research report about steve jobs

Steve Jobs’ Impacts on the World Research Paper

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Who was steve jobs, great milestones.

Thesis statement: Steve Jobs changed the world in many ways especially with his inventions in technology.

This is a research paper on how Steve Jobs changed the world. His full names were Steven Paul alias “Steve Jobs”. He was one of the greatest American business gurus and inventors.

He was until his time of death the Chairman, co-founder and Chief executive officer of Apple Inc. formerly known as Pixar animation Studios when it was acquired by Disney. Precisely, this research paper will prove that wherever Steve worked, he changed things for better and therefore changed the lives of people and thus the world; he engineered the greatest changes towards the end of his life.

Steve Jobs was born in February 24, 1955. He was born in the city of San Francisco, California to an unwed graduate student called Joanne Simpson and a native Syrian who was a professor of mathematics named Abdulfattah John Jandali. He was later adopted by a couple Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain view, California and hence his name changed to Steve Jobs.

However, his mother Joanne Simpson conditioned the Jobs to take Steve to college though they themselves were a lower middle class couple with no high school education. The Jobs bound themselves to this condition upon adoption and they later adopted a baby girl named Patti in 1958 (Romain, 2011).

In his early years, Steve Jobs was a nasty kid who did not have any concern in his studies until he was in the fourth grade. Actually, his teacher named Imogene had to bribe him with candy and her own cash to make him learn which he did in earnest.

Due to his brilliance, he skipped fifth grade and went to a middle school called Crittenden Middle School which was in a hostile environment due to poor living status of the area residents. This forced him to demand for a transfer to another school at the age of 11 years. He was considerably transferred to Cupertino Junior High in Los Alto a step which effectively made his future (Romain, 2011).

Los Alto was in Santa Clara County a world of computer engineering from the ancient times. Among the many companies based there was the Shockley Semiconductor Company, Hewlett Packard and HP Company of engineers.

Steve Jobs curiosity about the electronic wares in his neighborhood grew with time and his father later introduced him to the co-founder of HP, Heathkits who had detailed electronic manuals on coding, joining and repairing different electronic gadgets. This fascinated him and his love for electronics grew much stronger in his teen-age.

And as such, when he joined Homestead High School he anxiously enrolled in an electronics class where he courageously pursued his craving for electronics. But Steve also had business interests and hence they got along with his neighbor Bill who had electronic interest.

Bill later in 1969 introduced Steve to a computer whiz kid named Woz. Bill and Woz had built the Cream Soda Computer which fascinated Steve. Woz and Steve built and consequently started an illegal business in high school of selling computer hackers that enabled one to make free calls in the US. However, they stopped this when they realized the police were on their trail.

On clearing High School, Steve wanted to join a high class college named Reed College and the Jobs had to take him in honor of the promise they made to his mother of providing Steve with higher education. However, Steve dropped out of college before Christmas the same year because he could not understand his interests and course of life. He decided to do things which interested him but ended up doing weird things like sleeping on the floor and going without food in order to survive.

Due to cash desperation, he sought for a job at Atari which was the first video company in 1974. He looked up and was inspired by Atari founder, Nolan Bushnell who had successfully invested in pinball machines. It was Nolan Bushnell who inspired Steve Jobs to start Apple. But while he was working with the Atari, his wiz friend, Woz had been hired by Hewlett-Packard a vibrant engineering company where he worked passionately in circuit design (Romain, 2011).

From 1974, computer inventions and advancements took full thrust. In 1974, a mountain view-based Intel introduced the first microprocessor. Later on, Ed Roberts launched the Altair which was a box that flashed lights on and off. In 1975, Bill gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft and wrote an interpreter for Altair. All these excited Woz and of concern was Altair and Microsoft interpreter though he believed he could do better than them.

And so he started building his own computer which he based on MOS’s Technology 502. He advanced this to a powerful and perfect computer board which was compatible with a keyboard and screen. Woz later showed his works to Steve and his engineering friends who were all amazed yet appreciative of his brilliance. Pursuant to Steve’s entrepreneurial skills, they decided to assemble the computers and sell them to meetings franked by engineers from Homebrew.

Steve was of the idea that they needed to upgrade there business to a company at whatever cost. Steve had to sell his car and Woz his HP 65 calculator for them to start building keyboards and after much thought they named the company Apple Computer.

They later turned it into a corporation with the help of Ron Wayne from Atari, drew a company logo and split the company shares. Their fist order came from Paul Terrell from Homebrew who bought 50 computers. This was a huge success to the Apple partners and more sales fell in place later on in an encouraging speed.

In 1976, Steve and Woz bought the other co-founder Ron Wayne marking the exclusive step of Apple computer. On clearing his contract with HP, Woz continued to advance the Apple design basing on the original design. The new design-Apple II produced color, handled high resolution graphics and had a built- in basic interpreter. As Woz strived to finish Apple II, Steve was busy selling Apple I in the Personal Computer Festival in 1976. However, Apple I got stiff completion from Altair in the festival (Romain, 2011).

While Apple II was complete they sold their vision to an investor who was a former Intel employee called, Mike Markkula. Mike Markkula was very instrumental in their development as he designed a business plan, called for advertisement of Apple II, drew another logo for the company, and hired technical staff for the company.

