hippie soul and samurai discipline, proving that taste is a strategy, storytelling is engineering, and death is the ultimate deadline.