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Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American business magnate, industrial designer , media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple ; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar ; a member of The Walt Disney Company 's board of directors following its acquisition of Pixar; and the founder, chairman, and CEO of NeXT . He is widely recognized as a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with his early business partner and fellow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak .

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Jobs was born in San Francisco to a Syrian father and German-American mother. Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco , California , U.S. , Steve Jobs' mother, Joanne Schieble was American of German and Swiss descent; his father, Abdulfattah "John" Jandali was a Syrian . They wanted Steve to be adopted by college graduates, that was not the case. He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs who promised Steve would go to college. Jobs did not contact his birth family during his adoptive mother Clara's lifetime.

Paul and Clara adopted Jobs's sister Patricia in 1957 and by 1959 the family had moved to the Monta Loma neighborhood in Mountain View, California . Paul built a workbench in his garage for his son in order to "pass along his love of mechanics”. Jobs, meanwhile, admired his father's craftsmanship "because he knew how to build anything. If we needed a cabinet, he would build it. When he built our fence, he gave me a hammer so I could work with him … I wasn't that into fixing cars … but I was eager to hang out with my dad." By the time he was ten, Jobs was deeply involved in electronics and befriended many of the engineers who lived in the neighborhood.

He attended Monta Loma Elementary School in Mountain View. Jobs frequently played pranks on others at school. His father Paul never reprimanded him. Instead, he blamed the school for not challenging his brilliant son.

Jobs attended Reed College in 1972 before withdrawing that same year.

Steve was a Silicon Valley businessman most famous for his work with the company Apple Computer Inc, starting with the release of the Apple I in 1976.

Together with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak , Jobs helped make the idea of the personal computer popular in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, still at Apple, Jobs was one of the first to see the potential of using a mouse to control things on a computer screen.

He and Wozniak gained fame and wealth a year later with production and sale of the Apple II, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputers . Jobs saw the commercial potential of the Xerox Alto in 1979, which was mouse -driven and had a graphical user interface (GUI). This led to the development of the unsuccessful Apple Lisa in 1983, followed by the breakthrough Macintosh in 1984, the first mass-produced computer with a GUI. The Macintosh introduced the desktop publishing industry in 1985 with the addition of the Apple LaserWriter, the first laser printer to feature vector graphics .

In 1985, Jobs was forced out of Apple after a long power struggle with the company's board and its then-CEO, John Sculley.

That same year, Jobs took a few Apple employees with him to found NeXT, a computer platform development company that specialized in computers for higher-education and business markets.

He helped to develop the visual effects industry when he funded the computer graphics division of George Lucas 's Lucasfilm in 1986. The new company was Pixar. Jobs sold Pixar to Disney in 2006, and gained a seat on the Disney board of directors . Pixar went on to make numerous hugely successful films, such as Toy Story (1995), Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Cars (2006). Jobs made more money with Pixar than he did while he was with Apple in the 1970s and 80s.

In 1997, Jobs returned to Apple as CEO after the company's acquisition of NeXT. He was largely responsible for reviving Apple, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. He worked closely with English designer Jony Ive to develop a line of products that had larger cultural ramifications, beginning with the "Think different" advertising campaign and leading to the Apple Store, App Store (iOS) , iMac , iPad , iPod , iPhone , iTunes , and iTunes Store .

In 2001, the original Mac OS was replaced with the completely new Mac OS X (now known as macOS ), based on NeXT's NeXTSTEP platform, giving the operating system a modern Unix -based foundation for the first time.

He had a daughter, named Lisa, with his girlfirend, atrist Chrisann Brennan . She was born on May 17, 1978. She is Jobs's first child. For years he claimed that she wasn't his child, but later admitted his fatherhood. Brennan and Jobs had a complicated relationship and were never committed to each other nor broke up.

In 1989, Jobs first met his future wife, Laurene Powell , when he gave a lecture at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was a student. They married on March 18, 1991, in a Buddhist ceremony at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park . Jobs's and Powell's first child was born in 1991. Jobs and Powell had two more children; Eve Jobs, born in 1998, is a fashion model. The family lived in Palo Alto, California .

When Jobs met his biological mother, he found out that he had a sister, Mona Simpson. They became close. Jobs's biological father never tried to contact him, and they never met.

In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. In April 2009, Jobs underwent a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis, Tennessee . Jobs's prognosis was described as "excellent". He died of respiratory arrest related to the tumor in 2011, at the age of 56, with Tim Cook succeeding him as CEO of Apple. Steve Jobs had type 1 diabetes as a child and had problems with insulin when he died.

Childhood friend and fellow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak , former owner of what would become Pixar, George Lucas , former rival, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates , and President Barack Obama all offered statements in response to his death.

At his request, Jobs was buried in an unmarked grave at Alta Mesa Memorial Park, the only nonsectarian cemetery in Palo Alto.

Innovations and designs

• Jobs's design was influenced by philosophies of Zen and Buddhism.
• He is listed as either primary inventor or co-inventor in 346 United States patents or patent applications related to a range of technologies from actual computer and portable devices to user interfaces (including touch-based), speakers, keyboards, power adapters, staircases, clasps, sleeves, lanyards , and packages.
• Jobs holds 43 issued US patents on inventions. The patent on the Mac OS X Dock user interface with "magnification" feature was issued the day before he died.
• Since his death, he has won 141 patents, more than most inventors during their lifetimes. He holds over 450 patents in total.

Although entirely designed by Steve Wozniak, Jobs had the idea of selling the desktop computer , which led to the formation of Apple Computer in 1976. Both Jobs and Wozniak constructed several of the Apple I prototypes by hand, funded by selling some of their belongings. Eventually, 200 units were produced.

The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer , one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Wozniak, and Jobs oversaw the development of the Apple II's unusual case and Rod Holt developed the unique power supply. It was introduced in 1977 at the West Coast Computer Faire by Jobs and Wozniak as the first consumer product sold by Apple.

The Lisa is a personal computer developed by Apple from 1978 and sold in the early 1980s. It is the first personal computer with a graphical user interface for business users. The Lisa sold poorly, at 100,000 units.

In 1982, after Jobs was forced out of the Lisa project, he took over the Macintosh project, adding inspiration from Lisa. The final Lisa 2/10 was modified and sold as the Macintosh XL.

Once he joined the Macintosh team, Jobs took over the project after Wozniak had experienced a traumatic airplane accident and temporarily left the company. Jobs launched the Macintosh on January 24, 1984, as the first mass-market personal computer featuring an integral graphical user interface and mouse . This first model was later renamed to Macintosh 128k among the prolific series. Since 1998, Apple has phased out the Macintosh name in favor of "Mac", though the product family has been nicknamed "Mac" or "the Mac" since inception. The Macintosh was introduced by a US$1.5 million Ridley Scott television commercial, "1984". It aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984, received as a "watershed event" and a "masterpiece". Regis McKenna called the ad "more successful than the Mac itself". It uses an unnamed heroine to represent the coming of the Macintosh (indicated by a Picasso -style picture of the computer on her white tank top) to save humanity from the conformity of IBM's domination of the computer industry. The ad alludes to George Orwell 's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four , which describes a dystopian future ruled by a televised " Big Brother ."

The Macintosh, however, was expensive, which hindered its ability to be competitive in a market already dominated by the Commodore 64 for consumers, and the IBM Personal Computer and its accompanying clone market for businesses. Macintosh systems still found success in education and desktop publishing and kept Apple as the second-largest PC manufacturer for the next decade.

After Jobs was forced out of Apple in 1985, he started NeXT , a workstation computer company. The NeXT Computer was introduced in 1988 at a lavish launch event. Using the NeXT Computer, Tim Berners-Lee created the world's first web browser , the WorldWideWeb. The NeXT Computer's operating system, named NeXTSTEP , begat Darwin , which is now the foundation of most of Apple's products such as Macintosh 's macOS and iPhone 's iOS .

Apple iMac G3 was introduced in 1998 and its innovative design was directly the result of Jobs's return to Apple. Apple boasted "the back of our computer looks better than the front of anyone else's." Described as "cartoonlike", the first iMac, clad in Bondi Blue plastic, was unlike any personal computer that came before. In 1999, Apple introduced the Graphite gray Apple iMac and since has varied the shape, color and size considerably while maintaining the all-in-one design. Design ideas were intended to create a connection with the user such as the handle and a "breathing" light effect when the computer went to sleep. The Apple iMac sold for $1,299 at that time. The iMac also featured forward-thinking changes, such as eschewing the floppy disk drive and moving exclusively to USB for connecting peripherals. This latter change resulted, through the iMac's success, in the interface being popularized among third-party peripheral makers—as evidenced by the fact that many early USB peripherals were made of translucent plastic (to match the iMac design).

iTunes is a media player, media library, online radio broadcaster, and mobile device management application developed by Apple. It is used to play, download, and organize digital audio and video (as well as other types of media available on the iTunes Store) on personal computers running the macOS and Microsoft Windows operating systems. The iTunes Store is also available on the iPod Touch , iPhone , and iPad .

Through the iTunes Store, users can purchase and download music, music videos, television shows, audiobooks , podcasts , movies, and movie rentals in some countries, and ringtones, available on the iPhone and iPod Touch (fourth generation onward). Application software for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch can be downloaded from the App Store .

The first generation of iPod was released October 23, 2001. The major innovation of the iPod was its small size achieved by using a 1.8" hard drive compared to the 2.5" drives common to players at that time. The capacity of the first generation iPod ranged from 5 GB to 10 GB. The iPod sold for US$399 and more than 100,000 iPods were sold before the end of 2001. The introduction of the iPod resulted in Apple becoming a major player in the music industry. Also, the iPod's success prepared the way for the iTunes music store and the iPhone. After the first few generations of iPod, Apple released the touchscreen iPod Touch, the reduced-size iPod Mini and iPod Nano , and the screenless iPod Shuffle in the following years.

Apple began work on the first iPhone in 2005 and the first iPhone was released on June 29, 2007. The iPhone created such a sensation that a survey indicated six out of ten Americans were aware of its release. Time declared it "Invention of the Year" for 2007 and included it in the All-TIME 100 Gadgets list in 2010, in the category of Communication. The completed iPhone had multimedia capabilities and functioned as a quad-band touch screen smartphone. A year later, the iPhone 3G was released in July 2008 with three key features: support for GPS, 3G data and tri-band UMTS/HSDPA. In June 2009, the iPhone 3GS , whose improvements included voice control, a better camera, and a faster processor, was introduced by Phil Schiller. The iPhone 4 was thinner than previous models, had a five megapixel camera capable of recording video in 720p HD, and added a secondary front-facing camera for video calls. A major feature of the iPhone 4S , introduced in October 2011, was Siri , a virtual assistant capable of voice recognition.

The iPad is an iOS -based line of tablet computers designed and marketed by Apple. The first iPad was released on April 3, 2010. The user interface is built around the device's multi-touch screen, including a virtual keyboard. The iPad includes built-in Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity on select models. As of April 2015 [update] , more than 250 million iPads have been sold.

Shortly after leaving Apple, he formed the charitable Steven P. Jobs Foundation, but closed the foundation with no results. Jobs has declined to sign The Giving Pledge, launched in 2010 by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates for fellow billionaires. He donated $50 million to Stanford hospital and contributed to efforts to cure AIDS. Bono reported "tens of millions of dollars" given by Apple while Jobs was CEO, to AIDS and HIV relief programs in Africa, which inspired other companies to join.

• 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.
• 1991: Howard Vollum Award from Reed College
• 2004–2010: Listed among the Time 100 Most Influential People in the World on five separate occasions
• 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
• 2012: Posthumously honored with an Edison Achievement Award for his commitment to innovation throughout his career
• 2013: Posthumously inducted as a Disney Legend
• 2017: Steve Jobs Theater opens at Apple Park
• 2022: Posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President Joe Biden , the country's highest civilian honor
• "Of all the inventions of humans, the computer is going to rank near or at the top as history unfolds and we look back. It is the most awesome tool that we have ever invented."
• "I always thought of myself as a humanities person as a kid, but I liked electronics… then I read something that one of my heroes, Edwin Land of Polaroid , said about the importance of people who could stand at the intersection of humanities and sciences, and I decided that's what I wanted to do."
• "My favorite things in life don't cost any money. It's really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time."
• "Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people."
• "Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith."
• "Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them."

• As a child, Jobs had difficulty making friends with children his own age and was seen by his classmates as a "loner".
• He took part in ballet as a child.
• Jobs had difficulty functioning in a traditional classroom, resisted authority figures, frequently misbehaved, and was suspended a few times.
• He credited his fourth grade teacher with kindling a passion in him for learning things.
• Jobs skipped the 5th grade and transferred to the 6th grade at Crittenden Middle School in Mountain View.
• Jobs was often "bullied" at Crittenden Middle, and in the middle of 7th grade, he gave his parents an ultimatum: either they would take him out of Crittenden or he would drop out of school.
• In his youth, Jobs' parents took him to a Lutheran church.
• When he was 13, in 1968, Jobs was given a summer job by Bill Hewlett (of Hewlett-Packard ) after Jobs cold-called him to ask for parts for an electronics project.
• Jobs dropped out of college after several months.
• He studied Zen Buddhism in India. He maintained a lifelong appreciation for Zen and engaged in lengthy meditation retreats at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center , US.
• The three-bedroom house on Crist Drive in Los Altos, California ) where Steve Jobs lived with his parents was declared a historic site in 2013, as the first site of Apple Computer.
• Jobs's childhood home remains a tourist attraction and is currently owned by his stepmother (Paul's second wife), Marilyn Jobs.
• He had a public war of words with Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell , starting in 1987, when Jobs first criticized Dell for making "un-innovative beige boxes".
• Jobs usually went to work wearing a black long-sleeved mock turtleneck made by Issey Miyake , Levi's 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers.
• Jobs was a board member at Gap Inc. from 1999 to 2002.
• He never showed an interest in his Syrian heritage or the Middle East.
• Although a billionaire, Jobs made it known that, like Bill Gates, he had stipulated that most of his monetary fortune would not be left to his children. He had limited his children's access, age appropriate, to social media, computer games, and the Internet.
• He was a Democrat and a supporter of Barack Obama . Jobs also once said that he voted for Ronald Reagan .
• Jobs has been played by American actor Ashton Kutcher in the 2013 biopic movie Jobs and by German-born Irish actor Michael Fassbender in the 2015 movie Steve Jobs.

A prototype of the original Macintosh from c. 1981 (at the Computer History Museum )

Jobs onstage at Macworld Conference & Expo, San Francisco, January 11, 2005

Jobs demonstrating the iPhone 4 to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on June 23, 2010

Flags flying at half-staff outside Apple HQ in Cupertino, on the evening of Jobs's death

Jobs unveiling the iPhone at MacWorld Conference & Expo on January 9, 2007

• Bill Gates , founder of Microsoft
• Mark Zuckerberg , founder of Facebook
• Jeff Bezos , founder of Amazon
• This page was last modified on 9 August 2024, at 02:05. Suggest an edit .

Steve Jobs Facts for Kids

• Name : Steve Jobs (Steven Paul Jobs)
• Profession : Businessman, Industrial Designer and Investor
• Born : February 24th, 1955 in San Francisco, California, USA
• Died : October 5th, 2011 in Palo Alto, California, USA
• Resting Place : Alta Mesa Memorial Park
• Legacy : A pioneer of the home computer revolution and Apple products

29 Steve Jobs Facts for Kids

• Steve Jobs was a businessman and industrial designer who worked at Apple and a few other companies.
• Steve Jobs is most well-known for his pivotal role in the personal computer revolution.
• Steve Jobs was born on February 24th, 1955 in San Francisco, California, United States.
• The legal birthname of Steve Jobs was Steven Paul Jobs.
• Steve Jobs was the biological son of Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Schieble.
• Steve Jobs was adopted and raised by Paul Jobs and Clara Jobs (née Hagopian).
• Between 1968 and 1972, Jobs attended Homestead High School in Cupertino, California, United States. This is where Jobs would meet the first employee of Apple, Steve Wozniak.
• In 1972, Jobs starts to attend Reed College, but dropped out after just one semester.
• In 1974, Jobs accept a job as a technician with Atari, Inc.
• In 1976, Jobs and Steve Wozniak form the Apple Computer Company.
• In 1976, Jobs and Apple Computer Company released the Apple I and sells around 200 of them.
• In 1977, Jobs and Apple Computer Company released the Apple II. This device would end up becoming one of the first successful mass-produced personal computers.
• In 1977, the Apple Computer Company changed its name to Apple Computer, Inc.
• In 1978, Jobs personal wealth was estimated to be $1 million dollars or $3.9 million in 2019 dollars.
• In 1984, Jobs and Apple Computer, Inc. released the Macintosh. It was hyped up with a famous Super Bowl commercial known simply as “1984”.
• In 1985, Jobs resigned from Apple Computer, Inc. and founded the NeXT Inc. company.
• In 1986, Jobs invested in The Graphics Group, which was a spinout from the Lucasfilms company. The Graphics Group would later be known as Pixar.
• In 1990, Jobs and NeXT Inc. released the NeXT workstation and NeXTcube.
• By 1993, Jobs and NeXT Inc. sold around 50,000 machines.
• In 1995, Pixar released the now famous film Toy Story and Jobs was credited as the executive producer.
• In 1997, Apple Computer, Inc. bought the NeXT Inc. company for $427 million, and Jobs would once again be working at the company he co-founded with Steve Wozniak.
• In September 1997, Jobs was formally designated the interim chief executive.
• In 2001, Jobs and Apple Computer, Inc. released the first iPod.
• In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
• In January 2007, Jobs announced Apple Computer, Inc. would be changing its name to Apple, Inc.
• In June 2007, Jobs and Apple, Inc. released the iPhone smartphone.
• In 2009, Jobs received a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
• In 2011, Jobs resigned from Apple, Inc. and Tim Cook became the CEO.
• On October 5th, 2011, around 3:00pm PDT, Jobs died in his Palo Alto home.

