Carol Kelly-Gangi - The Wisdom of Steve Jobs

To John and Emily with love

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Compilation 2012 by Carol Kelly-Gangi

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Introduction

W hen Steve Jobs passed away on October 5, 2011, after a prolonged battle with pancreatic cancer, it was not unexpected. But the immediate and worldwide response to his death was nonetheless overwhelming. Millions of people all over the world stopped to pause and express their grief for someone most of them never even knew. Moving tributes, letters, flowers, and other mementos were left at Apple stores everywhere, and technology giants stopped to remember Jobs on their own sites. World leaders, business rivals, journalists, celebrities, and millions of regular people paid tribute to Jobs, lauding him with such terms as genius and visionary. Many turned to the technological devices that he had brought to the market to send messages of heartfelt grief for this American icon. In fact, 10,000 tweets per second about Jobs went out the night of October 5amounting to the biggest online reaction to any event in recent history. Perhaps Jobs himself would have been humbled and slightly bemused by this unprecedented outpouring.

Steven Paul Jobs story is well-known and, by all accounts, one that only could have happened in America. Born in 1955, he was given up for adoption by his biological parents to Paul and Clara Jobs, decent working-class people who brought him up along with an adopted sister in a loving household in the suburbs of Silicon Valley. Paul Jobs was a tinkerer, who refurbished old cars and could build anything. He famously designated a portion of his workbench for his young son and taught him the fundamentals of using tools, taking things apart, and putting them back together, which ignited in Jobs a lifelong interest for design, craftsmanship, and electronics. After a rocky start in school, the younger Jobs was awakened to the joys of learning by an inspirational fourth-grade teacher, who saw his inordinate potential. His parents, likewise, came to realize that their son possessed a superior intellect and did whatever they couldincluding moving to a better school districtto support and encourage him. When Jobs was thirteen, a friend introduced him to Steve Wozniak, known as Woz, an avid electronics geek who impressed him because Woz knew more about electronics than Jobs did. The two became inseparable.

After Steve dropped out of Reed College, worked as a tech at Atari, and traveled to India in search of enlightenment, he and Woz stumbled upon the idea of forming a computer company. They started dropping in on the Homebrew Computer Club, where they introduced the computer that Woz had constructed in June 1975. Jobs was the one who immediately saw the business potential in their product. Scrambling for components, a design, and financing, the pair founded the Apple Computer Company with a friend, who quickly backed out. In 1977, Apple was incorporated, and the Apple II was launched as the worlds first widely used personal computer. By 1980, Apple went public, raising $110 million in an initial public offering (IPO). By 1982, annual sales soared to $1 billion. In 1984, the iconic Macintosh was launched.

The bottom fell out for Steve Jobs in 1985 when he found himself ousted from the company that he had co-founded; he had clashed with president and CEO John Sculley, who had secured the backing of Apples board of directors. Dismayed by the betrayal and the ouster, Jobs sold all but one share of his Apple stock and went to work forming NeXT, a computer company aimed at constructing high-end computers for the academic market. He also purchased an ailing computer graphics company, Pixar, that under his leadership would go on to revolutionize the animated picture industry and ultimately would make him the single largest Walt Disney Company shareholder.

Meanwhile, in Jobs absence, Apple foundered and was by all accounts close to bankruptcy when Jobs reemerged at Apple: first as special adviser to then CEO Gil Amelio, next as interim CEO, and finally as the permanent CEO after Apple purchased NeXT and used its cutting-edge software as a basis for a new operating system. Under Jobs leadership, Apple was saved. Jobs and the company went on to transform multiple industries with such revolutionary products as the iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, and iPadamounting to perhaps the greatest comeback in the history of American business.

The Wisdom of Steve Jobs brings together hundreds of quotations from and about this icon, drawn largely from more than twenty-five years worth of interviews, presentations, and media coverage. The selections are arranged thematically and reflect the subjects of most importance to him. In the selections, Jobs speaks passionately about Apple. He reflects on the vision and goals of the company, as well as how it has evolved and yet stayed true to its roots over the course of its existence. In extracts from early interviews, he prophetically describes the role of personal computers and the impact they will have on our lives. He also expresses his deeply held views about the true meaning of innovation and design. Showing his penchant for showmanship, he also offers his withering assessments of competitors in the computer industry.

In some selections, Jobs shares his insights on hiring, firing, and the workplacerevealing himself as the legendary taskmaster who demands perfection from others, as well as himself. He provides incisive commentary on the pitfalls of wealth, the problems in education, and the value of perseverance. Elsewhere, excerpts offer a more personal glimpse into Jobs, a fiercely private man. He recalls his childhood and the mood of possibility that existed in California at the tail end of the 1960s. He speaks lovingly about his wife and the life-changing event of having children. Finally, a grouping of quotations from world leaders, business and technology giants, journalists, family, and friends offers accolades and insights into Steve Jobs and his enduring legacy.

The Wisdom of Steve Jobs invites readers to consider the man, full of complexity and contradiction, whose vision and leadership gave us the devices, both useful and elegant, that would forever change how the world communicates.