Nick Hunter - Steve Jobs

Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco on February 24, 1955. He was adopted byPaul and Clara Jobs within a short time of his birth. Shortly afterward, the familymoved to Mountain View, California.

Jobss family was not wealthy. Paul Jobs had several different jobs, and times wereoften tough. In his spare time, Paul enjoyed fixing cars and selling them to earnextra money. Steve would sometimes accompany him to the areas scrapyards to lookfor old cars and parts but, according to his father, Steve really wasnt interestedin getting his hands dirty.

Anyone looking to predict Jobss huge success would have received very few cluesfrom his early school career. Steve was intelligent, but he found it difficult tomotivate himself. At the age of nine, his teacher Imogene Hill spotted this and beganbribing him with a few dollars to complete his work.

Steve is an excellent reader. However he wastes much time during reading period He has great difficulty motivating himself or seeing the purpose of studying reading He can be a discipline problem at times.

Jobss sixth-grade report card

In later years, the area where Jobs grew up would become known as Silicon Valley,because it was home to so many technology companies. This unofficial name developedbecause a chemical called silicon is used to make electronic circuits.

Electronics were one thing that did excite the young Jobs. One of the familys neighborsintroduced him to the inner workings of microphones and televisions. This passionfor electronics would develop when he moved to Cupertinos Homestead High Schooland started to investigate more complex electronics.

Although Jobs was fascinated by electronics, he also loved literature, art, and movies.He enjoyed playing practical jokes, which often got him in troublelike the timewhen he and some friends hoisted a car onto the roof of the school cafeteria.

Jobs had a reputation as a bit of a loner at school. The friends he did have werealso interested in electronics. The most obsessed of all was Stephen Woz Wozniak,who was a few years older than Jobs and had already tried building his own computer.According to Jobs, Wozniak was the first person I met who knew more electronicsthan I did.

Jobss friendship with Steve Wozniak (left) had a powerful influence on his lifeand the history of personal computers.

Jobs, Wozniak, and their friends played around with electronics in their parentsgarages, developing gadgets that they would show off at science fairs. Jobs and Wozniaksfirst business venture together started when Jobs was still in school. They madeand sold a device called a blue box that could make free phone calls. Wozniak madethe boxes, and Jobs urged him to turn it into a business. The result was a successbutit was also against the law, and so it did not last long.