Additional Resources on Steve Jobs

• About Steve Jobs – Find more information on Steve Jobs on the Investopedia website.
• Biography of Steve Jobs – Read the biography of Steve Jobs on the Biography website.
• Timeline of Steve Jobs – View a timeline of the life of Steve Jobs on the CNET website.
• Steve Jobs – Wikipedia – Discover more facts and information about Steve Jobs on the Wikipedia website.

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In 1976, Steve Jobs cofounded Apple Computer Inc. with Steve Wozniak. Under Jobs’ guidance, the company pioneered a series of revolutionary technologies, including the iPhone and iPad.

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Who Was Steve Jobs?

Quick facts, steve jobs’ parents and adoption, early life and education, founding and leaving apple computer inc., creating next, steve jobs and pixar, returning to and reinventing apple, wife and children, pancreatic cancer diagnosis and health challenges, death and last words, movies and book about steve jobs.

Steve Jobs was an American inventor, designer, and entrepreneur who was the cofounder, chief executive, and chairman of Apple Inc. Born in 1955 to two University of Wisconsin graduate students who gave him up for adoption, Jobs was smart but directionless, dropping out of college and experimenting with different pursuits before cofounding Apple with Steve Wozniak in 1976. Jobs left the company in 1985, launching Pixar Animation Studios, then returned to Apple more than a decade later. The tech giant’s revolutionary products, which include the iPhone, iPad, and iPod, have dictated the evolution of modern technology. Jobs died in 2011 following a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

FULL NAME: Steven Paul Jobs BORN: February 24, 1955 DIED: October 5, 2011 BIRTHPLACE: San Francisco, California SPOUSE: Laurene Powell (1991-2011) CHILDREN: Lisa, Reed, Erin, and Eve ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Pisces

Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco to Joanne Schieble (later Joanne Simpson) and Abdulfattah “John” Jandali, two University of Wisconsin graduate students. The couple gave up their unnamed son for adoption. As an infant, Jobs was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs and named Steven Paul Jobs. Clara worked as an accountant, and Paul was a Coast Guard veteran and machinist.

Jobs’ biological father, Jandali, was a Syrian political science professor. His biological mother, Schieble, worked as a speech therapist. Shortly after Jobs was placed for adoption, his biological parents married and had another child, Mona Simpson. It was not until Jobs was 27 that he was able to uncover information on his biological parents.

Jobs lived with his adoptive family in Mountain View, California, within the area that would later become known as Silicon Valley. He was curious from childhood, sometimes to his detriment. According to the BBC’s Science Focus magazine, Jobs was taken to the emergency room twice as a toddler—once after sticking a pin into an electrical socket and burning his hand, and another time because he had ingested poison. His mother Clara had taught him to read by the time he started kindergarten.

As a boy, Jobs and his father worked on electronics in the family garage. Paul showed his son how to take apart and reconstruct electronics, a hobby that instilled confidence, tenacity, and mechanical prowess in young Jobs.

Although Jobs was always an intelligent and innovative thinker, his youth was riddled with frustrations over formal schooling. Jobs was a prankster in elementary school due to boredom, and his fourth-grade teacher needed to bribe him to study. Jobs tested so well, however, that administrators wanted to skip him ahead to high school—a proposal that his parents declined.

While attending Homestead High School, Jobs joined the Explorer’s Club at Hewlett-Packard. It was there that he saw a computer for the first time. He even picked up a summer job with HP after calling company cofounder Bill Hewlett to ask for parts for a frequency counter he was building. It was at HP that a teenaged Jobs met he met his future partner and cofounder of Apple Computer Steve Wozniak , who was attending the University of California, Berkeley.

After high school, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Lacking direction, he withdrew from college after six months and spent the next year and a half dropping in on creative classes at the school. Jobs later recounted how one course in calligraphy developed his love of typography.

In 1974, Jobs took a position as a video game designer with Atari. Several months later, he left the company to find spiritual enlightenment in India, traveling further and experimenting with psychedelic drugs.

In 1976, when Jobs was just 21, he and Wozniak started Apple Computer Inc. in the Jobs’ family garage. Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak his beloved scientific calculator to fund their entrepreneurial venture. Through Apple, the men are credited with revolutionizing the computer industry by democratizing the technology and making machines smaller, cheaper, intuitive, and accessible to everyday consumers.

Wozniak conceived of a series of user-friendly personal computers, and—with Jobs in charge of marketing—Apple initially marketed the computers for $666.66 each. The Apple I earned the corporation around $774,000. Three years after the release of Apple’s second model, the Apple II, the company’s sales increased exponentially to $139 million.

In 1980, Apple Computer became a publicly-traded company, with a market value of $1.2 billion by the end of its first day of trading. However, the next several products from Apple suffered significant design flaws, resulting in recalls and consumer disappointment. IBM suddenly surpassed Apple in sales, and Apple had to compete with an IBM/PC-dominated business world.

Jobs looked to marketing expert John Sculley of Pepsi-Cola to take over the role of CEO for Apple in 1983. The next year, Apple released the Macintosh, marketing the computer as a piece of a counterculture lifestyle: romantic, youthful, creative. But despite positive sales and performance superior to IBM’s PCs, the Macintosh was still not IBM-compatible.

Sculley believed Jobs was hurting Apple, and the company’s executives began to phase him out. Not actually having had an official title with the company he cofounded, Jobs was pushed into a more marginalized position and left Apple in 1985.

After leaving Apple in 1985, Jobs personally invested $12 million to begin a new hardware and software enterprise called NeXT Inc. The company introduced its first computer in 1988, with Jobs hoping it would appeal to universities and researchers. But with a base price of $6,500, the machine was far out of the range of most potential buyers.

The company’s operating system NeXTSTEP fared better, with programmers using it to develop video games like Quake and Doom . Tim Berners-Lee, who created the first web browser, used an NeXT computer. However, the company struggled to appeal to mainstream America, and Apple eventually bought the company in 1996 for $429 million.

In 1986, Jobs purchased an animation company from George Lucas , which later became Pixar Animation Studios. Believing in Pixar’s potential, Jobs initially invested $50 million of his own money in the company.

The studio went on to produce wildly popular movies such as Toy Story (1995), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Cars (2006), and Up (2009) . Pixar merged with Disney in 2006, which made Jobs the largest shareholder of Disney. As of June 2022, Pixar films had collectively grossed $14.7 billion at the global box office.

In 1997, Jobs returned to his post as Apple’s CEO. Just as Jobs instigated Apple’s success in the 1970s, he is credited with revitalizing the company in the 1990s.

With a new management team, altered stock options, and a self-imposed annual salary of $1 a year, Jobs put Apple back on track. Jobs’ ingenious products like the iMac, effective branding campaigns, and stylish designs caught the attention of consumers once again.

In the ensuing years, Apple introduced such revolutionary products as the Macbook Air, iPod, and iPhone, all of which dictated the evolution of technology. Almost immediately after Apple released a new product, competitors scrambled to produce comparable technologies. To mark its expanded product offerings, the company officially rebranded as Apple Inc. in 2007.

Apple’s quarterly reports improved significantly that year: Stocks were worth $199.99 a share—a record-breaking number at that time—and the company boasted a staggering $1.58 billion profit, an $18 billion surplus in the bank, and zero debt.

In 2008, fueled by iTunes and iPod sales, Apple became the second-biggest music retailer in America behind Walmart. Apple has also been ranked No. 1 on Fortune ’s list of America’s Most Admired Companies, as well as No. 1 among Fortune 500 companies for returns to shareholders.

Apple has released dozens of versions of the iPhone since its 2007 debut. In February 2023, an unwrapped first generation phone sold at auction for more than $63,000.

According to Forbes , Jobs’ net worth peaked at $8.3 billion shortly before he died in 2011. Celebrity Net Worth estimates it was as high as $10.2 billion.

Apple hit a market capitalization of $3 trillion in January 2022, meaning Jobs’ initial stake in the company from 1980 would have been worth about $330 billion—enough to comfortably make him the richest person in the world over Tesla founder Elon Musk had he been alive. But according to the New York Post , Jobs sold off all but one of his Apple shares when he left the company in 1985.

Most of Jobs’ net worth came from a roughly 8 percent share in Disney he acquired when he sold Pixar in 2006. Based on Disney’s 2022 value, that share—which he passed onto his wife—is worth $22 billion.

Jobs and Laurene Powell married on March 18, 1991. The pair met in the early 1990s at Stanford business school, where Powell was an MBA student. They lived together in Palo Alto with their three children: Reed (born September 22, 1991), Erin (born August 19, 1995), and Eve (born July 9, 1998).

Jobs also fathered a daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, with girlfriend Chrisann Brennan on May 17, 1978, when he was 23. He denied paternity of his daughter in court documents, claiming he was sterile. In her memoir Small Fry , Lisa wrote DNA tests revealed that she and Jobs were a match in 1980, and he was required to begin making paternity payments to her financially struggling mother. Jobs didn’t initiate a relationship with his daughter until she was 7 years old. When she was a teenager, Lisa came to live with her father. In 2011, Jobs said , “I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that.”

In 2003, Jobs discovered that he had a neuroendocrine tumor, a rare but operable form of pancreatic cancer. Instead of immediately opting for surgery, Jobs chose to alter his pesco-vegetarian diet while weighing Eastern treatment options.

For nine months, Jobs postponed surgery, making Apple’s board of directors nervous. Executives feared that shareholders would pull their stock if word got out that the CEO was ill. But in the end, Jobs’ confidentiality took precedence over shareholder disclosure.

In 2004, Jobs had successful surgery to remove the pancreatic tumor. True to form, Jobs disclosed little about his health in subsequent years.

Early in 2009, reports circulated about Jobs’ weight loss, some predicting his health issues had returned, which included a liver transplant. Jobs responded to these concerns by stating he was dealing with a hormone imbalance. Days later, he went on a six-month leave of absence.

In an email message to employees, Jobs said his “health-related issues are more complex” than he thought, then named Tim Cook , Apple’s then–chief operating officer, as “responsible for Apple’s day-today operations.”

After nearly a year out of the spotlight, Jobs delivered a keynote address at an invite-only Apple event on September 9, 2009. He continued to serve as master of ceremonies, which included the unveiling of the iPad, throughout much of 2010.

In January 2011, Jobs announced he was going on medical leave. In August, he resigned as CEO of Apple, handing the reins to Cook.

Jobs died at age 56 in his home in Palo Alto, California, on October 5, 2011. His official cause of death was listed as respiratory arrest related to his years-long battle with pancreatic cancer.

The New York Times reported that in his final weeks, Jobs had become so weak that he struggled to walk up the stairs in his home. Still, he was able to say goodbye to some of his longtime colleagues, including Disney CEO Bob Iger; speak with his biographer; and offer advice to Apple executives about the unveiling of the iPhone 4S.

In a eulogy for Jobs , sister Mona Simpson wrote that just before dying, Jobs looked for a long time at his sister, Patty, then his wife and children, then past them, and said his last words: “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.”

Jobs’ closest family and friends remembered him at a small gathering, then on October 16, a funeral for Jobs was held on the campus of Stanford University. Notable attendees included Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates ; singer Joan Baez , who once dated Jobs; former Vice President Al Gore ; actor Tim Allen; and News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch .

Jobs is buried in an unmarked grave at Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto. Upon the release of the 2015 film Steve Jobs , fans traveled to the cemetery to find the site. Because the cemetery is not allowed to disclose the grave’s location, many left messages for Jobs in a memorial book instead.

Before his death, Jobs granted author and journalist Walter Isaacson permission to write his official biography. Jobs sat for more than 40 interviews with the Isaacson, who also talked to more than 100 of Jobs’ family, friends, and colleagues. Initially scheduled for a November 2011 release date, Steve Jobs hit shelves on October 24, just 19 days after Jobs died.

Jobs’ life has been the subject of two major films. The first, released in 2013, was simply titled Jobs and starred Ashton Kutcher as Jobs and Josh Gad as Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak. Wozniak told The Verge in 2013 he was approached about working on the film but couldn’t because, “I read a script as far as I could stomach it and felt it was crap.” Although he praised the casting, he told Gizmodo he felt his and Jobs’ personalities were inaccurately portrayed.

Instead, Wozniak worked with Sony Pictures on the second film, Steve Jobs , that was adapted from Isaacson’s biography and released in 2015. It starred Michael Fassbender as Jobs and Seth Rogen as Wozniak. Fassbender was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, and co-star Kate Winslet was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Apple and NeXT marketing executive Joanna Hoffman.

In 2015, filmmaker Alex Gibney examined Jobs’ life and legacy in the documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine .

• Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world? [Jobs inviting an executive to join Apple]
• It’s better to be a pirate than join the Navy.
• In my perspective... science and computer science is a liberal art. It’s something everyone should know how to use, at least, and harness in their life.
• It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing.
• There’s an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love—‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been’—and we’ve always tried to do that at Apple.
• You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.
• I think humans are basically tool builders, and the computer is the most remarkable tool we’ve ever built.
• You just make the best product you can, and you don’t put it out until you feel it’s right.
• With iPod, listening to music will never be the same again.
• Things don’t have to change the world to be important.
• I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates .
• If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you’ve done and whoever you were and throw them away.
• Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful—that’s what matters to me.
• I like to believe there’s an afterlife. I like to believe the accumulated wisdom doesn’t just disappear when you die, but somehow, it endures. But maybe it’s just like an on/off switch and click—and you’re gone. Maybe that’s why I didn’t like putting on/off switches on Apple devices.

Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us

Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.

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Steve Jobs Biography Pack

Description.

Steve Jobs was an influential man who made a huge difference in the digital and technology world. This Steve Jobs Biography Pack covers important facts about Steve Jobs’s life for students to learn. Within the pack, they will read about Steve Jobs research him, write about him, create a flip book about him, and sort important parts of this famous man’s life.

*There is now a digital component included in this resource. The digital flip book is now available in Google Slides format. The link to the Google Classroom document will be within the PDF download.*

Included in this Steve Jobs biography pack: -Reading Passage -Cut and Sort Timeline -Fact Writing for Research -Informational Writing -Flip Book (with reading, writing, and comprehension)

Reading level for passages are 2nd grade, but with help 1st grade can work through the texts. 3rd grade will benefit from the material as well, but the text won’t be as challenging.

SAVE BIG!! This biography pack is offered in an Influential People bundle. Individually, it costs $4.50, but if you buy the bundle, you save big! Click here to buy the bundle.

This Steve Jobs Biography Pack purchase is for one single classroom only. If you want to share with other classrooms, make sure to buy the extra licenses here . Please contact me for a site license quote at [email protected] .

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Biography of Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple Computers

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Apple Corporation

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Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955–October 5, 2011) is best remembered as the co-founder of Apple Computers . He teamed up with inventor  Steve Wozniak to create one of the first ready-made PCs. Besides his legacy with Apple, Jobs was also a smart businessman who became a multimillionaire before the age of 30. In 1984, he founded NeXT computers. In 1986, he bought the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd. and started Pixar Animation Studios.