With this, the new Apple Company was up for competition and in April 1977, they got a chance to showcase their computer product at the West Coast Computer Faire held in San Francisco. Apple II stole the show in this Conference with its prototype nature and plastic casing. In that show alone Apple II got 300 orders marking another forward step. It was the start of personal computer revolution.

However, there were other competitors in this industry which included Radio Schack’s TRS-80 and Commodore PET but Apple II stood out exceptionally with its superb design, compatibility with color TV and integrated keyboard. Woz improved Apple II by including the 8 expansion slots hence boosting the demand for Apple II. But it is the spreadsheet called VisiCalc that castigated the success of Apple II. This was because it only worked with Apple II and was an invention itself.

Many projects were later initiated to develop Apple II like the Macintosh project which neither Steve Jobs nor Woz participated in. But Steve chose to participate in another project named after her daughter, the Lisa project.

Lisa project was a significant project for Apple Computers because it wanted to borrow some advancement from Xerox PARC. Xerox PARC had the first Graphical User Interface (GUI) and a mouse. This project led to change in management in Apple Computer; Steve was named chairman of the board as Apple went public in 1980.

The IPO was financially beneficial to Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was later thrown out of Lisa project and made the head of Macintosh. He wanted to have his own successful computer and to revenge for being thrown out of Lisa project. Steve hired enough and professionally qualified staff for this job. Though he succeeded, at 30 years of age he officially lost his position at Macintosh due to conflicts with the management.

Under his capacity as the chairman of the board in Apple, he wanted Apple to build a high-end computer that could hold one megabyte of memory, perform one million instructions per second, and display one million pixels on a screen. However, though the board bought the idea they were reluctant to actualize it due to the partner Next who was to join the company to help in doing this task.

As a result Steve resigned from Apple on September 17, 1985 and started NeXT Inc. with other engineers amidst strong opposition from Apple. He later founded Pixar. He later developed the NeXT’s revolutionary software that turned too expensive to invest in. He also advanced Pixar Image Computer (PIC) to PIC II and RenderMan.

However, Pixar and NeXT did not do well in subsequent years. As a result he fired employees and encountered huge losses. Steve Jobs got married on March 18, 1991 to Laurene Powell a Stanford MBA student and Laurene gave birth to Reed Paul. In 1989, Pixar signed a contract with Disney for a full feature film made of computers only and this investment paid off even as that of NeXT was in the verge of collapsing. He named himself president and CEO of the company in February 1995.

In 1995, Microsoft launched Windows 95 which was very successful and thereby making Apple lose monopoly. The company lost much of its share in the market, fired most of its staff and set into motion the idea of Steve coming back to rescue Apple.

In 1996 Apple agreed to buy NeXTSTEP Company which was owned by Steve. In the deal, Steve was paid 400 million dollars and appointed informal adviser to CEO of Apple. After the continued poor performance in Apple, the CEO was fired and Steve appointed chairman of the board and CEO of Apple. He only agreed to become an interim CEO.

He later made a deal with Microsoft a step that propelled Apple to a better market position. He worked hard to reinstate Apple to its proper position and in 1997, he renovated Power Mac and Power book which sold well in the market. On May 1998 he unveiled the iMac which was the first mainstream computer which was compatible with the USB and that did not include a floppy disc drive. The satisfaction guaranteed by iMac boosted its sales and increased the company’s going concern.

In January 1999, Steve introduced a new Power Mac G3 tower which was more appealing. In July 1999 Steve unveiled the iBook and Apple’s first Wi-Fi product, the Airport base Station. Steve Jobs had completely changed Apple in his two years tenure as interim CEO. He redeemed its public image, launched highly defined products and attracted an overwhelming number of software developers. He became a full time CEO of the company in January 5, 2000 much to the joy of the company shareholders.

On March 24, 2001, Steve introduced Apple’s new operating system, Mac OS X which became the core of Apple’s turn around and recent success. IMovie, iDVD, iTunes, and iPhoto were released in 2002.

They were followed by iCal in 2003, Garageband in 2004 and iWeb in 2006. In November 2001, Apple introduced the iPod with a storage capacity of 5GB. It quickly became a hotcake for all music lovers. On April 28, 2003 Apple unleashed the iTunes Music Store whose success exceeded the company’s expectations. In February 2006, Apple through its CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPod hi-fi.

This is a stereo speaker system designed to work only with iPods. Steve later introduced the Apple TV at Macworld in 2007. But the greatest achievement was the unveiling of the iPhone in January 2007. It is during this unveiling that Steve announced the change of Apple Computer name to Apple Inc.

After long years of suffering with cancer, Steve Jobs resigned as the Apple CEO on 24 August, 2011 handing the reign to Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook (Poornima, 2011). This had a significant impact on the company’s shares which tumbled in his first day of resignation. Steve Jobs succumbed to pancreas cancer on October 5, 2011.

