Apple Computer Inc. - Steve Jobs: thinking differently

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ALADDIN

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Childrens Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

This Aladdin hardcover edition June 2015

Text copyright 2011 by Patricia Lakin

Jacket designed by Karina Granda

Front jacket photograph copyright David Paul Morris/Getty Images

Back jacket photograph copyright Apic/Getty Images

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Book design by Karina Granda

The text of this book was set in Adobe Caslon Pro.

Library of Congress Control Number 2014959864

ISBN 978-1-4814-3529-1 (hc)

ISBN 978-1-4814-3531-4 (eBook)

For Lee, with love

P. L.

Click. Boom. Amazing!

Steve Jobs (Macworld Expo, 2006)

HOW DID A YOUNG BOY who was a Little terror in elementary school, a first-class prankster, and a college dropout grow up to become a man who not only led one of the worlds most innovative companies but was also revered for his brilliant creations?

By following his passions, Steve Jobs created one world-famous company, Apple Inc., and nurtured another, Pixar Studios. Along the way, he revolutionized home computers and the music and telephone industries and helped bring computer-animated films like Toy Story and WALL-E to life. With a team of technical artists like himself, he produced the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad.

Perhaps Steve would say its because he connected the dots in his life.

As an adult, he said of those dots, You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in somethingyour gut, destiny, life, karma.... And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

GIVING UP A CHILD FOR adoption has to be an extraordinarily difficult and heart-wrenching decision. But in 1955, one particular couple felt they had no choice.

Abdulfattah John Jandali and Joanne Scheible were graduate students at the University of Wisconsin who wanted desperately to complete their education. They believed their studies would end, their subsequent careers would be nonexistent, if they chose to keep their child. And so, in San Francisco, California, on February 24, 1955, when their baby boy was born, they put him up for adoption.

Joanne Scheible, the babys birth mother, felt strongly that the adoptive parents had to be college graduates. Her first choice was a lawyer and his wife. But that couple wanted a girl.

The next family on the adoption agencys list was Clara and Paul Jobs. They were delighted to adopt either a boy or a girl and open their home and their hearts to this infant.

The Jobsesunbeknownst to Joanna Scheible at firstwere not college graduates. Clara Jobs had only finished high school. She worked as an accountant. Paul Jobs hadnt even completed high school. He had served in the coast guard during World War II and worked as a machinist.

When Joanne Scheible discovered that the Jobses werent college graduates, she revised her conditions: In order for the adoption to go through, they had to promise they would send the child to college. The Jobses simply wanted to nurture and love their baby boy. How they would pay for his education was a question they would tackle in the future. But promise they did. Papers were signed and the adoption became official. A family was born. They named their son Steven Paul Jobs.

At the time of the adoption, Paul and Clara lived in a small apartment in San Francisco. Soon after Steven came into their lives, they moved to an inexpensive rental home in South San Francisco. In 1958 the Jobses added to their family once again when they adopted a baby girl, whom they named Patty.

In 1960, when Steve was five, Pauls job transfer brought his family to a modest three-bedroom rental house in Mountain View, Californiaa new suburban area south of San Francisco, where small houses and new businesses were quickly developing.

Steve was inquisitive, energetic, and imaginative. As a toddler, he often woke up at four oclock in the morning. To make sure they could get their rest, his parents bought him a rocking horse to play with. They also put a phonograph in his room with records by Little Richard, a rock-and-roll singer popular in the 1950s. Maybe Little Richard was their favorite artist and thats why they chose his music. But it was an interesting choice: Little Richards songs, from Good Golly, Miss Molly to Tutti Frutti, were fast-paced and loud not exactly music to relax to. During those few early morning hours, their son could safely rock in more ways than one.

Many women in the 1950s were stay-at-home mothers, and Steve was fortunate that Clara was able to spend a great deal of time with him, even teaching him to read before he started school. When not at work, Paul was a constant presence in Steves life too.

I was very lucky.... My father, Paul, was a pretty remarkable man.... He was a machinist by trade and worked very hard and was kind of a genius with his hands.... He... showed me how to use a hammer and saw and how to build things. It really was very good for me. He spent a lot of time with me.

Paul had a workbench in his garage, and when Steve was about five or six years old, his father sectioned off a part of it for him. Steve, this is your workbench now, he said. He kept his tools and workbench clean and in perfect order, and while many parents might have been reluctant to let a young child invade their space, Paul welcomed Steve to share his tools, his space, and his own joy in creating.

Paul liked to buy old cars, fix them up, and sell them. Refurbishing those cars gave him some experience working with a cars electronics parts and exposed Steve to the autos inner workings. Paul passed along not only his fascination with electronics but also his pride in workmanship. He often told his son that when building something, every part should be well made and put together with precision and care, whether the part showed or not.