Fast Facts: Steve Jobs

• Known For : Co-founding Apple Computer Company and playing a pioneering role in the development of personal computing
• Also Known As : Steven Paul Jobs
• Born : February 24, 1955 in San Francisco, California
• Parents : Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Schieble (biological parents); Paul Jobs and Clara Hagopian (adoptive parents)
• Died : October 5, 2011 in Palo Alto, California
• Education : Reed College
• Awards and Honors : National Medal of Technology (with Steve Wozniak), Jefferson Award for Public Service, named the most powerful person in business by Fortune  magazine, Inducted into the California Hall of Fame, inducted as a Disney Legend
• Spouse : Laurene Powell
• Children : Lisa (by Chrisann Brennan), Reed, Erin, Eve
• Notable Quote : "Of all the inventions of humans, the computer is going to rank near or at the top as history unfolds and we look back. It is the most awesome tool that we have ever invented. I feel incredibly lucky to be at exactly the right place in Silicon Valley, at exactly the right time, historically, where this invention has taken form."

Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California. The biological child of Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Schieble, he was later adopted by Paul Jobs and Clara Hagopian. During his high school years, Jobs worked summers at Hewlett-Packard. It was there that he first met and became partners with Steve Wozniak.

As an undergraduate, he studied physics, literature, and poetry at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Formally, he only attended one semester there. However, he remained at Reed and crashed on friends' sofas and audited courses that included a calligraphy class, which he attributes as being the reason Apple computers had such elegant typefaces.

After leaving Oregon in 1974 to return to California, Jobs started working for Atari , an early pioneer in the manufacturing of personal computers. Jobs' close friend Wozniak was also working for Atari. The future founders of Apple teamed up to design games for Atari computers.

Jobs and Wozniak proved their skills as hackers by designing a telephone blue box. A blue box was an electronic device that simulated a telephone operator's dialing console and provided the user with free phone calls. Jobs spent plenty of time at Wozniak's Homebrew Computer Club, a haven for computer geeks and a source of invaluable information about the field of personal computers.

Out of Mom and Pop's Garage

By the late 1970s, Jobs and Wozniak had learned enough to try their hand at building personal computers. Using Jobs' family garage as a base of operation, the team produced 50 fully assembled computers that were sold to a local Mountain View electronics store called the Byte Shop. The sale encouraged the pair to start Apple Computer, Inc. on April 1, 1979.

The Apple Corporation was named after Jobs' favorite fruit. The Apple logo was a representation of the fruit with a bite taken out of it. The bite represented a play on words: bite and byte.

Jobs co-invented the  Apple I  and Apple II computers together with Wozniak, who was the main designer, and others. The Apple II is considered to be one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers. In 1984, Wozniak, Jobs, and others co-invented the  Apple Macintosh  computer, the first successful home computer with a mouse-driven graphical user interface. It was, however, based on (or, according to some sources, stolen from) the Xerox Alto, a concept machine built at the Xerox PARC research facility. According to the Computer History Museum, the Alto included:

A mouse. Removable data storage. Networking. A visual user interface. Easy-to-use graphics software. “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) printing, with printed documents matching what users saw on screen. E-mail. Alto for the first time combined these and other now-familiar elements in one small computer.

During the early 1980s, Jobs controlled the business side of the Apple Corporation. Steve Wozniak was in charge of the design side. However, a power struggle with the board of directors led to Jobs leaving Apple in 1985.

After leaving Apple, Jobs founded NeXT, a high-end computer company. Ironically, Apple bought NeXT in 1996 and Jobs returned to his old company to serve once more as its CEO from 1997 until his retirement in 2011.

The NeXT was an impressive workstation computer that sold poorly. The world's first web browser was created on a NeXT, and the technology in NeXT software was transferred to the Macintosh and the iPhone .

In 1986, Jobs bought "The Graphics Group" from Lucasfilm's computer graphics division for $10 million. The company was later renamed Pixar. At first, Jobs intended for Pixar to become a high-end graphics hardware developer, but that goal was never met. Pixar moved on to do what it now does best, which is make animated films. Jobs negotiated a deal to allow Pixar and Disney to collaborate on a number of animated projects that included the film "Toy Story." In 2006, Disney bought Pixar from Jobs.

After Jobs returned to Apple as its CEO in 1997, Apple Computers had a renaissance in product development with the iMac, iPod , iPhone, iPad, and more.

Before his death, Jobs was listed as the inventor and/or co-inventor on 342 United States patents, with technologies ranging from computer and portable devices to user interfaces, speakers, keyboards, power adapters, staircases, clasps, sleeves, lanyards, and packages. His last patent was issued for the Mac OS X Dock user interface and was granted the day before his death.

Steve Jobs died at his home in Palo Alto, California, on October 5, 2011. He had been ill for a long time with pancreatic cancer, which he had treated using alternative techniques. His family reported that his final words were, "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow."

Steve Jobs was a true computer pioneer and entrepreneur whose impact is felt in almost every aspect of contemporary business, communication, and design. Jobs was absolutely dedicated to every detail of his products—according to some sources, he was obsessive—but the outcome can be seen in the sleek, user-friendly, future-facing designs of Apple products from the very start. It was Apple that placed the PC on every desk, provided digital tools for design and creativity, and pushed forward the ubiquitous smartphone which has, arguably, changed the ways in which humans think, create, and interact.

• Computer History Museum. " What Was The First PC? "
• Gladwell, Malcolm, and Malcolm Gladwell. “ The Real Genius of Steve Jobs .”  The New Yorker , 19 June 2017.
• Levy, Steven. “ Steve Jobs .”  Encyclopædia Britannica , 20 Feb. 2019.
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Steve Jobs: The childhood of a great inventor

How did one curious child became the co-creator of one of the biggest tech companies in the world?

Robin Stevenson

In this extract from Kid Innovators , Robin Stevenson tells the story of a creative, rebellious child who grew up to change the world with the iPhone.

Steve Jobs is best known for Mac computers, iPhones, and iPads, but his innovative ideas also transformed the music, movie, and digital-publishing industries. As an adult, he was both brilliant and difficult. Even as a small child, he wanted to do things his own way.

Steve was born in San Francisco, on 24 February 1955. His birth parents were a graduate student named Joanna Schieble and a Syrian teaching assistant named Abdulfattah Jandali. Joanne and Abdullah had met at the University of Wisconsin, fallen in love, and traveled to Syria together. When Joanne became pregnant, they were not ready to become parents. Once back home, they decided to place their baby for adoption.

Paul and Clara Jobs had been wanting a child for many years before one finally came into their lives. They adopted Joanne and Abdullah’s son and named him Steven Paul. Steve grew into an active and curious toddler. Twice they had to rush him to the emergency room: one time because Steve had stuck a metal pin into an electric socket and burned his hand, and another time because he had eaten poison!

When Steve was two, his parents adopted a baby girl named Patty. Three years later, the family moved to the town of Mountain View, near Palo Alto, in California. Steve later said that his childhood home was one of the things that inspired him as a designer. “We had nice toasty floors when I was a kid,” he said, remembering the radiant heating in the house. “I love it when you can bring really great design and simple capability to something that doesn’t cost much.”

Steve always knew he was adopted. When he was about six years old, he told a little girl who lived across the street. “So, does that mean your real parents didn’t want you?” she asked. Steve ran home crying. His parents explained that was not the case at all. “We specifically picked you,” they said, speaking with great emphasis to make sure he understood. “I’ve always felt special,” Steve later said. “My parents made me feel special.”

The family’s house had a garage where Paul, a mechanic, could work on his cars. He marked off one section of a table and told Steve, “This is your workbench now.” Steve wasn’t interested in cars, but he liked spending time tinkering with his dad. When Paul went to the junkyard to look for parts, Steve went along. He admired his dad’s attention to detail. “He loved doing things right,” Steve said. “He even cared about the look of the parts you couldn’t see.”

Read more about great inventors:

• Five women who are inventing our world and why we should celebrate their achievements
• 10 cool projects created by kids addressing real-world problems

Growing up in Silicon Valley, Steve had many neighbours who worked as engineers. One of them, Larry Lang, became an important mentor. “What Larry did to get to know the kids in the block was rather a strange thing,” Steve explained. “He put out a carbon microphone and a battery and a speaker on his driveway where you could talk into the microphone and your voice would be amplified by the speaker.”

Steve’s father had told him that an electronic amplifier was needed to do this, but here was a system that worked without one. “I proudly went home to my father and announced that he was all wrong and that this man up the block was amplifying voice with just a battery,” he recalled. “My father told me that I didn’t know what I was talking about and we got into a very large argument.” So, Steve dragged his dad to Larry’s house so he could see it for himself.

Over the next few years, Larry taught Steve a lot about electronics. He introduced him to Heathkits, a type of kit with detailed instructions for making items like television receivers and radio equipment. Steve said that these kits not only taught him how things worked but also helped him develop a belief that even things that seemed complex – like televisions and radios – could be studied and understood.

Steve’s mom, Clara, taught him to read before he started kindergarten. In the classroom, though, Steve’s learning did not go smoothly. His first school was Monta Loma Elementary, just four blocks from his house. “I was kind of bored for the first few years, so I occupied myself by getting into trouble,” he admitted.

Steve’s best friend was a boy named Rick. One time, he and Rick made posters advertising “Bring Your Pet to School Day”. Kids showed up with their animals and chaos broke loose, with dogs chasing cats all over the school.

Another time, Steve and Rick persuaded the other students to tell them their bike lock combinations. Once they knew dozens of combinations, they undid the locks and switched them around. When school ended that day, the students couldn’t unlock their bikes. According to Steve, it took until ten o’clock that night to sort out the mess.

Another time, Steve let a snake loose in the classroom, and then he set off a small explosion under the teacher’s chair. By the end of third grade, Steve had been sent home from school several times. His parents didn’t punish him, though. They thought it was partly the school’s fault – Steve was misbehaving because he wasn’t being challenged in class. Steve agreed, saying that he was always being asked to “memorise stupid stuff.”

But being bored was only part of the problem. Steve also had a strong dislike for authority and hated being told what to do. Luckily, in fourth grade, he had a teacher who understood him. Mrs Hill started out by bribing Steve to do math problems, but before long, he was enjoying learning and wanted to please her. “I learned more from her than any other teacher,” Steve said. If it hadn’t been for Mrs Hill, he admitted, “I’m sure I would’ve gone to jail.”

Mrs Hill recognised that Steve needed to be challenged, and the school recommended that he skip two grades. His parents thought that was too much, but they agreed to let Steve move up from fourth grade to sixth. That meant switching to another school.

At Crittenden Middle School, the environment was much rougher, and fights were common. Being a year younger than the other students was hard, and Steve was often bullied. His sixth-grade report card noted that he had trouble getting motivated. Halfway through seventh grade, Steve decided he’d had enough.

“He came home one day,” recalled his father, “and said if he had to go back there again, he just wouldn’t go.” His parents decided to move to an area with better schools. They scraped together the money and bought a home in Los Altos, a few miles away.

In ninth grade, Steve started at Homestead High. The school had an electronics class with a well-equipped lab and a passionate teacher named Mr McCollum. But Steve, with his rebellious attitude and rejection of authority, clashed with the teacher. According to Mr McCollum, Steve was usually “off in a corner doing something on his own and really didn’t want to have much of anything to do with either me or the rest of the class.” Although he loved electronics, Steve dropped the course.

Outside school, however, Steve was beginning to find others who shared his interests. He joined the Explorer’s Club at Hewlett-Packard, where Larry Lang worked. The students met in the cafeteria, where engineers would talk to them about their projects: lasers, holography, light-emitting diodes. Steve was in heaven. It was at HP that he saw his first computer. “I fell in love with it,” he said.

Read more biographies of inventors:

• Nikola Tesla: A genius or a charlatan?
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• John Bardeen: The greatest physicist you (probably) never heard of

Steve was also working on a project of his own: he wanted to build a frequency counter to measure the rate of pulses in an electronic signal. He didn’t have all the parts he needed, so he looked in the phone book for Bill Hewlett, the head of Hewlett-Packard, and called him at home. Not only did he get the parts he needed, but Bill also gave him a summer job in a factory that made frequency counters.

It was while he was still in high school that Steve Jobs met his future business partner, Steve Wozniak. Wozniak was five years older and highly adept with electronics. In fact, he had learned some of his skills in Mr McCollum’s class.

When Steve was twenty-one, he and Wozniak founded the Apple Computer Company. At first, they worked out of Steve’s bedroom, and later they moved the business into the Jobs family’s garage. Two years later, Steve had earned more than a million dollars – and by the time he was 25, he’d made over 250 million dollars.

Many of the things we use in our daily lives wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Steve Jobs: Mac computers, iPhones, iPods and iPads, iTunes, Apple Stores, even Pixar’s Toy Story !

But money wasn’t what drove him. “You’ve got to find what you love,” he said. “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.”

Kid Innovators by Robin Stevenson is out now (£11.99, Quirk Books).

• Buy now from Amazon UK , Waterstones or Bookshop.org

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Short Biography of Steve Jobs

Reading comprehension: steve jobs biography.

Steve Jobs , the American businessman and technology visionary who is best known as the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. , was born on February 24, 1955. His parents were two University of Wisconsin graduate students, Joanne Carole Schieble and Syrian-born Abdulfattah Jandali. They were both unmarried at the time. Jandali, who was teaching in Wisconsin when Steve was born, said he had no choice but to put the baby up for adoption because his girlfriend’s family objected to their relationship.

The baby was adopted at birth by Paul Reinhold Jobs (1922-1993) and Clara Jobs (1924-1986). Later, when asked about his “adoptive parents,” Jobs replied emphatically that Paul and Clara Jobs “were my parents.” He stated in his authorized biography that they “were my parents 1,000%.” Unknown to him, his biological parents would subsequently marry (December 1955), have a second child, novelist Mona Simpson, in 1957, and divorce in 1962.

Jobs’s youth was riddled with frustrations over formal schooling. At Monta Loma Elementary School in Mountain View, he was a prankster whose fourth-grade teacher needed to bribe him to study. Jobs tested so well, however, that administrators wanted to skip him ahead to high school a proposal his parents declined. Jobs then attended Cupertino Junior High and Homestead High School in Cupertino, California. During the following years, Jobs met Bill Fernandez and Steve Wozniak , a computer whiz kid.

Through Apple, Jobs was widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields. Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios ; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006 when Disney acquired Pixar.

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Steve Jobs was an influential man who made a huge difference in the digital and technology world. This biography pack covers important facts about Steve Jobs's life for students to learn. Within the pack, they will read about Steve Jobs research him, write about him, create a flip book about him, and sort important parts of this famous man's life.

*There is now a digital component included in this resource. The digital flip book is now available in Google Slides format. The link to the Google Classroom document will be within the PDF download.*

Included in this Steve Jobs biography pack:

-Reading Passage

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-Fact Writing for Research

-Informational Writing

-Flip Book (with reading, writing, and comprehension)

Reading level for passages are 2nd grade, but with help 1st grade can work through the texts. 3rd grade will benefit from the material as well, but the text won't be as challenging.

SAVE BIG!! This biography pack is offered in an Influential People bundle.

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Steve Jobs Biography: Success Story of a Great American Inventor

In this success story, we will share the biography of Steve Jobs, an American inventor, entrepreneur, and industrial designer. He was the CEO and co-founder of Apple Inc., CEO and majority shareholder of Pixar Animation Studios, CEO, founder, and chairman of NeXT Inc., and a member of The Walt Disney Company’s board of directors. His bold ambitions revolutionized six industries: personal computing, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. His mysterious charisma, persistence, and intellectuality made him convincing and massively inspiring to people around him. Upon his passing, many hailed him as the greatest inventor and entrepreneur of our time – comparing his achievements to those of Thomas Edison.

The distinctive personality traits of Steve Jobs are perseverance, passion, ambition, rebellious nature, confidence (sometimes arrogance), and far-sighted vision.

Table of Contents

Biological Parents

The Schieble family lived on the outskirts of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Arthur Schieble and his wife, Irene Schieble, ran a milk farm and worked in various businesses, including real estate and photoengraving. They were Catholics of German descent, and Arthur strictly wanted his daughter Joanne to follow the same path. Joanne Carole Schieble (born 1932) attended the University of Wisconsin and fell in love with a Syrian teaching assistant, Abdulfattah “John” Jandali (born March 15, 1931). Her father threatened to cut her off entirely due to her Jandali’s Muslim background.

Jandali’s father was a wealthy businessperson. He owned oil refineries and significant holdings in Damascus and Homs and was, at one point, in total control of the price of wheat in the region. His mother was a traditional Muslim woman and a housewife. After finishing school, Jandali pursued an undergraduate degree at the American University in Beirut. He was involved in political activism and even spent some time in jail. He went to the University of Wisconsin to get a doctoral degree in political science, where he met Joanne.