• In 1977, Apple Computer sold 1977 personal computers, in 1978 it sold 8,000 and in 1979, it sold 35,000 personal computers.
• Though in 1987, NeXT Company under the partnership of Steve and other had no products, the company was valued over 125 million dollars due to the powerful name of Steve Jobs.
• The Pixar IPO of 1995 was the IPO of the year and the company made 123 million dollars.
• iMac was a remarkable achievement for Apple, selling two million units in its first two years of introduction.
• AirPort set the standard for the future of Wi-Fi.
• On unveiling the iTunes Music Store, five million songs were sold in just eight weeks, and another eight million in the subsequent weeks, bringing iTunes’ share of legal music downloads to 70%.
• Steve Jobs and his legion of 50,000 coders and designers became the most valuable company in the world.
• iTunes is now the world’s leading online music retailer , with over 200 million registered users who have so far downloaded 15 billion songs.

Steve Jobs changed the world in many ways especially the world of technology. His partnership with the spreadsheet VisiCalc which worked only on the Apple II was a revolution in the computer world. Millions of accountants, small businesses, and private individuals used it to do calculations with ease.

His introduction of a more developed iMac which came in several colors was another breakthrough in computer design. Up to this day, its mark can be felt in a myriad of different products. iMac was additionally the first mainstream computer to offer USB connectivity which was a great technological advancement. Apple Computer also shifted to USB. The iMac was also the first personal computer not to include a floppy disk drive.

The iApps introduced by Steve Jobs were a digital suite of applications which eventually evolved into iLife that had a common purpose of making digital lives easier. In January 2004, Steve unveiled the iPod mini, which came in different colors and soon became world’s best selling MP3 player. In 2005, Steve jobs introduced the iPod shuffle, which is a cheap, flash version of the iPod. This was great improvement in accessibility and portability of music.

The introduction of Apple operating system, Mac OS X was an independent yet advanced platform because the system could run on any kind of computer unlike earlier systems. In addition Mac OS X was more perfect in that it had a protected memory and pre-emptive multi-tasking, which allowed multiple applications to run concurrently without crushing the system.

It also provided high levels of networking unlike other systems. The Mac OS was simple and easy-to-use, highly accessible and stable than Windows. Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone which was less than half an inch thick, allowed calls, took photos, handled contacts and emails, browsed the Web, listen to music and watch movies in a defined comfort.

Prior to the introduction of the iPhone by Apple, wireless carriers monopolized and mistreated handsets manufacturers; they dictated the phone’s features, pricing and marketing, in exchange for the right to use their networks. The iPhone deal by Steve Jobs gave them an equal muscle and hence reversed this balance of power. His introduction of Apple TV was a plus to the technology as the TV was now more accessible and portable.

Steve Jobs also gave kindly to charity and hence improved lives of desperate and needy people. Due to his sound managerial skills and advancements in Apple Computer, Steve was increasingly recognized as a national icon, a symbol for the country’s new entrepreneurial class. His dream of changing the world started shaping up to reality.

What Steve unveiled and sold was of higher form and function. It was a platform for competitive and fair business which removed the expensive layer of magazine designers, disk jockeys, secretaries and postal workers and cable guys who were all zoomed out by his inventions (Kessler, 2011). The invention and subsequent demand of the iPod proved that many people want a sizable yet portable device; Steve Jobs provided this. Apple produced one of the excellent forays in advertising hence boosting marketing.

Since his return to Apple computer in 1997, Steve Jobs reengineered it into the most valuable technology company in the world, overcoming other market leaders like Microsoft or HP. This might have been the greatest turnaround in business history as the company was formerly headed for the drains (Fortune Editors, 2011).

He was such a great influence to the world that upon his death, Apple wrote on their website that the company had lost a visionary and creative genius; the world had lost an amazing human being, a dear friend, and an aspiring mentor (Apple, 2011).

It is quite clear from the research paper that Steve Jobs was a great man who influenced many and the world at large through his inventions, management and participation. Being the co-founder of Apple Inc. he had an upper stake in the technology world and his contribution to the company will always be felt. He and the entire Apple Inc. made life, business, music, calculations, advertisements, movies and personal computers in general accessible and portable.

His entrepreneurial skills paid off in the running of the company, partnerships and bargaining for deals. His return to Apple Inc and consequent turnaround of the company which was initially facing bankruptcy will form part of his historical achievements. His hard work and never-give up attitude propelled him to his success and we can only name him, the Genius of Technology.

Apple. (2011). Steve Jobs 1955-2011 . Apple Inc . Web.

Fortune Editors. (2011). 10 ways Steve Jobs changed the world. Money CNN. Web.

Kessler, A. (2011). How Steve Jobs Changed The World . The Wall Street Journal. Web.

Poornima, G. (2011). S teve Jobs resigns from Apple, Cook becomes CEO . Reuters. Web.

Romain, M. (2011). Steve Jobs . All about Steve Jobs. Web.

• Colin Powell Leadership Characteristics
• Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
• How Disney Pixar Runs Their Films for Families?
• General Environment Analysis (Pixar)
• The Film "Soul" by Pixar: Understanding Plato's Rhetoric
• Founding Fathers of America
• Sojourner Truth
• Julius Caesar and Rome
• Karl Marx Ideologies and His Influence in the 21st Century
• Diogenes and Alexander
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2018, October 19). Steve Jobs' Impacts on the World. https://ivypanda.com/essays/steve-jobs/

"Steve Jobs' Impacts on the World." IvyPanda , 19 Oct. 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/steve-jobs/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'Steve Jobs' Impacts on the World'. 19 October.

