Source : http://www.biography.com/people/steve-jobs-9354805?page=2
Steve Jobs was born February 24, 1955, to two University of
Wisconsin graduate students who gave him up for adoption. Smart but
directionless, Jobs experimented with different pursuits before starting
Apple Computers with
Stephen Wozniak
in the Jobs' family garage. Apple's revolutionary products, which
include the iPod, iPhone and iPad, are now seen as dictating the
evolution of modern technology.
Quotes
I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates.
– Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, to Joanne
Simpson and Abdulfattah "John" Jandali, two University of Wisconsin
graduate students who gave their unnamed son up for adoption. His
father, Abdulfattah Jandali, was a Syrian political science professor
and his mother, Joanne Simpson, worked as a speech therapist. Shortly
after Steve 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.
As an infant, Steven 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. The family lived in Mountain View within
California's Silicon Valley. As a boy, Jobs and his father would work
on electronics in the family garage. Paul would show his son how to
take apart and reconstruct electronics, a hobby which instilled
confidence, tenacity, and mechanical prowess in young Jobs.
While Jobs has always been an intelligent and innovative thinker,
his youth was riddled with frustrations over formal schooling. In
elementary school 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.
After he did enroll in high school, Jobs spent his free time at
Hewlett-Packard. It was there that he befriended computer club guru
Steve Wozniak. Wozniak was a brilliant computer engineer, and the two
developed great respect for one another.
After high school, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland,
Oregon. Lacking direction, he dropped out of college after six months
and spent the next 18 months dropping in on creative classes. 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 Atari to find spiritual enlightenment in
India, traveling the continent and experimenting with psychedelic drugs.
In 1976, when Jobs was just 21, he and Wozniak started Apple Computers.
The duo started in the Jobs family garage, and funded their
entrepreneurial venture after Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak
sold his beloved scientific calculator.
Jobs and Wozniak are credited with revolutionizing the computer
industry by democratizing the technology and making the machines
smaller, cheaper, intuitive, and accessible to everyday consumers. The
two conceived a series of user-friendly personal computers that they
initially marketed for $666.66 each. Their first model, the Apple I,
earned them $774,000. Three years after the release of their second
model, the Apple II, sales increased 700 percent to $139 million
dollars. In 1980, Apple Computer became a publically traded company with
a market value of $1.2 billion on the very first day of trading. Jobs looked to marketing
expert John Scully of Pepsi-Cola to help fill the role of Apple's
President.
However, the next several products from Apple suffered
significant design flaws resulting in recalls and consumer
disappointment. IBM suddenly surpassed Apple sales, and Apple had to
compete with an IBM/PC dominated business world. In 1984 Apple released
the Macintosh, marketing the computer as a piece of a counter culture
lifestyle: romantic, youthful, creative. But despite positive sales and
performance superior to IBM's PCs, the Macintosh was still not IBM
compatible. Scully believed Jobs was hurting Apple, and executives
began to phase him out.
In 1985, Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO to begin a new hardware and
software company called NeXT, Inc. The following year 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 into
the company. Pixar Studios went on to produce wildly popular animation
films such as
Toy Story,
Finding Nemo and
The Incredibles.
Pixar's films have netted $4 billion. The studio merged with Walt
Disney in 2006, making Steve Jobs Disney's largest shareholder.
Despite Pixar's success, NeXT, Inc. floundered in its
attempts to sell its specialized operating system to mainstream
America. Apple eventually bought the company in 1997 for $429 million.
That same year, Jobs returned to his post as Apple's CEO.
Much like Steve 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. His ingenious
products such as the iMac, effective branding campaigns, and stylish
designs caught the attention of consumers once again.
In 2003, Jobs discovered he had a neuroendocrine tumor, a
rare but operable form of pancreatic cancer. Instead of immediately
opting for surgery, Jobs chose to alter his pescovegetarian 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 stocks if word got out that their
CEO was ill. But in the end, Job's confidentiality took precedence over
shareholder disclosure. In 2004, he had a successful surgery to remove
the pancreatic tumor. True to form, in subsequent years Jobs disclosed
little about his health.
Apple introduced such revolutionary products as the Macbook
Air, iPod, and iPhone, all of which have dictated the evolution of
modern technology. Almost immediately after Apple releases a new
product, competitors scramble to produce comparable technologies. In
2007, Apple's quarterly reports were the company's most impressive
statistics to date. Stocks were worth a record-breaking $199.99 a share,
and the company boasted a staggering $1.58 billion dollar profit, an
$18 billion dollar surplus in the bank, and zero debt.
In 2008, iTunes became the second biggest music retailer in
America-second only to Wal-Mart. Half of Apple's current revenue comes
from iTunes and iPod sales, with 200 million iPods sold and six billion
songs downloaded. For these reasons, Apple has been rated No. 1 in
America's Most Admired Companies, and No. 1 amongst Fortune 500
companies for returns to shareholders.
Early in 2009, reports circulated about Jobs' weight loss,
some predicting his health issues had returned, which included a liver
transplant. Jobs had responded to these concerns by stating he was
dealing with a hormone imbalance. After nearly a year out of the
spotlight, Steve Jobs delivered a keynote address at an invite-only
Apple event September 9, 2009.
In respect to his personal life, Steve Jobs remained a private man
who rarely discloses information about his family. What is known is
Jobs fathered a daughter with girlfriend Chrisann Brennan when he was
23. Jobs denied paternity of his daughter Lisa in court documents,
claiming he was sterile. Jobs did not initiate a relationship with his
daughter until she was 7 but, when she was a teenager, she came to live
with her father.
In the early 1990s, Jobs met Laurene Powell at Stanford business
school, where Powell was an MBA student. They married on March 18,
1991, and lived together in Palo Alto, California, with their three
children.
On October 5, 2011, Apple Inc. announced that co-founder Steve Jobs had died. He was 56 years old at the time of his death.
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