The couple was deeply in love, but Joanne’s father looked down upon their relationship. Jandali described him as a ‘tyrant’ whose religious views prevented them from marrying. Joanne became pregnant after she visited Jandali’s homeland in Syria. Her father’s health had begun declining by then, and she was secretive of her pregnancy for his sake. Jandali and Joanne didn’t have many options to consider. The dangers of having an abortion in 1954 and the firm stigma against raising a child as a single mother left adoption the only rational choice. Without involving Jandali in the process, Joanne moved to San Francisco, where she found a doctor who sheltered women with similar stories and helped them deliver their babies.

The biological parents of Steve Jobs: his father, Abdulfattah “John” Jandali, and his mother, Joanne Carole Schieble (Joanne Simpson).

Adoptive Parents

Though Paul Reinhold Jobs (1922–1993) grew up with an often abusive alcoholic father, he developed a calm and gentle personality. He dropped out of high school and wandered around the Midwest, working as a mechanic at various places before ending up in the Coast Guard. Paul Jobs earned commendations because he was a good mechanic, but his inability to swim and tendency to get into trouble always kept him at the rank of a seaman. One day, when he and his crew arrived in San Francisco after their ship had been decommissioned, Paul made a bet to his buddies that he would find himself a wife within two weeks.

Clara Hagopian (1924 – 1986) was born in New Jersey and moved to San Francisco as a child. Her family sought refuge in the United States while fleeing the Turks in Armenia. Clara’s only secret was that she had been married, and her husband never returned from war. Her first date with Paul Jobs was partially a result of her desire to start a new life. Also, the fact that his mates had a car and hers didn’t. Indeed, his handsomeness, robust body build, and slight resemblance to James Dean had nothing to do with it.

Ten days had passed since Paul asked Clara out, and they were already engaged and about to start a happy relationship that would last over forty years.

Paul’s abilities as a mechanic made them decent money. He bought, restored, and sold old cars. Clara convinced him to move to San Francisco, a city she had loved since childhood. There, Paul was hired as a “repo man,” and his job was to pick the locks of cars whose owners failed to pay their loans and repossess them for the company. After being together for some time, the couple wanted a baby. Clara could not have one due to an ectopic pregnancy, which left her infertile. This situation caused them to consider adoption.

Steve Jobs’ Birth

Steven Paul “Steve” Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco to Joanne Carole Schieble and Abdulfattah “John” Jandali. Joanne chose adoptive parents for his son, who was well-educated, Catholic, and wealthy. However, they changed their mind and adopted a girl instead.

When Joanne learned that her son would be placed with Paul and Clara Jobs, neither of whom went to college, she refused to sign the adoption papers and even took the matter to court. Paul and Clara convinced Joanne to change her mind after promising they would pay for the child’s college education.

The other reason why Joanne was reluctant at first was that she knew that her father’s condition was worsening, and it looked like he would not last long. She hoped that when he passed away, she could marry Jandali, and they could somehow have their child back. Joanne’s father died in August 1955, and the couple got married a few months later, but the adoption was already legally finalized. Joanne and Jandali had another child, who grew up to become a novelist, Mona Simpson (born June 14, 1957), the sister of Steve Jobs. After they divorced in 1962, Joanne embarked on a series of journeys that would inspire her to live a nomadic life. Mona Simpson documented her mother’s story in her critically acclaimed novel Anywhere  But Here (1986).

Early Childhood

Paul and Clara Jobs were very open with Steve on his background. At one point, when he was six or seven years old, he told a neighbor girl that he was adopted, and she responded by saying: “So does that mean your real parents didn’t want you? ” Steve ran back home, where his parents reassured him that they had specifically chosen him and that he was special. Although he grew up happy with Paul and Clara, some argue that Steve’s desire for complete control of his environment derives precisely from his abandonment at birth.

Steve Jobs’ childhood was typical 50s. The family adopted a girl named Patty when Steve was two, and a few years later, they moved to Mountain View, California. This area was slowly becoming a center for electronics. Jobs then mentioned how the neighborhood featured slick houses designed by Joseph Eichler (June 25, 1900 – July 01, 1974) that greatly inspired him. He loved it when one could bring great design and simple capability to something that didn’t cost much.

Paul Jobs’ love for mechanics was sustained by his work on cars and the creation of various household objects. Steve admired his father’s craftsmanship, which made him eager to spend time with him. Eventually, Paul made Steve a workbench in his garage to pass on his knowledge. By the time Steve was ten, he had already displayed a talent for creating things and made friends with every engineer in the neighborhood.

Silicon Valley

After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, the United States plunged into the Space Race. The federal government invested billions into technology and electronics so that they could sprint into the future. If you were a nerd in the mid-60s, Santa Clara County, just south of San Francisco, was the place to be. By the decade’s end, few people had referred to it with that name, and it had become known as Silicon Valley. The name derives from a substance used in manufacturing radios, televisions, stereos, and computers.

Elementary and Middle School

Before Steve started elementary school, his mother, Clara Jobs, taught him how to read. As a result, he wasn’t interested in his classes and often occupied himself by causing trouble. Steve Jobs developed a rebellious attitude and resentment towards authority at a young age. He and his school friend Rick Ferrentino would always prank people. There was an instance when they hung posters announcing ‘Bring Your Pet to School Day.’ The result was mayhem, with dogs chasing cats all over the territory, and the teachers could not do anything about it. Another time, they convinced some kids to tell them the combinations for their bike locks and went outside to switch them all up. Some children stayed until late at night to get their bikes back. Steve and Rick became more experienced as they grew older, and their pranks began featuring explosive devices that they set off under people’s chairs. When the two were about to enter fourth grade, the school put them into different classes for obvious reasons.

Fourth grade is where Steve Jobs made his first money. While others may have dismissed him as a troublemaker and a brat, Steve’s fourth-grade teacher, Imogene ‘Teddy’ Hill, saw high intellectual potential. She caught his interest by bribing him with $5 bills to finish textbooks that she assigned, hinting at a world we would all love to live in. Steve quickly became hooked, and he later recalled that he learned more that year than in any other year in school.

By the end of fourth grade, Steve Jobs scored tests at a high school sophomore level. It was now clear to both his parents and the school that he was intellectually ahead of his age. To keep him challenged and stimulated, the school proposed that he skip fifth and sixth grades and go straight to seventh grade. His parents decided that it would make more sense only to skip one class, so they put him at Crittenden Middle School, a few blocks away from his elementary one. Crittenden Middle School was in a neighborhood full of ethnic gangs. Fights were very common, and kids regularly brought knives to school to show off. It was so bad that halfway through seventh grade. Steve gave his parents an ultimatum: they put him in a different school, or he would not study. Paul and Clara Jobs struggled financially then, but they put all their savings together and moved to a better district.

Relocation to Los Altos

In 1967, the family bought a three-bedroom home on Crist Drive in Los Altos, California, for $21,000. In 2013, this home was declared a historic site as it was where Apple Computer was born.

Steve finished middle school at Cupertino Junior High, where he befriended Bill Hernandez. In 1968, both began attending Homestead High School, which had strong ties to Silicon Valley. Steve and Bill lacked an engineering background, so they enrolled in John McCollum’s “Electronics 1.” By then, Steve Jobs had grown out his hair and associated himself with the growing counterculture.

Steve Jobs’ Thoughts on Religion

Steve Jobs’ parents wanted their son to have a religious upbringing, although they never imposed their views on him. He went to the Lutheran church most Sundays, but it all quickly ended. On July 12, 1968, Life magazine posted a shocking cover depicting two starving children in Biafra. Jobs took the cover to church and used it to confront the pastor.

A thirteen-year-old Jobs asked the pastor : “If I raise my finger, will God know which one I’m going to raise even before I do it?”  The pastor replied:  “Yes, God knows everything.” After that, Steve pulled out the Life cover and asked: “Well, does God know about this and what’s going to happen to those children?” The pastor also hesitantly replied yes to this question. After this, Steve Jobs never returned to church as he did not want to believe in such a God. Instead, Jobs would dedicate many of his years to practicing tenets of Zen Buddhism. He was more interested in Buddhism as it emphasized spiritual experiences instead of imposing some viewpoint and code.

Once, Steve Jobs said : “I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s the great mystery.”

Homestead High School

At Homestead High School, Steve Jobs befriended the ‘smart kids’ in math, science, and electronics. Homestead is where Steve met Chris-Ann Brennan, his would-be first long-term girlfriend. He developed a love for walking and would walk fifteen blocks to the school every day. He also began hanging out with the seniors who were into LSD matters and the whole counterculture trip. By then, Steve’s pranks had gotten more severe and involved electronics. He built a control room in his closet and wired his entire house with speakers that also worked as microphones. He would listen into other rooms of the house until his father caught him and asked him to dismantle the system.

Steve would spend lots of time in the garage of Larry Lang, another one of his engineer friends who lived down the street. Lang got Jobs interested in Heathkits – unique “assemble it yourself” kits for making various electronic gear. Heathkits fascinated him as they let one understand how technology gets built.

In one of the interviews , Steve Jobs said:  “I mean, you looked at a television set, and you would think that I haven’t built those, but I could… Things became clearer that they were the results of human creation, not these magical things that just appeared in one’s environment that one did not know their interiors.” Heathkits gave Jobs inspiration and self-confidence, teaching him that one could comprehend seemingly complicated things through exploration and learning.

Hewlett-Packard Explorers Club

Lang also brought Steve Jobs to the Hewlett-Packard Explorers Club. It was a group of students who met in a cafeteria to talk to engineers from some of the labs about what they were doing. Steve once approached a laser engineer working for HP, who agreed to give him a tour of the holography lap. Steve Jobs saw his first desktop computer at Hewlett-Packard Explorers Club. It was the model called the 9100A, a glorified calculator and the first desktop computer. It was huge (around forty pounds), but Jobs found it beautiful and loved it.

The kids who attended the HP Explorers Club were stimulated to work on various projects. Steve proposed building a frequency counter to measure the number of pulses per second in an electronic signal. He was short on parts, so he cold-called Bill Hewlett, HP’s CEO, who had a twenty-minute chat with Steve Jobs. Not only did Hewlett give him the details, but he also offered him a summer job in the plant where HP manufactured frequency counters.

At the age of fifteen, Steve Jobs began regularly dabbling with marijuana. It led to the only big fight he has ever had with his dad, who made him promise he would stop, but Jobs resisted. Eventually, his father bent to his will. By his last two years of school, he was into LSD, hash, and the mind-bending effects of sleep deprivation. These explorations caused him to develop intellectually as he found himself at an intersection between friends who were geeky and into electronics and those who were into counterculture, literature, and creativity. Steve got into classic literature, such as Shakespeare, Plato, and Dylan Thomas, and he even read Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. It inspired him to take creative writing classes in his junior year. He recalls his teacher being “this guy who looked like Ernest Hemingway” who often took his class snowshoeing in Yosemite National Park. Music would also be a huge inspiration, particularly the music and lyrics of Bob Dylan.

Jobs and Wozniak

Stephen Gary “Steve” Wozniak (born August 11, 1950) was an all-time favorite graduate student of John McCollum, who taught the Electronics class that Jobs attended. Wozniak was working on a calculator-computer project when Bill Fernandez told him that there was someone at Homestead that he would love to meet: “His name is Steve. He likes to do pranks like you do, and he’s also into building electronics like you are.” Thus, the most critical meeting in Silicon Valley since Hewlett-Packard occurred. Wozniak and Jobs sat on the sidewalk next to Fernandez’s garage for hours, talking about the pranks they’d pulled and the electronics they’d designed. They understood and instantly came to admire one another. Later, Steve Jobs commented :  “I was a little more mature than my years, and he was a little less mature than his, so it evened out.”

Apart from being into electronics, they also shared a passion for music. Jobs later recalled how it was an incredible time for music, comparing it to when Beethoven and Mozart were alive. It was Wozniak who got Jobs into Bob Dylan. They soon developed a hobby of tracking down Dylan’s bootlegs that he had taped during his shows. They bought brochures of Dylan’s lyrics and would stay up all night interpreting their meaning. “Dylan’s words struck chords of creative thinking,” Wozniak said . Together, they compiled over a hundred hours of Dylan bootlegs, including the concerts from the ’65 and ’66 tours where Bob Dylan famously ‘went electric.’

In September 1971, on a Sunday afternoon, a day before Wozniak drove off to Berkeley, he read an article in Esquire magazine by Ron Rosenbaum entitled Secrets of the Little Blue Box . The article described how one could use a device that would replicate the tones that routed signals on the AT&T network to make free long-distance phone calls. Wozniak immediately called Jobs, who shared his excitement for the device.

Steve Wozniak designed a blue box, and the two first used it for pranks. Once, they called the Vatican, and Wozniak put on an accent pretending to be Henry Kissinger : “Ve are at de summit meeting in Moscow, and ve need to talk to de pope.” They never got the pope on the line, but they were close. Steve Jobs eventually realized that the Blue Box could be more than a hobby. He put together the rest of the components and calculated the possible pricing for this device, foreshadowing his role at Apple. The parts necessary to build the box cost around $40, and Jobs decided they could sell it for $150. They made themselves nicknames, like other ‘phone phreaks’ who toyed with similar devices and proceeded to demonstrate the Blue Box at various college dorms. They made a hundred or so and used prank calls to spark customer interest. Almost all the Blue Boxes they produced were sold out very quickly. Jobs later commented on how this stimulated them by showing they could compete in the market with their creations.

Chrisann Brennan and Hippie Summer

Wozniak began his studies at Berkeley in 1971, and Jobs visited him a few times a week. He frequented the student union at Stanford University, which was nearby. At Homestead, he and his friends put on light shows for the school’s avant-garde Jazz program. His friends described him as a hippie and kind of a brain, without ever fitting into either group. Jobs was too intellectual for the hippy community, which was about getting stoned. In high school, everything revolved around the social group you belonged to, and Steve Jobs was an outsider. One of his friends described him as an individual in a world where individuality was suspect.

In the spring of 1972, Jobs started dating Chrisann Brennan towards the end of his senior year in 1972. She was highly attractive and vulnerable due to her parents’ failed marriage. Not only did Jobs fill a space in her soul, but he also inspired her with his unorthodox lifestyle, which she described as crazy. He experimented with compulsive diets and long silences that ended with bursts of fast talking. Steve Jobs learned to stare at people creepily for a long time without blinking. Brennan recalls how he shuffled around like a madman and had a lot of angst and darkness in him.

In the summer of 1972, after he graduated from Homestead High School, Jobs announced to his parents that he and Brennan would move to a cabin in the hills above Los Altos. His father’s response was, “Over my dead body.” Steve just said goodbye and left the house. He spent most of the summer with Brennan in the cabin, writing poetry and playing guitar. Brennan spent her time painting.

In the mid-summer season, Jobs and his high school friend Tim Brown were driving on Skyline Boulevard in the Santa Cruz Mountains when his red Fiat caught on fire. Tim Brown noticed flames from the engine and casually told Jobs to pull over as the car was on fire.

Despite their arguments, Jobs’s father drove out to tow the Fiat home. To make money for a new car, Jobs asked Wozniak to drive him to De Anza College, where they found a job on the help-wanted bulletin board. For $3 an hour, Jobs, Wozniak, and Brennan dressed up in full-body costumes depicting characters from Alice in Wonderland to entertain children. Steve quickly realized it was a lousy job, and his impatient personality did not go well with the kids.

Student Years: Reed College

Back when Paul and Clara adopted Steve, they made a promise that he would go to college. They saved some funds for college and could get him into an excellent school, but Jobs complicated everything. Steve Jobs initially refused to attend college until his parents pushed him to apply. He then declined to consider schools like Stanford and Berkeley, which were more affordable and more likely to give a scholarship. Instead, he insisted on going to Reed College in Portland. Reed is a liberal arts college, one of the country’s most expensive, with a ‘hippie aura’ going on. Jobs felt it was the right place to develop his artistic side, so he dismissed Berkeley and Stanford. While visiting Wozniak at Berkeley, his parents received an acceptance letter from Reed College. Paul and Clara Jobs actively discouraged it, as it was far more than they could afford. They eventually bent to his will, and Steve enrolled at Reed College in 1972.

In 1972, Steve Jobs briefly attended classes at Reed College before dropping out.

Later, in the same year, the counterculture movement and political activism were winding down. America’s involvement in the Vietnam War was ending, and the youth was growing increasingly less radical and anti-establishment, with their focus and interest now being pathways to personal fulfillment. Jobs began exploring literature on spirituality and enlightenment, such as Be Here Now by Baba Ram Dass. He describes how the book ‘transformed’ him and many of his friends. At Reed College, Jobs became friends with his roommate, Daniel Kottke, who shared similar interests in music, literature, and psychedelics. Together, they would journey to the East Coast On The Road style, talk about the meaning of life, attend love festivals at the nearby Hare Krishna temple, and frequent the Zen center for free vegetarian food.