IvyPanda . 2018. "Steve Jobs' Impacts on the World." October 19, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/steve-jobs/.

1. IvyPanda . "Steve Jobs' Impacts on the World." October 19, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/steve-jobs/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Steve Jobs' Impacts on the World." October 19, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/steve-jobs/.

IvyPanda uses cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience, enabling functionalities such as:

• Basic site functions
• Ensuring secure, safe transactions
• Secure account login
• Remembering account, browser, and regional preferences
• Remembering privacy and security settings
• Analyzing site traffic and usage
• Personalized search, content, and recommendations
• Displaying relevant, targeted ads on and off IvyPanda

Please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy for detailed information.

Certain technologies we use are essential for critical functions such as security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and ensuring the site operates correctly for browsing and transactions.

Cookies and similar technologies are used to enhance your experience by:

• Remembering general and regional preferences
• Personalizing content, search, recommendations, and offers

Some functions, such as personalized recommendations, account preferences, or localization, may not work correctly without these technologies. For more details, please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy .

To enable personalized advertising (such as interest-based ads), we may share your data with our marketing and advertising partners using cookies and other technologies. These partners may have their own information collected about you. Turning off the personalized advertising setting won't stop you from seeing IvyPanda ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive.

Personalized advertising may be considered a "sale" or "sharing" of the information under California and other state privacy laws, and you may have the right to opt out. Turning off personalized advertising allows you to exercise your right to opt out. Learn more in IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy .

Steve Jobs: A Technology Visionary Leaves Huge Legacy

The Apple co-founder passed away October 5, but our digital lives leaped ahead dramatically as a result of his leadership

Steve Jobs: A Genius, Yes; A Role Model for the Rest of Us, No Way

The human experience: apple and standardized personalization.

Krystal D'Costa

Thank you for the new way to fingerpaint, Steve.

Glendon Mellow

The Puzzle of Pancreatic Cancer: How Steve Jobs Did Not Beat the Odds—but Nobel Winner Ralph Steinman Did

Despite having the same name, the diseases that killed Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and 2011 Nobel laureate Ralph Steinman are different kinds of cancer. Researchers are looking for new ways to diagnose and treat both

Katherine Harmon

Optimism and Enthusiasm: Lessons for Scientists from Steve Jobs

Marc Kuchner

A Video Moment of Silence for Steve Jobs

Starring a 23-year-old Macintosh SE

Mark Fischetti

Technology Leaders and Scholars Remember Steve Jobs

Some friends of Scientific American wrote to us expressing their appreciation of the life of one of the great inventors and technology visionaries. Here are some of their thoughts and reflections.

The Crazy One - A Steve Jobs Tribute

Carin Bondar

Why Is Pancreatic Cancer So Deadly?

The illness that ultimately felled Apple founder Steve Jobs often kills shortly after diagnosis

Melinda Wenner Moyer

Steve Jobs Dies at 56

The Apple co-founder and personal computing visionary succumbed to pancreatic cancer

Michael A. Prospero, LAPTOP

iPhone 4S Unveiled with Fast iPad Chip, 8-Megapixel Camera, but No iPhone 5 Yet

Larry Greenemeier

Big Progress on the Little Things

Let's take a step back and praise three unsung trends in consumer electronics

David Pogue

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

• LISTEN & FOLLOW
• Apple Podcasts
• Amazon Music

Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free feed.

Steve Jobs: The Story Of The Man Behind The Personal Computer

The Apple founder spoke with Fresh Air's Terry Gross in 1996. Later, after he was diagnosed with cancer, Jobs asked Walter Isaacson to write his biography. Isaacson spoke to Fresh Air Oct. 25, 2011.

Hear The Original Interview

Author Interviews

Jobs' biography: thoughts on life, death and apple.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Applying Steve Jobs's Insights on Innovation, Leadership, and Technology Toward an Apple-Inspired Law School

38 Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol'y 217 (2024)

65 Pages Posted: 16 Sep 2023 Last revised: 22 Apr 2024

Byron G. Stier

Southwestern Law School

Date Written: August 27, 2023

Perhaps the most successful technology entrepreneur, Steve Jobs developed numerous innovations that transformed personal computing, computer-animated film, mobile phones, and music distribution. Over several decades, his efforts turned Apple Computer from a start-up in his parents’ garage to the world’s largest company by market capitalization and grew Pixar into the world’s leading company in computer-animated film. Jobs, along with other technology entrepreneurs, affixed Silicon Valley as the world’s leading center for innovation in technology. After exploring Jobs’s formative influences and interests, this article reviews his remarkable progression of innovative products at Apple. The article then assembles and details his approach to leadership, product design, management, marketing, and leadership succession and applies those insights in turn to an area not widely lauded for innovation and entrepreneurship: law schools and legal education. Leveraging the innovation insights of Steve Jobs, the article reimagines law school if it were to incorporate the lessons of Silicon Valley entrepreneurship and product development at Apple. In an Apple-inspired law school setting, the article envisions values-based leadership focused on aspiring to great teaching, scholarship, and service, not merely regulatory compliance, rankings, or revenue; passion for legal education and law; and creative and innovative exploration of technology-aided adaptive learning and online education. Translating Jobs’s views on product design into the legal education setting, law schools would bring empathic attention to the needs of students and alumni; integrate the liberal arts and technology with law; approach the design of curricula, programs, scholarship, and spaces as artmaking with an aesthetic emphasizing ease of use; undertake committed, continuous improvement of teaching, programs, and scholarship; and selectively focus on fewer undertakings to make them better. Considering Jobs’s insights on management, law schools would seek to produce “A” player—not “B” or “C” player—faculty and administrators and design programs with an integrated team of different perspectives. Channeling Jobs’s approach to marketing, a law school would utilize advertising to convey its values and innovative programs. Law schools would also act to preserve and project their organizational values beyond current decanal leadership, learning from Jobs’s attention to preserving Apple’s values amidst leadership succession. The article concludes that to obtain the innovation, energy, and advances achieved by the technology industry in the United States, law schools and legal education should consider studying the organizational structures and culture of the technology industry.

Keywords: legal education, law school dean, law schools, innovation, law and technology, leadership, Steve Jobs, Apple Computer, online education, law and liberal arts, technology industry

JEL Classification: I20, I21, I23, O30, O31, O32, M10, M13, L20, L21, L26, L39, L31, L33, L63, L86

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Byron G. Stier (Contact Author)

Southwestern law school ( email ).

3050 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90010 United States 213-738-6809 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.swlaw.edu/faculty/faculty_listing/facultybio/340522

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics, related ejournals, legal education ejournal.

Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic

Entrepreneurship, Innovation, & Growth eJournal

Leadership development ejournal, entrepreneurship & law ejournal, law & society: the legal profession ejournal, change management & organizational behavior ejournal, innovation practice ejournal, information systems ejournal, innovation in legal education ejournal, management practice ejournal, educational impact & evaluation research ejournal.

Subscribe to this free journal for more curated articles on this topic

Educational & School Psychology eJournal

Other economics research ejournal.

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.

We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back.

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.

Entrepreneurs

Selena Gomez

8 Musicians Who Have Built Business Empires

Who Is Music Mogul Scooter Braun?

Sean “Diddy” Combs

The True Story of Pop-Tarts and ‘Unfrosted’

The Life and Hip-Hop Legacy of DJ Mister Cee

The Truth About Walt Disney’s Frozen Head

Frederick Jones

Lonnie Johnson

Oprah Winfrey

Madam C.J. Walker

• Search Search Please fill out this field.
• Business Leaders
• Entrepreneurs

How Steve Jobs Changed the World

Jobs' influence continues to spur new and innovative technology

As an innovator and visionary, Steve Jobs' accomplishments can be held on a pedestal with the likes of Microsoft's ( MSFT ) Bill Gates, Google's ( GOOG ) Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Meta's ( META ), formerly Facebook's, Mark Zuckerberg. The names above are all highly regarded within technology for transforming consumerism and the accessibility of information.

While best known as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Apple ( AAPL ), the late Jobs profoundly affected the world outside of technology. From purchasing Pixar in 1986 to supporting charities and environmental causes, Jobs' achievements and innovations continue to affect industries and lifestyles worldwide.

Key Takeaways

• Steve Jobs' impact on the world continues today through his accomplishments in technology, innovation, and product development.
• While at the helm of Apple, Jobs led the company in developing groundbreaking products, including the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.
• Jobs founded the NeXT computer company, which developed an operating system that Apple eventually acquired to boost its personal computers.
• Jobs successfully turned Pixar into a leader in animated feature films, eventually selling the company to Disney in 2006 for $7.4 billion.

Most people associate Jobs' success with Apple , but in the early days, Jobs' relationship with Apple proved to be a rocky one. After being fired from the company he founded in 1985, Jobs founded NeXT, a firm that created computers for business and educational needs. While NeXT wasn't particularly successful based on units sold, the company continues to be an integral part of computers today. Portions of Nextstep operating systems still live on within macOS. Additionally, the famous "Wolfenstein" and "Doom" computer games were written on NeXTcube stations.

In 1990, British scientist Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web using a NeXT computer.

Jobs' $5 million acquisition of Lucasfilms' Computer Graphic Division in 1986 proved to be a wise investment. The potential he saw in the company—later renamed Pixar—paid off when he sold it to Disney ( DIS ) in 2006 for $7.4 billion. Before the mid-1990s, Disney was the gold standard of full-length animated feature films, and it wasn't until the success of Toy Story in 1995 that Pixar landed on the map. With each subsequent film, Pixar gained steam and created a whole animation industry in Hollywood. The company's movies grossed around $3.2 billion worldwide before its acquisition by Disney.

While Jobs lacked expertise in graphic design and video production, he believed Pixar's computer technology and animation would one day match Disney's work. Job's biggest impact was on the company's strategic direction, including leading and overseeing Pixar's initial public offering (IPO) in 1995. The investment capital Pixar received from going public gave Jobs the freedom to rapidly expand the company. Many attest that Jobs' drive and vision for Pixar gave the company the support it needed to prosper and flourish. Today Pixar is recognized as one of the most influential film studios in the world.