Daniel Kottke was Steve Jobs’ good friend, who would later become Apple’s employee #12.

Zen Buddhism and Vegetarianism

Steve Jobs intensely engaged in Eastern spirituality and Zen Buddhism while studying at Reed College. Kottke described Steve as “very much Zen. It was a profound influence. You see it in his approach with stark, minimalist aesthetics, intense focus.” It was not just a passing trend for him. Later, Steve Jobs recalled  how the Buddhist emphasis on intuition greatly influenced him:  “I began to realize that an intuitive understanding and consciousness was more significant than abstract thinking and intellectual, logical analysis.”   The one thing he struggled with was his intensity, preventing him from fully achieving inner peace. Another inspiration during his freshman year at Reed College was the book Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappé. It would stimulate him to continue pursuing extreme diets, including purges, fasts, or eating one or two fruits for weeks. Jobs later recalled this book as why he gave up meat for good.

Jobs and Friedland

One day, Steve Jobs needed to raise some cash, so he sold his typewriter to a student at Reed College. He entered a student’s room and found him having sex with his girlfriend. When Jobs turned to leave, the student told him to stay and invited him to take a seat until they finished.

Thus started Steve Jobs’s friendship with Robert Martin Friedland. Kottke described how their relationship had a lasting impact on Jobs, who was mesmerized by Friedland’s mercurial, dictatorial, yet incredibly charismatic personality. By Kottke’s account, Friedland helped Jobs ‘come out of his shell.’ He was the type of character one instantly noticed when he walked into the room—a real salesperson. The more he and Friedland hung out, the more these characteristics rubbed off on him.

Robert Friedland was Steve Jobs’ college mentor. Nowadays Friedland is Singapore-based American metals magnate with a net worth close to $1 billion.

Friedland also became interested in Eastern spirituality, and together with Kottke and Jobs, they set up a commune called the All One Farm, a meeting place for the like-minded. Soon, it turned into sort of an “organic cider business.” Robert Friedland would have people organize feasts, chop and sell firewood, make cider, and engage in commercial endeavors that went directly against the idea of a commune. It was supposed to be a refuge from materialism, yet Friedland turned it into a business without anyone getting paid. Eventually, Jobs left the farm but kept in touch with Friedland over the years. Jobs was disappointed as he always treated Friedland like a spiritual guru, but Steve was just a gold miner symbolically and in reality. The traits that Jobs picked up from Friedland would help pace his future as an entrepreneur.

College Drop Out

Wozniak visited Jobs at Reed College to find that Jobs was unpleased with the college. He was angry that Reed still had strict course requirements for its entire hippie aura. While feeling deep regret for his parents spending their entire life savings on an education that he did not deem worthwhile, Jobs decided to drop out.

When he dropped out of the required classes, he started looking into the ones he wanted to take. Among them was a calligraphy class that fascinated Jobs. It appealed to his personality, as he considered it a combination of technology and subtle art. A crucial thing he did at Apple was push the idea of a friendly graphical user interface. The calligraphy class became iconic in that sense. He said famously in a commencement speech at Stanford :  “If I had never dropped in on that single college course, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces of proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them.”

His time as a dropout was not all romantic. He did not have a dorm room, so he slept on the floor in his friends’ rooms. He returned coke bottles for 5-cent deposits so he could buy some food and walked 7 miles across town every Sunday to get a free meal at the Hare Krishna temple.

Atari, Inc.

In mid-1972, Steve Jobs moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he rented his apartment. By this point, his relationship with his girlfriend Brennan had become complicated because neither could commit. They eventually separated but remained in contact and had been involved with each other even while seeing different people.

In 1973, Wozniak designed his version of the classic video game Pong and gave it to Jobs upon completion. Jobs took it down to Atari Inc., and they gave him a job. Nolan Bushnell, the co-founder, described Steve Jobs as a complex but valuable person to work with, commenting that he was often the brightest person in the room and would make sure everyone knew it.

Jobs worked at Atari to save money for his long-awaited trip to India. At this point, he was living in a Los Gatos cabin, reading Be Here Now , listening to South Indian music, and sitting on a Japanese meditation pillow. Before leaving for India, he gave Brennan (who would visit him at the cabin) a $100 bill he earned at Atari.

Trip to India

Steve Jobs dreamed of going to India in search of enlightenment. He asked his boss at Atari, Inc. to fund his journey, which he did, but only up to Germany. There, Jobs had to work on fixing Atari machines to continue his journey. Jobs and Kottke traveled to India to meet a famous guru who had died when they arrived. Jobs described his return to America as a cultural shock rather than going to India.

The people in India, particularly in the countryside, think entirely oppositely. Jobs admired the fact that they used their intuition instead of their intellect, and their intuition proved to be far more developed than the rest of the world. Jobs believed that rational thought was the outstanding achievement of Western civilization. The Indian villages never learned it, but they discovered the power of intuition and experiential wisdom. It could be valuable in some ways, but it could not be valuable in others. “It was one of the first times that I realized that maybe Thomas Edison did a lot more to improve the world than Karl Marx and Neem Kairolie Baba put together,” Jobs later commented . Nevertheless, Jobs continued practicing Zen Buddhism throughout his life.

The Video Game “Breakout”

Jobs lived in his parent’s backyard upon his return from India. He converted the backyard toolshed into his bedroom with a sleeping bag, some books, a candle, and a meditation pillow. At this time, Jobs still frequented Friedland’s All One Farm and continued practicing Zen with Brennan. One day in 1975, he shuffled into the Atari office barefoot, looking all hippie-like, and carrying a copy of Be Here Now, which he handed to Allan Alcorn (who worked as an engineer at Atari and who built Pong game as a training exercise) before asking if he could have his job back. Soon after, Jobs resumed his job at Atari, working mainly at night. Wozniak, who had an apartment nearby, often came by after dinner to hang around and play video games.

When Nolan Bushnell asked Jobs to design a circuit board for an arcade video game,  Breakout , he knew that Wozniak would be doing all the heavy lifting. Atari paid $100 for each transistor–transistor logic (TTL) chip eliminated in the machine. Jobs asked him for help and proposed splitting the fee if Wozniak could minimize the number of chips. Steve Wozniak managed to reduce the TTL chip count to 46. As a result, Wozniak, a game that usually takes developers months, developed in four days. While Woz drew the design on paper, Jobs sat beside him, implementing the design by wire-wrapping chips into a breadboard. When they completed the product, Jobs and Woz split $700 bucks for the job. Little did Woz know that Atari had paid them $5,000, and Jobs had hidden this information. Ten years later, Woz learned about the deal, saying that if Jobs had explained that he needed the money, he would have given it to him.

Jobs believed he was lucky to have entered the computer world first, even though it was still a romantic industry. There were no degrees in computer science, so people who worked in the field were brilliant mathematicians, physicists, architects—all types. In an exclusive, personal conversation with Fortune magazine , Steve Jobs said, “There are people around here who start companies just to make money, but the great companies, well, that’s not what they’re about.”

Homebrew Computer Club and The Apple I

While Steve Jobs was away in India or at the All One Farm helping Friedland with the apple orchard, Steve Wozniak worked at Hewlett-Packard, his dream job. In his spare time, he designed various electronics, mainly computer circuits. His curiosity and deep passion led him to join a computer hobbyists association called the Homebrew Computer Club, which was co-founded by Gordon French and Fred Moore and existed from March 05, 1975, to December 1986. Steve Wozniak attended its first meeting in March 1975, which was held in French’s garage. Later, Jobs joined Wozniak, and they started attending to them regularly.

Before personal computing emerged, computers had probably existed since the 1940s. By the 1970s, most large corporations were equipped with massive mainframes in IBM-owned computer rooms.

The idea of personal computing seemed a bit too radical at first. Private individuals using computers was an abstract, unorthodox, almost anarchic concept. It was no surprise that personal computers emerged in the Bay Area, where the electronics industry interlaced with the counterculture.

The hype was born when, in 1974, a Mountain View-based company, Intel, revealed the world’s first microprocessor entitled the 8080. Soon after, a New Mexico resident named Ed Roberts launched the ‘Altair’ – an assemble-it-yourself computer kit resembling the Heathkits that Jobs constructed in his youth. It seemed worthless until Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote a BASIC interpreter for the Altair in 1975. Word spread like fire around the country’s engineers, radio amateurs, and other nerds (including the Homebrew Computer Club) that a young company named Microsoft put this Altair device to proper use. Suddenly, people started showing up at the Homebrew Computer Club with their latest machines and programs.

Steve Wozniak was impressed by Microsoft’s interpreter, but from his experience, he was confident that he could build a better machine. While working at HP, Wozniak would spend his free time designing a new computer board. In 1976, Steve Wozniak invented the Apple I computer. The result was impressive. The Apple I was a powerful computer with a keyboard display screen and required only a few chips. Wozniak immediately showed it to Jobs, who was stunned. Jobs saw commercial potential in this device as there were many software hobbyists around who needed a computer for which they could write software. Forecasting high demand, Jobs convinced Wozniak that they should sell it. Thus, the two assembled a few Apple I computers and sold them at the Homebrew Computer Club meetings.

Fred Moore, the co-founder of the Homebrew Computer Club, was unhappy with Jobs and Wozniak selling their computers at the club. The initial idea was somewhat of a hacker ethic that all information should be free and all authority mistrusted. Woz was in on the concept and recalls initially designing the Apple I because he only wanted to give it away to people for free.

Bill Gates did not share this ethic and was angry at the Homebrew members for making copies of Microsoft’s BASIC interpreter without paying him. On February 03, 1976, he wrote a famous letter to the club asking the club members to pay for the software they used.

Steve Jobs had a similar mindset on the matter. He convinced Wozniak to stop sharing his schematics, arguing that most people won’t have time to build them. Instead, Jobs convinced Woz that it would be wiser to make and sell printed circuit boards to the club. Jobs devised a plan to pay an acquaintance at Atari to draw up and print a bunch of circuit boards they would sell.

“Even if we lose our money, we’ll have a company,” said Jobs as he drove his hippie Volkswagen bus. The idea of two best friends to start a company excited them. Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator for $500 to raise some money, and Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus. Despite a few setbacks, they had $1,300 in working capital, a product design, and a plan.

The Birth of Apple

When Jobs returned from his weekly visits to the All One Farm, Wozniak picked him up at the airport. On the ride back to Los Altos, they toyed around with possible names for the company. They considered some nerdy stuff like Matrix and Executek and some straight-up boring names like Personal Computers Inc. They had a deadline the next day, as they needed to get off the ground before anyone beat them to it.

Eventually, Jobs proposed naming the company Apple Computer, inspired by one of his fruitarian diets and visits to the apple farm. They liked the idea because it took the edge off the words’ computers’ and ‘electronics,’ making it sound more fun, spirited, and less intimidating. The other upside is that they would be one spot ahead of Atari in the phone book. Jobs said they would stick with Apple if they did not come up with a better name by the next evening. And so they did.

Meanwhile, Wozniak was still working at HP and designing his computer. Although he felt that this machine should belong to Apple, he needed to offer it to HP first, considering he used their offices for work. He demonstrated the project to his executives, who were impressed but refused to develop this product massively. After all, it was a hobbyist project, and it did not fit with HP’s high-quality market demands. The upside is that Wozniak was entirely free to focus on his company with Jobs.

In 1976, Wozniak presented the prototype Apple I computer to Steve Jobs and business partner Ronald Wayne. In April 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne co-founded Apple Computer in Steve’s Los Altos home garage, and in January 1977, the company was incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc.

In July 1976, the Apple I officially went on sale and was market-priced at $666.66 (in today’s money, it is $2,610.00 as of 2016).

Ronald Wayne would not stay for long, leaving Jobs and Wozniak as the chief co-founders of the company and selling his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800. Neighbors said that Jobs was quite odd in that he would greet clients with his underwear hanging out, looking all hippie-like. Jobs would work in the garage improving the Apple I for weeks, with Woz showing up now and then with his latest code. Much of the work also took place on the floor of Jobs’s kitchen, where he would spend hours trying to phone up investors for Apple. They successfully received funding from a semi-retired Intel product marketing manager, Armas Clifford “Mike” Markkula Jr. (born February 11, 1942), who believed Steve Jobs to be remarkable for having started a company at such a young age.

First Investments & IPO

In 1977, Mike Markkula invested $250,000 ($80,000 as an equity investment and $170,000 as a loan) into the company. In exchange, he got one-third ownership of Apple, starting a 20-year career with the enterprise.

This investment went directly into Apple’s breakthrough computer – the Apple II, which was introduced on April 16, 1977, at the first West Coast Computer Faire. Upon release, it became the first highly successful mass-produced personal computer with a market price of $1,298 (in today’s money, it is $5,080.00 as of 2016). It stood out with its remarkable use of color and a built-in keyboard. It was indeed the first computer to look like a consumer device. Soon after its release, Jobs and Woz became the superstars of Silicon Valley, and their stock was worth more than their parents made in a lifetime.

Between September 1977 and September 1980, Apple’s an average annual growth rate was 533%. The yearly sales of Apply Computer, Inc. grew from $775,000 to $118 million. The most interesting fact that within this period, the Apple II was the single product of the company along with some of its peripherals, accessories, and software.

Jobs and Brennan had recently reunited, and she had been offered a position at the new Apple headquarters in the shipping department. Brennan noted that her relationship with Jobs grew increasingly distant as his at Apple grew. In 1977, she was approached by Rod Holt, who offered her a well-paid internship designing blueprints for Apple devices. Although this position would fit her well, considering her artistic background, the decision was overshadowed by the fact that Brennan realized that she had been pregnant and Steve Jobs was the father. Jobs was not very happy with the news.

Brennan left Apple and spent much time alone, cleaning houses to make some money. She often asked Jobs for help, but he refused, seeding the notion that Brennan had been sleeping around and that he was infertile. Robert Friedland had invited her to the All One Farm in Oregon, where she gave birth to Lisa Brennan on May 17, 1978. Jobs was there as well after Friedland contacted him. Brennan and Jobs spent time together at the farm after the girl’s birth. Brennan suggested they name the girl Lisa, which Jobs liked and grew much attached to, even though he publicly denied paternity. Brennan later discovered that Jobs was working on a computer he intended to name “Local Integrated Software Architecture” – or simply the “Apple Lisa.” Jobs admitted to biographer Walter Isaacson that he called this machine after his daughter. After a DNA test had helped establish that Jobs was indeed the father, he started giving Brennan $500 a month.

On January 19, 1983, Apple introduced Apple Lisa, a desktop computer at the market price of $9,995 (in today’s money, it is $23,800 as of 2016).

On December 12, 1980, Apple initiated the IPO at $22 per share, and Jobs became a millionaire. The IPO helped Apple to generate more capital than any IPO since Ford Motor Company in 1956.

The end of the 1970s was a competitive time in Silicon Valley, with various companies attempting to flourish in the growing computing market. In May 1980, Apple Computers, Inc. announced the Apple III to compete with IBM and Microsoft in the market.

In December 1979, Steve Jobs and several Apple employees visited Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated) to see the Xerox Alto. He was allowed access to the research and development laboratory of Xerox PARC, which invented the whole paradigm of modern computing. In return, Xerox asked Apple for the possibility of buying 100,000 shares (800,000 split-adjusted shares) at the pre-IPO price of $10 per share. He would spend three days at Xerox facilities learning about new technological advancements and how he could implement them in his company. Jobs and his team extracted various innovations from Xerox and put them into Apple, including a revolutionary device called ‘mouse.’ However, before he could work this technology into Apple, he had to deal with a power shift inside his company.

John Sculley, new Apple’s CEO

Once the company had gone public, the board of directors assumed that it would be wise to hire an experienced executive to run the company since Steve Jobs did not have much experience in the management field. After interviewing a dozen people, Jobs focused on John Sculley, the CEO of Pepsi. At first, Sculley was hesitant, but Jobs quickly convinced him by asking:   “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?” mirroring the charismatic and inspiring persuasion skills that he acquired from Robert Friedland. In 1983, John Sculley became the new Apple CEO.

The Macintosh

Steve Jobs had spent some time developing the idea for the Apple Lisa computer. Still, the board of directors refused to greenlight the project, thinking that Jobs was unqualified, and in 1981, he was taken from the Lisa division. Tension sparked between Jobs and the board of directors. Jobs took a team of Apple’s best engineers and set up shop in an unused area at the Apple headquarters, hanging a pirate flag at the entrance.