Jobs’ development of new product lines while at the helm of Apple continues to impact countless individuals and has created enormous success for the company.

Released in 2001, the iPod was widely recognized as the first user-friendly and innovative means of accessing music on the go. Consumers had used portable radios, CD players, and tape players for remote audio purposes prior to the widespread access of mp3 files. Syncing with Apple’s iTunes program, the iPod gave users the means to carry and purchase hundreds of songs on a single device.

Jobs’ next big product launch was the iPhone. Combining the features of an iPod with those of a phone and computer, the iPhone enabled users to make calls, listen to music, and browse the Internet on one touchscreen-capable device. Besides synchronization to iTunes, the iPhone featured an exclusive App Store that liberated users from purchasing content from wireless carriers. Before the App Store, wireless carriers controlled the distribution of content to phones.

On Nov. 1, 2018, Apple announced it would no longer report the number of iPhones sold. However, between its initial launch in June 2007 and November 2018, cumulative worldwide sales for the iPhone had soared to over $1.6 billion.

Taking their cue from the iPhone, Apple and Jobs then created the first touchscreen tablet without a keyboard. A cross between a laptop and an iPhone, the iPad spurred the development of a new industry that other technology companies have since entered. Jobs' influence on retail products has revolutionized consumer technology, forcing engineers and developers to create new and innovative products. Consumers have benefited most from increased competition , as products remain modestly priced but boast increased capabilities and features.

As seen at NeXT, Pixar, and Apple, Jobs had a visible role in the success of products and companies. However, behind the scenes, Jobs was known by a select few as a philanthropist. While his philanthropic efforts were rarely made public, many have attested to Jobs' charitable nature. Jobs donated over $50 million to Stanford hospitals through Apple and contributed to various projects to fight AIDS. As a philanthropist, Jobs' goal wasn't to be recognized but to help those who needed it.

Environment

Not only are Apple products considered innovative, but they are also environmentally friendly. Jobs promoted an initiative for environmentally friendly products during his time as CEO. Apple utilizes eco-conscious materials such as recycled aluminum, plastics, and papers in its products to conserve global resources. Likewise, all Apple products are Energy Star qualified, which means they follow the requirements set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for energy efficiency. Carrying on Jobs' legacy, Apple has also enacted plans to be carbon neutral by 2030.

The Bottom Line

As the initial creator of upscale, user-friendly technology, Steve Jobs' accomplishments continue to have profound effects today. The competition created from the introduction of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad has revolutionized the technology industry. Consumers have benefited from developments in phones and computing and have a wider array of choices when purchasing computers, phones, and tablets.

While Jobs' influence on technology was apparent, his philanthropy has gone widely unrecognized. Jobs donated to various charitable causes, and he also sought to lessen the long-lasting environmental impacts of Apple's products by changing the company's environmental policy.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. " Disney to Acquire Pixar ."

Apple Insider. " Looking Back at Steve Jobs's NeXT, Inc — The Most Successful Failure Ever ."

The NeXT Computer Historical Site. " The Short History of NeXT ."

World Wide Web Foundation. " History of the Web ."

Karen Paik. " To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios ," Page 52. Chronicle Books, 2015.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. " Pixar, Form 10-K, For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2005 ," Pages 3-4.

Karen Paik. " To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios ," Page 110. Chronicle Books, 2015.

The Verge. " Apple Will No Longer Reveal How Many iPhones, iPads, and Macs It Sells ."

GlobalData. " Annual Sales of Apple’s iPhone (2007 – 2021) ."

Red. " (Apple)RED Products ."

Leander Kahney. " Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level ," Pages 100–101. Penguin, 2019.

Energy Star. " What Is Energy Star? "

Apple. " Environmental Progress Report ," Page 16.

Apple. " Environment ."

• Terms of Service
• Editorial Policy
• Privacy Policy

Along with Stanford news and stories, show me:

• Student information
• Faculty/Staff information

We want to provide announcements, events, leadership messages and resources that are relevant to you. Your selection is stored in a browser cookie which you can remove at any time using “Clear all personalization” below.

Go to the web site to view the video.

Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So 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. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down — that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer animated feature film,  Toy Story , and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. 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. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “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.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called  The Whole Earth Catalog , which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: It was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of  The Whole Earth Catalog , and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

• Youth Program
• Wharton Online

Creative Selection: Behind the Genius of Steve Jobs and the Development of the iPhone

With introduction of the iPhone in 2007, Steve Jobs revolutionized the world, but he didn’t do it alone. In this episode of Mastering Innovation on Sirius XM Channel 132, Business Radio Powered by The Wharton School , Ken Kocienda, a former software engineer at Apple, discusses his new book Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs , Jobs’ unrelenting focus, harsh leadership strategies, and incredible decisiveness.

Steve Jobs’ legacy is hard to overstate. The smartphone has become one of the most impactful inventions of the twenty-first century and made Apple into the giant that it is today. Despite this, his interpersonal dynamics and style of criticism are often considered unorthodox at best. One of his employees, Ken Kocienda, a software engineer during the development of the iPhone, discusses the culture at Apple during this period and what it took to build the intricate devices that so many of us use today.

An excerpt of the interview is transcribed below. Listen to more episodes here.