Jobs forced his team to haul on the project. Some of them would work for 25 hours straight and come up to Jobs to show him what they had done, only to be dismissed and told that they had not worked hard enough. Many quit Apple in disgust, saying they would never work for Jobs again. Jobs was reluctant to give them rest, as he only accepted the most remarkable innovations and nothing less with his standards getting higher and higher. Although it was rough work, the finished product proved to be revolutionary.

The mission was to create the least complicated computer available to the ‘mere mortals’ as Jobs would say. The result was extraordinary but not particularly useful. Jobs knew he needed the right software and turned to Bill Gates for help, who spent two years writing software for the Mac. Jobs had no idea that Bill Gates would eventually become his greatest rival, and instead, he focused on tackling the market colossus IBM.

On January 10, 1984, Steve Jobs introduced the Macintosh 128K. The advertising campaign for the Macintosh was very impactful and thought-provoking. The same month, during the Superbowl, Apple took a swing at IBM with a commercial directed by Ridley Scott depicting a frightening Orwellian future that Jobs sought to destroy.

Upon the release of the Macintosh, the leading figures of the computing world dismissed it as nothing more than a toy. Sales were disappointing, and the effect was very harmful to the company and its future.

Fired from Apple

Trouble started brewing at Apple. Jobs’s self-indulgent thinking was considered a waste of resources. Stephen Wozniak left the company in 1985 because he believed it was headed in the wrong direction. The failure of the Macintosh convinced the board of directors that if the company hoped to survive, it needed a more mature leader.

Sculley told Jobs that the firm was in trouble regarding sales and performance and that the problem lay in the Macintosh division. Steve Jobs refused to play along with the board, and it would not be long before he began identifying Sculley as a rival, devising a plan to eliminate him. He put together a confrontational boardroom meeting where he forced the board to side with either him or Sculley, and much to his surprise, the board voted for Sculley. The next day, Jobs was unchivalrously fired from his company.

On September 17, 1985, Steve Jobs submitted a resignation letter to the Apple Board. He talked five key Apple employees into coming with him and joining his new venture, NeXT. Also, he sold all but one share of his stock, making a point that once he’s out, the company will be doomed to fail.

After being out of business, Jobs decided to continue pursuing his vision of creating the most fantastic computer in the world. He assembled a team of the top five employees from Apple, and in 1985, he founded NeXT Inc. after he resigned from Apple with $7 million.

His mission was to establish an ideal work environment so everybody could be comfortable creating this supercomputer that had to be perfect. The NeXT had a remarkable design that looked way ahead of its time. It showed the perfectionist side of Jobs. In 1986, Jobs was running out of funds, and with no product on the horizon, he turned to venture capital funding for help. A billionaire, Ross Perot, decided to help Steve Jobs and invested heavily in his company. The NeXT Computer was shown on October 12, 1988, at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, California.

In 1990, The NeXT Computer was succeeded by the NeXTcube at a market price of $10,000. It was technologically advanced, but the device was too expensive. Jobs struggled to find a market for it as few people bought their hardware. Although Jobs was highly romantic, he was also a survivor and knew how to be practical when needed. He marketed this device as the first “interpersonal” computer to replace the traditional personal computer. It included a multimedia email system, NeXTMail, that could share voice, image, graphics, and video in email for the first time.

Therefore, the company decided to focus on developing its software, creating an elegant and breathtaking operating system, NeXTSTEP, that was sold better than any of its computers. In 1994, the company earned its first profit of $1.03 million. In 1996, NeXT Software, Inc. introduced WebObjects, a framework for Web application development. When NeXT Software, Inc. was acquired by Apple Inc. in 1997, WebObjects was used to create MobileMe services, the Apple Store, and the iTunes Store.

One crucial thing Jobs learned from his endeavors in NeXT is that he would consistently use secrecy as a business strategy from now on. It helped people stay hungry and imposed the idea that Jobs had much more to show than he did.

Reconnecting with Family

After being fired from Apple, Jobs made peace with Brennan and was motivated to find his biological family. He often apologized for his behavior toward Brennan and Lisa, saying he never took responsibility when he should have. By the time Lisa was nine, Jobs had developed a close relationship with her and even changed her name on her birth certificate to Lisa Brennan-Jobs.

He found his birth mother, Joanne Scheible Simpson, shortly after he left Apple. She revealed to him that he has a biological sister – Mona Simpson, whom he tracked down and grew to admire. Jobs and Brennan developed a working relationship with Lisa, and Brennan attributes this change to Mona’s influence on him. Although Jobs and Mona successfully tracked down their biological father, Abdulfattah Jandali, Jobs was reluctant to meet him. Later, Jandali learned through a blog post that Steve Jobs was his son, but the two never met.

Jobs always considered Paul and Clara Jobs his birth parents and had a lot of love and admiration for them. Still, there were certain moments when he felt that they could not connect. Jobs was artistic, ambitious, and intellectual – the exact opposite of his adoptive parents, who did not have a college degree and a creative mindset. Having discovered his biological parents, he learned where this seed of intellectuality came from – as he found that both of them were artistic and smart like he was. It filled up a certain darkness in his soul, as he describes his post-Apple years as his most creative and personally fulfilling.

In those years, he met his future wife, Laurene Powell. They married on March 18, 1991, in a Buddhist ceremony at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. Steve’s guru, Kobun Chino Otogawa, conducted the service, and fifty people attended, including his father, Paul Jobs, and his sister, Mona Simpson. The couple would have three kids: Reed Jobs (born in 1991), Erin Jobs (born in 1995), and Eve Jobs (born in 1998).

Pixar and The Walt Disney Company

Steve Jobs’ professional life was about to undergo radical change. In 1986, when Jobs departed from Apple, he acquired a small company, The Graphics Group (now Pixar), from Lucasfilm’s Computer Division for $10 million.

Jobs got lucky that an American animator and film director, John Alan Lasseter, was already part of The Graphics Group when he acquired it. Before joining The Graphics Group, John Lasseter had been dismissed from Disney for promoting computer animation but later joined the Graphics Group (Pixar) of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm.

The Pixar team started experimenting with 1-2 minute demo films. They saw the films as artistic successes, which fueled an ambition to create the first entirely computer-animated feature film. Hollywood raised an eyebrow when The Walt Disney Company scored a deal with Pixar, ultimately leading to the creation of Toy Story (1995), directed by John Lasseter.

Jobs has invested the last money he had left from his Apple stocks, putting himself on the line. In 1995, the investment paid off in time when the computer-animated film Toy Story became the year’s highest-grossing movie with a box office of $373.6 million, surpassing a spy movie,  GoldenEye  (1995), by a mile. On November 29, 1995, Pixar Animation Studios held its IPO due to its enormous success. During the IPO, Pixar stock rose from $22 to $45 in only its first half-hour. The stock price surged to $49 before closing the day at $39, and after the IPO, Steve Jobs became a billionaire.

John Lasseter, the film director of Pixar, also directed A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Cars (2006), and Cars 2 (2011) , which made a new benchmark in the animated film industry.

Meanwhile, Apple was not doing so well. The company started deteriorating and becoming mediocre as soon as Jobs was fired. They no longer focused on making innovations but released various devices such as cameras and printers to compete with companies releasing the same stuff on the market. In a 1996 interview for PBS, Jobs revealed that his wounds have still not healed – condemning the board for destroying everything he spent ten years working on. Since Jobs was ousted, the company changed 3 CEOs, and by the time Pixar got big, Apple had lost its mission and founding spirit. Meanwhile, Bill Gates flourished triumphantly as Microsoft dominated the market with 80% of America’s Windows computers – compared to Apple’s unimpressive 11%.

Steve Jobs Returns to Apple

In an unexpected move to save their skin, Apple announced they would buy NeXT Inc. for $427 million in December 1996. Jobs was back at his company as the de facto chief and instantly cleaned up the mess they had made over the years. In 1997, CEO Gil Amelio was ousted, and Jobs was assigned as interim Chief Executive Officer. To make changes even more apparent, Apple launched an advertising campaign featuring iconic characters such as John Lennon and Martin Luther King, with the slogan “Think different.” Some believe it directly responded to IBM’s campaign, which only said: “Think.”

Steve Jobs proceeded to ax various projects at the company, including the Newton, Cyberdog, and OpenDoc. Employees were scared to ride the elevator at Apple, fearing that they would lose their jobs once the doors opened. Although Jobs only removed a few people, it was enough to keep the whole company on its toes. During the Macworld Expo 2000, Jobs dropped the “interim” from his title and announced himself as CEO. Thus began the most remarkable shift in the history of corporate America.

The new Apple products ran on NeXT technology, most importantly NeXTSTEP, which would soon become Mac OS X. With the introduction of the iMac, its appealing design, and strong branding, the company’s sales had increased drastically by 2000. With the release of the iPod and the iTunes store, the company had dominated the music distribution market under threat from pirate ‘free’ sharing sites such as Napster. Steve Jobs demanded that industry specialists allow him to sell songs in the store for 99 cents or not sell them at all. In a typical Steve Jobs fashion, Apple got precisely what they wanted. Apple’s innovations continued when, on June 29, 2007, they entered the cellular phone business with the iPhone. It had all the features of the iPod and more, and it also came with a browser that significantly impacted mobile browsing. In 2010, Apple grabbed the lead in the post-PC era by unveiling the iPad.

Jobs was praised and criticized for utilizing his charm, charisma, bravado, hyperbole, marketing, appeasement, and persistence to convince consumers to buy his products. Together, these elements allowed Jobs to create a ‘reality distortion field,’ a mental force that kept the listeners on the edge of their seats. This reality distortion field is particularly evident during keynote events called ‘Stevenotes.’ It is another quality that Jobs had learned from his Reed College friend Robert Friedland, a trait that academics would study and successful entrepreneurs would be able to employ.

In the 2000s, Jobs lived a corporate life. He was a member of the board of directors of Gap Inc. from 1999 to 2002. He had to defend the company against the government running an investigation into Apple dealing with unreported taxable income (which he proved he did not know about). The company had also been criticized for generating e-waste, to which they responded by establishing a successful recycling program for Apple products. Steve’s plan for Apple was always to be one step ahead in the game, quoting ice hockey player  Wayne Gretzky, who once said: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”

On June 12, 2005, Steve Jobs gave an inspiring commencement speech at Stanford University.

The company also grew to tackle security frauds, which often occurred due to loopholes in still-developing technology. Apple’s constant innovation, commitment to the customer, and adequate response to criticism by taking immediate action propelled It to become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company by 2011.

Steve Jobs met with U.S. President Barack Obama in 2011, complaining about the nation’s shortage of adequate software engineers and proposing to award international students who came to the U.S. to study engineering with a green card. Jobs admired the president’s intelligence but was infuriated at his inability to take action and his constant listing of reasons why things could not get done.

Steve Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October 2003. Although doctors recommended that he treat it immediately – as it was a treatable form – Jobs refused surgery and focused on an alternative treatment method. Some experts say that his prolonging of the surgery and faith in alternative medicine cost him his life. Nine months later, when he realized it was not working, he underwent surgery, and the tumor was removed for good. Tim Cook ran the company while Jobs was away.

Jobs returned to work soon after his operation, but the media flooded him with questions about his health, noticing his slender appearance and unusually unenergetic delivery. In 2008, Bloomberg mistakenly published an obituary of Jobs that they soon deleted. In September 2008, Jobs responded during his keynote at an Apple Special Event by quoting Mark Twain on a slide: “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

In 2009, Jobs learned that his health was deteriorating alarmingly and proceeded to take a six-month leave of absence, naming Tim Cook the acting CEO of Apple. In April of that year, Jobs underwent a successful liver transplant. He admitted he almost died waiting for a liver transplant because there were not enough livers in California. After the surgery, he became a public advocate for organ donation.

On August 24, 2011,  Steve Jobs announced his resignation as Apple’s CEO, stating, “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.” Jobs named Tim Cook his successor and became head of the board. He continued working at Apple until the day before his death.

Steve Jobs died in his Palo Alto home in California around three p.m. on October 05, 2011. The official cause of death was pancreatic cancer complications, resulting in a respiratory arrest. He died surrounded by his family. By Mona Simpson’s account, Jobs woke up from a coma and looked up at his sister Parry, then at his children, then at his wife Laurene, and over their shoulders past them. Before he departed, Jobs delivered his final words: “OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.”

Some compare these words to those of Thomas Edison , who emerged from a coma and said, “It is very beautiful over there” before passing away.

Apple, Pixar, Microsoft, and all Disney properties flew their flags at half-staff that day to pay their respects. The Apple website displayed an image of Jobs in black and white next to his name and lifespan for two weeks following his death. Apple had arranged a private memorial service for employees on October 19, 2011, with some of the attendees being Tim Cook, Bill Campbell, Norah Jones, Al Gore, Coldplay, and Jobs’s widow, Laurene Jobs. The governor of California declared Sunday, October 16, 2011, “Steve Jobs Day.” On that day, a closed memorial was held at Stanford University, with each attendee receiving a box containing the Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda as a farewell gift from Jobs. Steve Wozniak, George Lucas , Bill Gates, and President Barack Obama all offered statements in the light of his departure. Jobs rests in an unmarked grave at Alta Mesa Memorial Park, a non-denominational cemetery in Palo Alto, with respect to his spiritual views.

Steve Jobs was the man who re-invented the computer world. He managed to take many ground-breaking ideas and implement them into reality. Steve Jobs’s life story was exciting, but at the same time, it could not be called an easy one. He faced many obstacles on his life path but tackled them with pride and innovative thinking. We hope you have enjoyed exploring Steve Jobs’s biography and his success story, inspiring you to make new, unforeseen discoveries.

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Steve Jobs: The Life and Times of the Great Entrepreneur Essay (Biography)

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Introduction

The phrase “a failure is a man who blundered, but is not able to cash in on the experience” by Elbert Hubbard lingers in many minds as far as finding its implication is concerned. Just like many other quotes associated with Hubbard, it remains immortal due to its relevance over time, beyond many generations in the past and even in the future. This quote in particular, has become synonymous with lives of people.

The essence of the above phrase lies on the fact that a failure is not a failure until one learns from it to avoid failure in the future. It, therefore, implies that we should learn from our mistakes and strive to look at past inefficiencies so that we are able to mitigate any repeat in the future. The author acknowledges that it is in human nature to ‘fall’ but be caution, to learn from the past mistakes and to benefit in building a formidable future as a result of the experience gained from the past.

In this regard, this essay seeks to link between the phrase by this great American philosopher and the life and times of the great entrepreneur, Steve Jobs. Spector (1985) interrogates the inadequacies that Jobs faced in his life and how he took them positively trying to improve his lifestyle and his commitment towards making a positive contribution to the society. (Stross, 1993)

Throughout his life he was able to face hurdles which were some kind of a stepping stone towards success, manifested through the empire and legacy that he built with the aim of improving the life standard of this generation and the generations to come. The adoption of the above phrase enabled Steve Jobs to be immortal even with his passing on.

Steve Jobs was born in an ordinary family and led an ordinary life, nonetheless, he managed to climb the ladder of life by doing ordinary things in an ordinary way. In such a simple way he became one of the most celebrated people of all times in the electronics field. (Young, 1988)

He lived with his parents (adopted) and was frequently engaged in working on electronics with his father who taught him determination and resilience, requisite virtues for success. He practiced diligence and innovative approach in his work as far as creativity was concerned. His elementary school life was not flowery as he had difficulty to communicate with his peers and occasionally had to bribed his elementary school teacher because of his studying (Butcher,1987).

In spite the challenges Steve Jobs encountered in elementary school, he was able to forge ahead not loosing focus in life and not giving up his interests. The quote by Hubbard applied in his life to the latter. His life in high school entailed spending free time at computer related work.

He would go to Hewlett-Packard, where he encountered a valuable friendship with Steve Wozniak, a computer wizard. They blended well and had mutual friendship that was close to admiration. Time after high school was full of intrigues as he dropped from Reed College after attending for only half a year.

The rest of the year he inconsistently attended creative lessons only to find something interesting in typography. Determination was a virtue he would not have identified both his interests and his talent with. He did not look at the challenges he was facing at school but fought hard for a place in life. Being in constant search for spiritual fulfillment, he visited India where he used psychedelic drugs and later rejoined his friend Wozniak to cofound what is today a brand name Apple (Alison, 1996).

They started it on a humble background by selling Jobs’ vehicle (Volkswagen bus), while a friend of his patted with his calculator. Challenges and hardships they experienced couldn’t stop their desire to succeed in life. In spite of the turbulent tides, they fought and did their best to remain focused building a worldwide venture. Notwithstanding his unique school life, Jobs offered a complementary hand to his friend and they became business partners.