Harbir Singh: I’m thrilled to welcome to the show my first guest Ken Kocienda, a software engineer who worked at Apple for 15 years under the leadership of the legendary Steve Jobs. He worked on the first versions of the Safari web browser, the iPhone, the iPad, and the Apple Watch. He wrote about his experiences in his new book, “Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs.”

Ken, thank you for being on the show.

Ken Kocienda: It’s great to be here with you.

Singh: Your book is fascinating. It was something that really kept me engaged throughout, and most fascinating to me was the process of development. You have a scene in the book about pitching to Steve Jobs, so tell me what that experience was like, pitching your design to Steve Jobs.

Kocienda: Steve was so focused on making great products. That’s what he cared about. If I had one word to describe my experiences with Steve — both presenting work to him and working at the company that he founded and led throughout this wonderfully creative period — it would be focus. He cared about making great products, and he focused on that to an incredible degree. At the same time, that also meant that he cared less about social graces or some of the friendly interpersonal aspects of a pleasant working environment that a lot of us take for granted. It was that focus that was really paramount for him.

For example, when I brought him a proposal for a new piece of software, a feature for a new product, or an aspect of the iPhone like the software keyboard, if he didn’t like it, he would say so in no uncertain terms. He could be very intimidating with his feedback, but the point was that we were really interested in improving the product every step of the way. Having this feedback was such an important part of the process throughout the development, the long chain of iteration that we used to take our ideas and turn them into products. It was really important to make sure that this feedback came through loudly and clearly at each step, and that’s what Steve did.

From my standpoint as a programmer, Steve could present his harsh feedback and his intimidating manner because if I could get his approval, that meant my work would go out into the world into an Apple product. You had to be prepared for the roller coaster, for some very straightforward feedback.

“If I had one word to describe my experiences with Steve, it would be focus.” – Ken Kocienda

Singh: You talk about the demo and how there were two different versions of the virtual keyboard. After demonstrating that to Steve, he said, “We need only one of these, right?” and you said, “Yes, I guess so.” Then you say, “He sized me up and asked, ‘Which one do you think we should use?’ A simple question clearly directed at me and only me.” Tell me how you felt about that and how you handled that process.

Singh: You said, “He continued looking at me after asking the question as he thought about my answer. He never moved his eyes to anyone or anything else. He was completely present and then he said, ‘Okay, we’ll go with the bigger keys.’ and that was it. The oracle of Apple had spoken, the software design prophecy had been revealed, and that was that.” It was a dramatic moment and something that actually became part of every single piece of hardware that was sold for many years to come.

Kocienda: The decisiveness that Steve could demonstrate in these moments was remarkable. He was willing to go all in when he saw a piece of work presented by someone like me and trusted my opinion in that moment. I mentioned a two-part answer. As I reflect on that brief interaction with him, what is remarkable to me is that the legend of Steve Jobs is that he was the one making all the choices — that he was the genius who could see around corners that mere mortals couldn’t. What stands out in my memory is that he turned to me and asked my opinion and was guided in his final decision by his trust in me, an individual programmer. Through our creative and product development process, I was charged with the responsibility to come up with this software, and when the choice was there to be made he trusted in my opinion.

Singh: Which is quite amazing. It was very much a software engineering view and a piece of software that was part of a complex product. He got very deep into the details, but he also had the larger picture in mind. There’s a debate about design these days as to how much should be user-driven and how much is driven by the demo, the feedback, the revised demo, and the creative selection process. It seems to me that what you’re suggesting is that future user reviews are a driver of innovation as much as continuous product development. Can we talk a bit more about that?

“The legend of Steve Jobs is that he was the one making all the choices — that he was the genius who could see around corners that mere mortals couldn’t.” – Ken Kocienda

Kocienda: The approach that we had was based on living on the products as we made them. In other words, we tried to make demos and prototypes as opposed to writing design documents or drawing sketches on whiteboards as a comparison. Instead, we focused on making demos and products that we could try ourselves, as if these early-stage or mid-stage or even late-stage products were the actual products that people would eventually be picking up and trying and hopefully buying in the stores. Throughout the whole development process, we tried to mimic the eventual experience that people would have with these products in their lives.

About Our Guest

Ken Kocienda was a software engineer and designer at Apple for over fifteen years. After graduating from Yale, he fixed motorcycles, worked in the editorial library of a newspaper, taught English in Japan, and made fine art photographs. Eventually, he discovered the internet, taught himself computer programming, and made his way through a succession of dot-com-era startups, before landing at Apple in 2001, where he worked on the software teams that created the Safari web browser, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.

Mastering Innovation is live on Thursdays at 4:00 p.m. ET. Listen to more episodes here.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Who Gets the Last Word on Steve Jobs? He Might.

When Laurene Powell Jobs unveiled a website dedicated to the story of her late husband, historians wondered if it could change how influential people burnish their legacies.

By Tripp Mickle

Tripp Mickle has written extensively about Apple and its history.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis meticulously curated the memory of her husband after he was assassinated, reimagining President John F. Kennedy as a fallen King Arthur in a modern-day Camelot.

Now some historians wonder if Laurene Powell Jobs is also trying to frame the legacy of her late husband, Steve Jobs, a complicated and transformational figure who was shadowed by his flaws as a father and belligerence as a boss.

Last month, Ms. Powell Jobs introduced the Steve Jobs Archive. It aspires to reinvent the personal archive much as Mr. Jobs, in his years running Apple, remade music with the iPod and communication with the iPhone.

Rather than offering up a repository of personal correspondence, notes and items for public research and inquiry, as other influential figures have done, Ms. Powell Jobs, who did not respond to requests for comments, said at a conference last month that the Steve Jobs Archive would be devoted to “ideas.” Those ideas are primarily Mr. Jobs’s philosophies about life and work.

The result, for now, is more of a tribute website than an archive. More than a dozen archivists and scholars who spoke to The New York Times questioned even calling it an archive. It has worried historians who fear it may inspire other wealthy and influential figures to curate the historical record about them just as ordinary people curate their lives on Instagram.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

• History & Society
• Science & Tech
• Biographies
• Animals & Nature
• Geography & Travel
• Arts & Culture
• Games & Quizzes
• On This Day
• One Good Fact
• New Articles
• Lifestyles & Social Issues
• Philosophy & Religion
• Politics, Law & Government
• World History
• Health & Medicine
• Browse Biographies
• Birds, Reptiles & Other Vertebrates
• Bugs, Mollusks & Other Invertebrates
• Environment
• Fossils & Geologic Time
• Entertainment & Pop Culture
• Sports & Recreation
• Visual Arts
• Demystified
• Image Galleries
• Infographics
• Top Questions
• Britannica Kids
• Saving Earth
• Space Next 50
• Student Center

Steve Jobs summary

Steve Jobs , (born Feb. 24, 1955, San Francisco, Calif., U.S.—died Oct. 5, 2011, Palo Alto, Calif.), U.S. businessman. Adopted in infancy, he grew up in Cupertino, Calif. He dropped out of Reed College and went to work for Atari Corp. designing video games. In 1976 he cofounded (with Stephen Wozniak ) Apple Computer (incorporated in 1977; now Apple Inc. ). The first Apple computer, created when Jobs was only 21, changed the public’s idea of a computer from a huge machine for scientific use to a home appliance that could be used by anyone. Apple’s Macintosh computer, which appeared in 1984, introduced a graphical user interface and mouse technology that became the standard for all applications interfaces. In 1980 Apple became a public corporation, and Jobs became the company’s chairman. Management conflicts led him to leave Apple in 1985 to form NeXT Computer Inc., but he returned to Apple in 1996 and became CEO in 1997. The striking new iMac computer (1998) revived the company’s flagging fortunes. Under Jobs’s guidance, Apple became an industry leader and one of the most valuable companies in the world. Its other notable products include iTunes (2001), the iPod (2001), the iPhone (2007), and the iPad (2010). In 2003 Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and he subsequently took several medical leaves of absence. In 2011 he resigned as CEO of Apple but became chairman.

• Harvard Business School →
• Press Releases →

Press Release

• September (2)
• October (1)
• February (2)
• December (1)
• November (1)
• October (6)
• February (1)
• November (3)
• October (2)
• September (3)
• November (2)
• October (5)
• September (4)
• February (3)
• January (2)
• December (2)
• November (4)
• January (3)
• November (5)
• January (4)
• October (3)
• September (5)
• December (3)
• November (6)
• January (1)
• November (7)
• October (7)
• February (5)
• December (6)
• October (8)
• February (6)
• Annual Reports
• Find a Faculty Expert
• Browse Faculty Research

Harvard Business School Faculty Remember Steve Jobs

About Harvard Business School

Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business School is located on a 40-acre campus in Boston. Its faculty of more than 250 offers full-time programs leading to the MBA and PhD degrees, as well as more than 175 Executive Education programs, and Harvard Business School Online, the School’s digital learning platform. For more than a century, faculty have drawn on their research, their experience in working with organizations worldwide, and their passion for teaching, to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. The School and its curriculum attract the boldest thinkers and the most collaborative learners who will go on to shape the practice of business and entrepreneurship around the globe.

LATEST PRESS RELEASES

Harvard business school rock center for entrepreneurship announces 2024-2025 entrepreneurs-in-residence, venture capital advisors, and lawyers-in-residence, harvard business school announces 2024-2025 institute for business in global society fellows, harvard business school announces 2024 goldsmith fellows, harvard business school mba is now stem designated, harvard business school announces its 2024-2025 blavatnik fellows.

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

Steve Jobs and Management by Meaning

• Roberto Verganti

Steve Jobs has always been considered an anomaly in management; his leadership style was something to admire or to criticize, but definitely not to replicate. He did not fit into the frameworks of business textbooks: there was orthodox management, and then there was Steve Jobs. The reason why institutional management theories have always looked at […]

Steve Jobs has always been considered an anomaly in management; his leadership style was something to admire or to criticize, but definitely not to replicate. He did not fit into the frameworks of business textbooks: there was orthodox management, and then there was Steve Jobs.

• Roberto Verganti is a professor of leadership and innovation at the Stockholm School of Economics and a visiting lecturer at Harvard Business School. He is the author of Overcrowded: Designing Meaningful Products in a World Awash with Ideas and Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean .

Partner Center