The two friends, Wozniak and Jobs, introduced a new edge to the computer world by diverging a new approach in the industry. They used a different technological approach that was focused on production of relatively smaller components that were affordable and competitive in the market (Levy, 1994). Their models were easy to use in comparison with the products the market offered at that moment. There initial model was Apple1.

It made a fortune and brought a lot of rewards. Within three-year-time they were working harder to introduce another product Apple11. Their income increased by over seven hundred percent. Within one decade of their existence in the market, they had made a brand name that was the best in the world of computers.

The phrase, “a failure is a man who blundered, but is not able to cash in on the experience” by Hubbard is applicable here. They have used their chance and improved the first Apple model rather than neglected it. In a spun of three years they had used their previous experience to make Apple11. This enabled Steve Jobs and his colleague to bank seven hundred folds much.

Apple as a company had misdoings especially on the subsequent models. That resulted in reducing sale rates of the product. Some of them were even recalled due to the consumer complaints. Other brands like IBM gave them a run for their money. In middle 80s they introduced the Macintosh approach that did little to edge out IBM, a key competitor, from the market. Then the board developed squabbles with Steve Jobs forcing his resignation in the year 1985.

Just like our guiding quote has it, he did not tire, he started another firm by the name NeXT, Inc instead. That followed with acquisition of an Imation company with a subsequent great deal of resilience and determination putting forth focus to excel (Wozniak, Jobs, 2006). He renamed it Pixar Studios.

Steve Jobs did not major on the challenges that had become of his former work place. He came back and managed to make a formidable force to reckon with the animation world. His new venture was successful but could not permeate the American market forcing it to merge with Apple where Steve Jobs got back his leadership role (CEO) back (Duncan, 2004).

Banking on lessons of the past failures, Steve Jobs reinvented Apple by use of innovative ways bringing some changes to the management. They were able to meet the customer demands by working different models that came with a stylish touch. Today Apple is a brand name that has cut a niche in the American market and the world at large.

This has seen its competitors struggling to match its revolutionary products that are hard to match especially due to customer loyalty (Bently, 2011). They have created i-Phones that cannot be matched in the market, this is not to forget the i-Pods and programs like i-Tunes that is amongst the leading American music gadgets. The success attributed to the Founder and CEO, Steve Jobs has made the company earn an accolade as the most respected company in the world.

This is fundamental because of the shape focus that Steve Jobs managed to put not being discouraged by past failures but forging on with an attempt geared towards improving those failures so that success was reached. The company became so successful to the point of having no debt liability, something not very easy to attain in the business world. (Linzmayer, 2004)

Steve Jobs’ personal life is also a manifestation of improvement of the past mistakes. Starting with his days at the elementary school where he had difficulties coping with the school system to the extent of taking bribes so as to read. (O’Grady, 2008) That reflected on the challenges he experienced.

And looking at his days at high school, it’s seen that his weakness in following school curriculum was evident. (Harper, 2011) He struggled to remain successful in the school setup and he struggled to be successful in life. His health life especially on his last days depicts him as a person who did not want to face reality because he postponed a surgery to remove cancer. He instead opted for other types of medication. He later accepted to undergo the surgery and that was another success. (Simon, 2005)

It is self evident that the quote, “a failure is a man who blundered, but is not able to cash in on the experience” is relevant and applicable in analysis of the life and times of Steve Jobs. His path was a life of ups and downs and he did very little to make history and touch the lives of many people.

He was born and adopted, the fact he learned when he was 27 years old. He became positive in life and lived peacefully and happily with his foster parents. He went to school and had some challenges in schooling starting with elementary level where he had problems coping with curriculum and making friends.

This followed high school years where he frequently dropped on and off from school until such a time that he identified an area, typography, his interests were concentrated at. In starting the Apple Company, he encountered financial challenges that made him sell his valuable vehicle. To him attaining his dream overshadowed all other challenges. This was followed with being locked out of Apple as the CEO (Bilton, 2011).

He did not take the challenges negatively, instead of that he went and built another company that excelled in all respects to an extent of merging with the Disney and later becoming the greatest share holder. (Bob, 2007) His successful venture enabled him return to Apple and continue being the CEO on a position he held until his demise. Truly his path was a life well lived, he rectified his mistakes to improve his future life.

Alison, M. 1996. Building a Bulging War chest, The New York Times . 26August 2011

Bently, P. 2011. Steve Job’s biological mother doesn’t know he is dead. London daily

Bilton, N., 2011.Apple is the most valuable company. New York times .9 August 2011

Bob, E, 2007.Appeal court says Jobs can’t raze Woodside mansion. San Francisco Chronicles10 January 2007. Retrieved

Butcher, L, 1987. Accidental Millionaire : The rise and fall of Steve Jobs at Apple . Paragon House.

Duncan, C , 2004. The guardian profile: Steve Jobs. The Guardian (UK). 31 March2006

Harper, C, Q 2011.Steve jobs: a relentless rise in graphs and charts

Levy, S., 1994. Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer that Changed Everything. Penguin Books .

Linzmayer, O, W., 2004. Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of the World’s Most Colorful Company. No Starch Press. ISBN 1-59327-01

O’Grady, J. (2008). Apple Inc. Greenwood Press.

Simon, W, L, Young, J, S, 2005. Icon: Steve Jobs, The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business . John Wiley & Sons

Spector, G, 1985. Apple’s Jobs Starts New firm, PC week.p p.109

Stross, R. E. (1993). Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing. Atheneum. ISBN 0-689-1213-0 pp. 117, 120, 246.

Wozniak, Steve (2006). IWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I invented the personal computer, co-founded Apple and had fun doing it . W. W. Norton & Co.

Young, J, S., 1988. Steve Jobs: the Journey is the Reward . Scott, Foresman & Co

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intermediate 8-17 384 elementary 6-14 327 advanced 14-17 251 intermediate 12-17 185 advanced 14-17 137 intermediate 13-17 112 elementary 10-17 108 intermediate 13-100 100 intermediate 13-100 85 intermediate 13-17 89 elementary 13-17 72 elementary 15-100 71 intermediate 16-100 63 intermediate 15-100 62 advanced 14-17 59 intermediate 12-100 55 intermediate 14-17 52 intermediate 12-100 53 advanced 14-17 54 elementary 13-100 50 Worksheets that listen. Worksheets that speak. Worksheets that motivate students. Worksheets that save paper, ink and time.   > > > intermediate 12-16 49 Bodybuilder Sports Stars News Anchor Director/Producer Diet Dictionary Steve Jobs Height, Weight, Age, Body Statistics 6 ft 2 in 70 kg February 24, 1955 Pisces Dark Brown Steve Jobs was an entrepreneur and business magnate from the United States. He is credited for co-founding the multinational technology company Apple Inc  and founding the computer hardware and software company, NeXT which was later bought by Apple Inc. He died at 56 due to a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. Steven Paul Jobs Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955. Jobs passed away at the age of 56 on October 5, 2011, at his home in Palo Alto, California. He had been battling a relapse of the pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, which led to respiratory arrest. San Francisco, California, United States Nationality Steve Jobs went to the  Monta Loma Elementary School in Mountain View. In sixth grade, he joined  Crittenden Middle School . He later got admission at Cupertino Junior High . In 1968, he got enrolled at the  Homestead High School in Los Altos. After graduating from high school, he got admission to Reed College . He eventually dropped out of college as he didn’t want to spend most of the parents’ money on his tuition fees. He had also taken the freshman English class at Stanford University . Entrepreneur and Business Magnate Father –  Abdulfattah Jandali Mother –  Joanne Schieble Siblings –  Mona Simpson (Sister), Patricia Ann Jobs (Stepsister) Others – Paul Jobs (Adoptive Father) (Former Coast Guard, Repo Man, and rebuilt cars in his free time), Clara Hagopian (Adoptive Mother), Arthur Casper Anthony Schieble (Maternal Grandfather), Irene Thekla Ziegler (Maternal Grandmother) 6 ft 2 in or 188 cm 70 kg or 154 lbs Girlfriend / Spouse Steve Jobs has dated Chrisann Brennan (1972-1977) – Steve Jobs first started dating Chrisann Brennan in 1972 while they were studying in high school. However, their relationship was volatile and very on and off in nature. In 1973, he rented a house near Reed Campus and invited her to live with him. They had been having affairs with others and it was Jobs attempt to make their relationship monogamous. However, she decided against living with him. After a brief hiatus, they got back together in 1975. They had accidentally bumped into each other while being involved with a Zen Buddhist community in Los Altos. They again separated as she went to India with her new boyfriend, Greg Calhoun, who was Jobs’ classmate at Reed College. Jobs himself drove them to the airport. Upon returning from her trip to India, they again started seeing each other. But as he achieved success with Apple , their relationship grew more complex. Their relationship was delivered a final blow when she told him that she was pregnant with his child. He even refused to discuss pregnancy with her. She had to clean houses for money and had to rely on welfare for her existence. She asked Jobs for money on a couple of occasions but he refused to help. He even started telling people that she was sleeping around and he was infertile, therefore, he couldn’t have got her pregnant. In May 1978, she gave birth to Lisa Brennan . He publicly continued to deny paternity. In fact, he even questioned the credibility of the paternity test, after which he had been ordered to pay Chrisann $500 per month. After he was forced out of Apple , he eventually repaired his relationship with her and reached a co-parenting equation with her. Diane Keaton – While he was living in the San Remo apartment building, he wanted to get together with actress Diane Keaton who was living in the same iconic building on Central Park West. However, when she went over to his huge apartment, he kept on talking about the computers and how they were going to take over the world. So, it didn’t lead to anything. Joan Baez  – In his Steve Jobs’ biography, Walter Isaacson claimed that Jobs dated singer Joan Baez for a brief period of time. They were introduced in 1982 by her sister Mimi Farina. They started dating seriously a little while later. It was claimed that he was most fascinated by the fact that she had dated Bob Dylan in the past. Their relationship came to an end when he revealed that he wanted children. Baez wasn’t ready for it. Laurene Powell Jobs  (1989-2011) – Steve Jobs first met Laurene Powell in 1989 while he was giving a lecture at the  Stanford Graduate School of Business . She was one of the students and he couldn’t take his eyes off her during his lecture. After the lecture, he met her in the parking lot and asked her out for a dinner. He proposed to her on New Year’s Day in 1990 with a bunch of freshly picked wildflowers. In May 1991, they got married in a Buddhist Ceremony. At the end of the ceremony, they went for a hike. In September 1991, the couple welcomed their first child, son Reed. They welcomed their second child, daughter Erin into their family in August 1995. In 1998, she gave birth to their third child, daughter Eve . They remained together until his death. Race / Ethnicity On his father’s side, he had Syrian ancestry, while on his mother’s side, he was of German and Swiss-German descent. Dark Brown (Natural) With age, his hair had started turning ‘Gray’. Sexual Orientation Distinctive features. Partially Bald Wore black turtleneck sweater and blue jeans Wore round spectacles Brand Endorsements Steve Jobs has narrated a Think Different TV commercial for Apple. Jobs had complicated religious views. He had rejected ‘Christianity’ and for some time, he followed Zen Buddhism. However, overall, his religious views leaned towards atheism. Best Known For Having co-founded the iconic American technology giant, Apple Inc . He also served as the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and chairman of the company. Being a majority stakeholder of Pixar and serving as the chairman of the company as well. After Walt Disney company acquired Pixar , he was made a member of the Walt Disney’s Board of Directors. First TV Show In 1981, Steve Jobs made his first TV show appearance on the family talk show,  Hour Magazine . Personal Trainer Steve Jobs relied on his unique fruit-oriented vegan diet to keep himself healthy. His diet mostly comprised of nuts, fruits, seeds, grains, and vegetables. Steve absolutely abstained from animal products. Also, he occasionally opted to eat only one or two foods such as apples and carrots. Steve Jobs Facts When he was growing up, his father Paul Jobs built a workbench for him in his garage so that he could pass his love of mechanics to his son. By the time he turned 10, he was spending a lot of time fixing and exploring electronics. He also befriended a lot of engineers living in his neighborhood. Till 4th grade, he had a difficult time getting used to traditional education. He frequently behaved badly in class and was regularly suspended for his troubles. At the age of 13, he was hired by Billy Hewlett, the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, for a summer job. He had written to Hewlett to ask for some parts for his electronics project. Steve was introduced to Steve Wozniak, his fellow Apple co-founder, through Bill Fernandez, who was his classmate at the Cupertino Junior High. Fernandez lived across the street from Wozniak. He was hired as a technician by Atari, Inc. after he took a new version of classic video game  Pong , which was designed by Steve Wozniak, to the company. In mid-1974, he undertook a trip to India to visit Neem Karoli Baba for spiritual enlightenment. However, when he reached Kainchi Ashram, he found it almost deserted as Neem Karoli Baba had passed away in 1973. He left India after having lived for 7 months and visited a couple of ashrams in Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. Upon returning, he lived at a commune in Oregon and experimented with psychedelic drugs. Before he established Apple , he spent a lot of time in lengthy meditation retreats at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, which is one of the oldest Zen monasteries in the US. He eventually returned to work with Atari and they offered him to pay US$100 for each TTL chip which was eliminated from the circuit board for the arcade video game  Breakout . As he had little knowledge of circuit board design, he recruited Wozniak for the project and told him that he would evenly split reward money with him. Wozniak managed to eliminate 46 TTL chips but Jobs later told him that he was paid only $700 for the work and he would pay him $350. Wozniak would learn 10 years later that Jobs was paid $5,000. Later, he collaborated with Wozniak to build a low-cost digital blue box, which manipulated the telephone network to allow free long-distance calls. Their illegal endeavor proved to be profitable and gave them confidence that they could take on big companies and achieve success. In April 1976, he collaborated with Wozniak and Ronald Wayne to start Apple Computers . As Wayne left after a short while, Wozniak and Jobs were the primary co-founders of the company. In 1977, he and Wozniak introduced Apple II , which would become the first consumer product to be sold by Apple. At the age of 23, he became a millionaire. By the time he turned 24, he was worth 10 million dollars. His net worth further grew exponentially and at 25, he was worth over 100 million. In 1985, he was forced to resign from Apple after he lost out a political battle against John Sculley, over who would run the company. Ironically, Jobs had lured Sculley away from Pepsi-Cola and had appointed him as the CEO of Apple. In 1985, he started NeXT Inc. with $7 million from his personal funds. The company managed to finally make a profit in 1994. It was acquired by Apple Inc. in 1997 for $427 million. In 1986, he paid $5 million to Lucasfilm to acquire Graphics Group , which was a computer division of the company. Jobs launched its spin-out as a corporation called Pixar. In January 2006, he reached a deal with Disney to sell the company in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4 billion. As a result of the deal, he became the majority stakeholder of The Walt Disney Company as he then owned almost 7 percent of the company’s stock. In 1997, he rejoined Apple Inc. In September 1997, he was formally declared interim chief executive. In 2000, he removed the “interim” modifier from his title and became the permanent CEO of the company. In 1987, he started his public feud with Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Computers, by making disparaging comments about Dell’s product. In 1997, Dell on being asked what he would have done if he was running Apple, responded by saying that he would shut it down and give the money back to shareholders. In 2006, Jobs responded with a dig at Dell in an email to his employees as his company’s market capitalization rose above Dell’s and he pointed out that Dell wasn’t good at predicting the future. In 1999, he was made a board member at the popular clothing brand, Gap Inc . He held that position till 2002. In 2004, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his pancreas. Initially, he resisted proper medical intervention and instead relied on alternative medicine for cure. In April 2009, he underwent a surgical procedure for a liver transplant at the Memphis-based Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute. In August 2011, he formally resigned from the post of CEO. He assumed the role of chairman of the board and announced Tim Cook as the new CEO of the company. During his lifetime, he was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine on a staggering 8 occasions. He rarely took a shower and shunned the use of deodorant as he felt that his vegan and fruit-oriented diet took care of body odor. However, some of the people who worked with him felt otherwise. In 2005, he was asked to deliver a commencement speech by Stanford University. In his speech, he recounted his struggling days during which he had to return Coke bottles for food and money and had to sleep on the floor of friends’ dorm rooms. In 2004, he was placed at the very top of the Premiere’s Power 100 list along with Pixar co-head John Lasseter. In 2006, he found himself in a similar position in the Power 50 list. In July 2022, Steve was posthumously honored with the “Presidential Medal of Freedom”. In 2023, Steve Jobs’ original handwritten Apple-1 computer ad was sold for $175,759 at an auction conducted by RR Auction, based in Boston. Featured Image by Ben Stanfield / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0 Entrepreneur Did we miss anyone? RELATED ARTICLES Purpled height, weight, age, facts, real name, family, sylveey height, weight, age, facts, family, mark rober height, weight, age, wife, children, leave a reply cancel reply. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Subscribe to our Newsletter Recent Articles Tiakola height, weight, age, facts, family, mike evans height, weight, age, net worth, wife, anmol kharb height, weight, age, coach, facts, family. © Copyright 2024 - Healthy Celeb Privacy Policy Terms of Use 45,000+ students realised their study abroad dream with us. Take the first step today Here’s your new year gift, one app for all your, study abroad needs, start your journey, track your progress, grow with the community and so much more. Verification Code An OTP has been sent to your registered mobile no. Please verify Thanks for your comment ! Our team will review it before it's shown to our readers. Famous Personalities / Steve Jobs Education Updated on   Jan 4, 2022 Having brought a series of revolutionary technologies to our world, Steve Jobs was an innovative thinker and visionary who always found delight in the unconventional methods of learning new things. He co-founded Apple Computers with his friend Steve Wozniak and introduced the phenomena of the much-desired iPhones to the 21st century. He lived a simpler life, emphasised the significance of eating healthy and democratized the technological arena by curating accessible and compact machines for everyday consumers. Reminiscing the world’s beloved innovator, we aim to explore Steve Jobs education through this blog thus delving deeper into his academic journey and learning some important lessons that he imparted to the world. “ Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected. “ This Blog Includes: “stay hungry, stay foolish” – the apple story, steve jobs education: career lessons to learn, lesser-known facts about steve jobs, what did steve jobs say about education, books on steve jobs. Having been abandoned by his biological parents at birth, Jobs was placed for adoption when a couple from San Francisco decided to raise him. When he was in high school, he called William Hewlett, the co-founder and president of Hewlett-Packard to boldly ask for parts for his school project. Impressed by his passion for electronics and gadgets, Hewlett gave him an internship offer for the summer. It was during his interning period that he became friends with Steve Wozniak. Later, in the year 1976, Jobs invented the first Apple computer with Wozniak while working from his garage. The foundation of Apple Computers was just the beginning of an era of path-breaking discoveries as Jobs went on to transform the technological world of mobile phones and computers. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Born on 24th February 1955 and adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs, the little Steve grew up in San Francisco with a younger sister, Patty. In the year 1961, the Jobs family shifted to Mountain View, California. Even as a little kid, Steve showed immense curiosity towards electronics and machines. Paul Jobs was a machinist and had a garage of his own where the father and son used to quench their thirst about experimenting and reconstructing the electronics. “Let’s go invent tomorrow rather than worrying about what happened yesterday.” At the age of 11, Steve joined Crittenden Middle School as a young kid where he was bullied and one day, he came home and asked his parents to get him into another school or he would never to go one again. His parents moved to Los Altos where he was admitted into Cupertino Junior High. It was during this time that he became a part of the Heckett-Packard Explorer Club where he came across his first computer. Steve joined Hampstead High School where he got the chance to attend some lectures at the office of Hewlett-Packard. “The doers are the major thinkers. The people that really create the things that change this industry are both the thinker and doer in one person. ” As Jobs was completing his school project and needed some parts to finally assemble it, courageously he asked for them to the president of Hewlett-Packard. Amazed by his bold and brave step, William Hewlett provided him with the parts along with an internship offer at the company. After the high-school phase of Steve Jobs Education, another crucial milestone came into his life when he went to Poland to join the Reed College. Not finding any interest in his undergraduate studies, Jobs decided to drop out of college and take those classes which he found himself inclined towards. He attended calligraphy classes and spent nights at the dorms of his friends. “The most precious thing that we all have with us is time.” When he left college, he opted for the position of a video game designer at Atari. A few months later, Jobs travelled to India accompanied by his friend Dan Kottke. Mystified by the eastern philosophies, he wanted to quench his thirst for spiritual enlightenment. He spent some time in Delhi roaming around barefoot and donning a lungi . He came back to Atari a Buddhist becoming more focused and somewhere grasping his hold on the questions inside him. India was a transformative point in Steve Jobs education as these seven months helped him explore his ideas of spirituality. He reconnected with Steve Wozniak after heading back and together they went to pioneer the technological world with the invention of Apple Computers. Emphasising the significance of feeding one’s curiosity is the most important lesson one can learn from Steve Jobs. Here are some more key career lessons that we can take away from Steve Jobs education and his life journey:  Focus on your Interests Being a college dropout, Steve Jobs has always emphasised on how important it is to focus more on exploring your interests and then following the crowd. Study the course that you find yourself passionate about rather choosing a popular degree and then getting diverted from your dream career. Also, you must try to gain as much as practical exposure in the field you are studying to understand what it is like in the real world. Follow Your Passion Chasing your inner calling can actually take you to the paths that are yet unknown. Jobs always stressed on the importance of following one’s heart and to be in love with what you are doing in life. You must be passionate about the career you want to pursue because that’s how you will be able to put your heart into it and achieve success. The Art of Simplicity The zenlike ability of Steve Jobs came from his strive to simplify things by cutting off unnecessary stuff in life. Even Apple’s first brochure said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” reflecting upon his quest for simplicity. He came to admire this notion during his night shifts at Atari and he found their games were superbly uncomplicated. He believed that simplifying things lessens their complexity and implementing this mantra in your life, you can achieve even the biggest goals if you stay away from the clutter and follow the art of simplicity! Find the Silver Lining in Your Dark Days Jobs always saw the instance of getting fired from Apple as a positive thing because he realised the pressure of being successful got swapped with the opportunity of being a beginner. Every failure comes with its own lessons and finding something good in your bad time can actually help you deviate your mind from focusing too much on what’s gone wrong. Another key lesson to learn from Steve Jobs education is the power of dreaming big. His mantra of “stay hungry” tells us that by aspiring for bigger dreams you can make your own mark on the world! Living a simple life even after he founded a revolutionary tech company, there are many things about Steve Jobs’ life that not everyone knows. Here we bring you the lesser-known facts about Steve Jobs education, his family life and his professional quest. As Steve Jobs was adopted by his family, his real biological parents were Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Schieble. Steve Jobs struggled as a college dropout and took only a few classes he was interested in. During this time, he also slept on the floor in the dorm rooms of his friends and used to walk over 7 miles to get free meals at Hare Krishna Temple. Jobs actually skipped two grades in middle school and after that, his parents decided to shift him to a more challenging school in California. Jobs’ ultimate inspiration was his father, Paul Jobs, who was a mechanic and craftsman and used to rebuild cars on weekends. Steve used to join his father on his weekend work when he was just 5 years old and was even given his own workbench. While working at Atari, Steve Jobs also found a job at an Apple orchard. When Jobs was sick, Apple CEO Tim Cook was ready to offer him his liver for the transplant but Jobs didn’t take it up saying, “I’d never let you do that.” He also met his real biological sister, Mona Simpson, later in his life. Jobs found it hard to fire people from his company when he had kids because he said that they looked his 5-year old kids and he couldn’t let them down. Steve Jobs was not well-liked due to his recklessness for personal hygiene and was even asked to work in the night shift. Jobs never actually learned how to code. He was also a dyslexic kid just like many geniuses such as Einstein, Henry Ford and Alexander Graham Bell. You must have seen Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford University where he told students about three stories from his own life going through different years that he found challenging or those that he learned immensely from. For him, schooling and formal education can be detrimental to the innate creativity of children and youngsters. He even said once that it was better if kids were sent to sail across the world rather than spend such a long time in middle school. He always emphasized on following one’s passions in life without worrying about how far the formal education can take. Let’s take a look at some of the key takeaways from his commencement speech at Stanford: Connecting the Dots “I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.” Looking back at his decision to drop out of Reed College, Jobs said that it was one of the best decisions he ever made even if he had no idea what he will be doing with his life. He trusted himself enough to make this decision because he knew that college education was costly and he wasn’t really interested in anything he was being taught. That’s when he started taking classes of his interest and learned calligraphy which later helped him design the typography for Macintosh. So, connecting the dots later in life, he realised that dropping out of college was the right move for him. Love and Loss “The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything.” Getting fired from his own company was a very public failure that Jobs faced at 30. He had a falling out with his team and felt that he let down his generation of entrepreneurs. But, Jobs further said that getting out of a huge successful position like this, he also felt lighter and like a beginner again. This led to one of the most creative phases in his life as he built Pixar and NeXT which later became a part of Apple Inc. Living Every Day as If It’s Your Last “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Another concluding lesson that Jobs imparted to the students is that we must live every day in our life as if it’s our last because one day it might. This is how you can face failure, big expectations, pride and fear of embarrassment, by simply knowing that you need to give your best no matter what happens or who says what. Everyone’s time is limited here in the world so it is important to pursue things that you love and are passionate about! I, Steve – Steve Jobs In His Own Words Steve Jobs: The man who thought different How to Think Like Steve Jobs Who was Steve Jobs? The Steve Jobs Way Steve Jobs: 50 Life and Business Lessons from Steve Jobs The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs iCon: Steve Jobs The Bite in the Apple: A Memoir of My Life with Steve Jobs Thus, Steve Jobs Education in itself is a journey filled with ups and downs as he held on to his passion for electronics breaking away from the conventional route that everyone takes. 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Childhood and Education Steve Jobs Biography Pack by Jessica Tobin VIDEO Steve Jobs Career Steve Jobs—the visionary who revolutionized technology Steve Jobs biography Steve Jobs/ Biography by Walter Isaacson/ G.English/ B.A B.SC/ 6th Semester/ Kashmir University Steve Jobs Biography Unknown Facts About Steve Jobs! #shorts #appleiphone #Steve Jobs #technology #siliconvalley COMMENTS Biography for Kids: Steve Jobs Biography >> Entrepreneurs. Occupation: Entrepreneur and inventor Born: February 24, 1955 in San Francisco, California Died: October 5, 2011 in Palo Alto, California Best known for: Co-founding Apple Computers Biography: Where did Steve Jobs grow up? Steve Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco, California on February 24, 1955. His birth parents gave him up for adoption and he was adopted by Paul ... Steve Jobs Jobs died on October 5, 2011, in Palo Alto, California. Nearly 11 years after his death, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The medal is the highest nonmilitary award in the United States. Steve Jobs was one of the founders of Apple Inc., one of the most successful companies in the world. As head of Apple, Jobs introduced many ... Steve Jobs Facts for Kids Steve was a Silicon Valley businessman most famous for his work with the company Apple Computer Inc, starting with the release of the Apple I in 1976.. Together with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Jobs helped make the idea of the personal computer popular in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, still at Apple, Jobs was one of the first to see the potential of using a mouse to control things on ... Steve Jobs Steve Jobs. Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 - October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar. He was a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along ... Steve Jobs Facts for Kids Name: Steve Jobs (Steven Paul Jobs) Profession: Businessman, Industrial Designer and Investor. Born: February 24th, 1955 in San Francisco, California, USA. Died: October 5th, 2011 in Palo Alto, California, USA. Resting Place: Alta Mesa Memorial Park. Legacy: A pioneer of the home computer revolution and Apple products. Steve Jobs Lesson for Kids: Biography & Facts Steve Jobs Lesson for Kids: Biography & Facts. Angela has fifteen years of teaching experience, primarily in Special Education and Gifted Education at the K-12 level. She has a B.A. in Elementary ... Steve Jobs: Biography, Apple Cofounder, Entrepreneur In 1976, Steve Jobs cofounded Apple with Steve Wozniak. Learn about the entrepreneur's career, net worth, parents, wife, children, education, and death in 2011. Steve Jobs Steve Jobs (born February 24, 1955, San Francisco, California, U.S.—died October 5, 2011, Palo Alto, California) was the cofounder of Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.), and a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer era.. Founding of Apple. Jobs was raised by adoptive parents in Cupertino, California, located in what is now known as Silicon Valley. Steve Jobs Biography Pack This Steve Jobs Biography Pack covers important facts about Steve Jobs's life for students to learn. Within the pack, they will read about Steve Jobs research him, write about him, create a flip book about him, and sort important parts of this famous man's life. *There is now a digital component included in this resource. Biography: Technology; Steve Jobs (primary) Current: PreK/Early Elementary ; Current: Technology ; PREMIUM Biography: Technology; Steve Jobs (primary) Overview A one page biography of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, with multiple choice and short answer questions. Media PDF. Download Resource Tags. a. Levels K-2 Biographies Computers Technology. Biography of Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple Computers Jobs co-invented the Apple I and Apple II computers together with Wozniak, who was the main designer, and others. The Apple II is considered to be one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers. In 1984, Wozniak, Jobs, and others co-invented the Apple Macintosh computer, the first successful home computer with a mouse-driven graphical user interface. Steve Jobs: The childhood of a great inventor Steve Jobs: The childhood of a great inventor - BBC Science Focus Magazine. Life of Steve Jobs: Quiz & Worksheet for Kids 1. Who did Steve Jobs start Apple Computers with in 1976? Bill Gates. Mark Zuckerberg. Steve Wozniak. Jack Dorsey. 2. What year did Steve Jobs become CEO of Apple? 1997. Steve Jobs Description. Discover the genius who changed the way we connect with the world! Junior's Journey presents a captivating biography of Steve Jobs, written in a fun and easy-to-follow style perfect for young readers. Uncover the fascinating story behind the mind that brought us the iPhone, iPad, and so much more. Students will learn: Steve Jobs Biography: A Short Insight Into The Visionary's Life Steve Jobs, the American businessman and technology visionary who is best known as the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc., was born on February 24, 1955. His parents were two University of Wisconsin graduate students, Joanne Carole Schieble and Syrian-born Abdulfattah Jandali. They were both unmarried at the time. Steve Jobs Biography Pack Steve Jobs was an influential man who made a huge difference in the digital and technology world. This biography pack covers important facts about Steve Jobs's life for students to learn. Within the pack, they will read about Steve Jobs research him, write about him, create a flip book about him, and sort important parts of this famous man's life. STEVE JOBS BIOGRAPHY Webquest: : Steve Jobs Level: elementary Age: 13-17 Downloads: 72 Reading - A Day In The Life of Steve Jobs - Authentic Material Level: elementary Age: 15-100 ... > Biographies > Steve Jobs > STEVE JOBS BIOGRAPHY. STEVE JOBS BIOGRAPHY. This is a reading comprehension of the biography of Steve Jobs with some questions to discuss in class after ... Steve Jobs Biography: Success Story of a Great American Inventor Steve Jobs. In this success story, we will share the biography of Steve Jobs, an American inventor, entrepreneur, and industrial designer. He was the CEO and co-founder of Apple Inc., CEO and majority shareholder of Pixar Animation Studios, CEO, founder, and chairman of NeXT Inc., and a member of The Walt Disney Company's board of directors. Steve Jobs: The Life and Times of the Great Entrepreneur Essay (Biography) Steve Jobs' personal life is also a manifestation of improvement of the past mistakes. Starting with his days at the elementary school where he had difficulties coping with the school system to the extent of taking bribes so as to read. (O'Grady, 2008) That reflected on the challenges he experienced. Reading comprehension STEVE JOBS BIOGRAPHY Level: intermediate Age: 16-100 Downloads: 63 Steve Jobs, reported speech, modals, verb pattern, conditionals, writing Level: intermediate Age: 15-100 ... STEVE JOBS Level: elementary Age: 13-100 Downloads: 50 Live Worksheets Worksheets that listen. Worksheets that speak. Worksheets that motivate students. Steve Jobs Height, Weight, Age, Family, Facts, Biography Education. Steve Jobs went to the Monta Loma Elementary School in Mountain View. In sixth grade, he joined Crittenden Middle School.He later got admission at Cupertino Junior High.. In 1968, he got enrolled at the Homestead High School in Los Altos. After graduating from high school, he got admission to Reed College.He eventually dropped out of college as he didn't want to spend most of the ... Steve Jobs Education, Biography, Facts, Quotes, Family Courtesy: Stevejobsbio.weebly.com. Born on 24th February 1955 and adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs, the little Steve grew up in San Francisco with a younger sister, Patty. In the year 1961, the Jobs family shifted to Mountain View, California. Even as a little kid, Steve showed immense curiosity towards electronics and machines. Steve Jobs & 6 Other Must-Read Biographies 6. Mark Zuckerberg: Creator of Facebook. The Accidental Billionaires (basis for the movie The Social Network) isn't the most graphic telling of Mark Zuckerberg's story. That distinction goes ... assignment essay homework paper phd resume review speech thesis