Anything that makes our life easier. Steve Jobs: legendary man, billionaire, founder of Apple

Steve Jobs- American businessman, talented leader, co-founder, its ideological inspirer, director and chairman of the board of directors. Until 2006, he was the director (CEO) of the animation studio Pixar(Pixar), it was Steve Jobs who gave it that name.

short biography

Steve Jobs (full name - Stephen Paul Jobs) was born February 24, 1955 in San Francisco, USA, California. His biological mother Joan Shible. Biological father - Abdulfattah Jandali.

Stephen was born to unmarried students. Joan's father was against their relationship and threatened to disinherit his daughter if she didn't break it off. That is why Steve's future mother went to give birth in San Francisco and gave her son up for adoption.

Adoptive parents

Joan set conditions for adoption: Stephen's adoptive parents had to be wealthy and have a college education. However, the Jobs family, who could not have children of their own, did not have the second criterion. Therefore, the future adoptive parents made a written commitment pay for a boy's college education.

The boy was adopted Paul Jobs And Clara Jobs, nee Agopian (American of Armenian origin). They were the ones who gave him his name. Stephen Paul.

Jobs always considered Paul and Clara to be father and mother, he was very annoyed if someone called them foster parents:

"They are my real parents 100%"

According to the rules of official adoption, the biological parents did not know anything about the whereabouts of their son, and Stephen Paul met with his own mother and younger sister only after 31 years.

School education

Schoolwork disappointed Steve with its formalism. Primary school teachers Mona Loma characterized him as a prankster, and only one teacher, mrs hill, was able to see extraordinary abilities in her student and find an approach to him.

When Steve was in the fourth grade, Mrs. Hill gave him "bribes" for good studies, in the form of sweets, money and DIY kits, thereby stimulating his studies.

This quickly bore fruit: soon Steve Paul began to study diligently without any reinforcement, and at the end of the school year he passed his exams so brilliantly that the director suggested transfer him from the fourth grade directly to the seventh. As a result, by decision of his parents, Jobs was enrolled in the sixth grade, that is, in high school.

Further education

When graduating from high school, Steve Jobs decided to apply to college reed in Portland, Oregon. Studying at such a prestigious liberal arts college was insanely expensive. But once Stephen's parents promised a young woman who gave birth to their son that the child would receive a good education.

Parents agreed to pay for their studies, but Stephen's desire to join the student's major life was enough for exactly one semester. The guy left college and delved into the search for his destiny. This stage of Jobs' life was influenced by the free ideas of the hippies and the mystical teachings of the East.

Birth of Apple

Stephen Paul became friends with his classmate Bill Fernandez, who was also interested in electronics. Fernandez introduced Jobs to an alumnus who was fond of computers, Stephen Wozniak ("Woz"), his senior by five years.

Two Stevens - two friends

In 1969 Woz and Fernandez began building a small computer they called "cream soda" and showed it to Jobs. This is how Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak became best friends.

“We sat with him for a long time on the sidewalk in front of Bill's house and shared stories - we told each other about our practical jokes and about the devices we developed. I felt we had a lot in common. It's usually hard for me to explain to people all the intricacies of the electrical devices that I collected, but Steve grabbed everything on the fly. I liked him right away.”

Memoirs of Steve Jobs

Apple Computer

Steve and Woz began work on computer boards. Wozniak at that time was a member of a circle of amateur computer scientists "Homebrew Computer Club". It was there that he was visited by the idea of ​​​​creating his own computer. To implement the idea, he needed only one payment.

Jobs quickly realized that the development of a friend is a tasty morsel for buyers. The company was born Apple Computer. Apple began its ascent in Jobs' garage.

Apple II

A computer Apple II became the first mass-produced Apple product, created at the initiative of Steve Jobs. This happened in the late 1970s. Jobs later saw the commercial potential of the mouse-driven GUI, which led to the advent of computers. Apple Lisa and, a year later, Macintosh (Mac).

Departure from Apple - a new round of success

Lost a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs left Apple and founded NeXT- a company that developed a computer platform for universities and businesses. In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm, turning it into .

He remained Pixar's CEO and major shareholder until the studio was acquired in 2006, making Steven Paul largest private shareholder and a member of the board of directors of Disney.

"Resuscitation" Apple

In 1996 the companyApple boughtNeXT. This was done to use the OS NeXTSTEP as the basis for Mac OS X. As part of the deal, Steve Jobs received an advisory position to Apple. By 1997 Jobs regained control of Apple leading a corporation.

Rapid development

Under the leadership of Steve Paul Jobs, the company was saved from bankruptcy and began to make a profit within a year. For the next decade, Jobs led the development iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone And iPad, as well as the development Apple Store, iTunes Store, App Store And iBookstore.

The success of these products and services, which provided several years of stable financial profit, allowed Apple to become the most valuable public company in the world in 2011.

Many call Apple's renaissance one of the greatest accomplishments in business history. At the same time, Jobs was criticized for his tough management style, aggressive actions towards competitors, the desire for total control over products even after they were sold to the buyer.

Merits of Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs has received public recognition and a number of awards for his impact on the technology and music industries. He is often referred to as a "visionary" and even "father of the digital revolution". Jobs was a brilliant speaker and took innovative product presentations to the next level, turning them into exciting shows. His instantly recognizable figure in a black turtleneck, faded jeans and sneakers is surrounded by a cult following.

October 5, 2011, after eight years of fighting pancreatic cancer, Steve Jobs died in Pal Alto at the age of 56 years old.

For a generation born in the 2000s, Steve Jobs is the inventor of the iPhone, a phone that, within six months of its introduction to the smartphone market, has become the most desirable in the world. Although in reality this person was neither an inventor nor an outstanding programmer. Moreover, he did not even have a special or higher education. However, Jobs always had a vision of what humanity needs and the ability to motivate people. In other words, the success story of Steve Jobs is a chain of numerous attempts to change the world of computing and digital technologies. And although most of his projects failed, those that succeeded forever changed the life of the planet.

Steve Jobs parents

In February 1955, Joan, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, had a son. The boy's father was a Syrian immigrant, and the lovers could not get married. At the insistence of the parents, the young mother was forced to give her son to other people. They were Clara and Paul Jobs. After the adoption, the Jobs named the boy Steve.

biography of early years

Jobs managed to become the perfect parents for Steve. Over time, the family moved to live in (Mountain View). Here, in his spare time, the boy's father repaired cars and soon attracted his son to this occupation. It was in this garage that Steve Jobs received his first knowledge of electronics in his youth.

At school, the guy at first studied poorly. Fortunately, the teacher noticed the boy's extraordinary mind and found a way to interest him in his studies. Material incentives for good grades worked - toys, sweets, small money. Steve so brilliantly passed the exams that after the fourth grade he was transferred immediately to the sixth.

While still at school, young Jobs met Larry Lang, who got the guy interested in computers. Thanks to this acquaintance, a talented student got the opportunity to visit the Hewlett-Packard club, where many specialists worked on their personal inventions, helping each other. The time spent here had a huge impact on shaping the worldview of the future head of Apple.

However, what really changed Steve's life was his acquaintance with Steven Wozniak.

The first project of Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak

Jobs was introduced to Wozniak (Woz) by his classmate. The young people became friends almost immediately.

At first, the guys just played pranks at school, arranging practical jokes and discos. However, a little later they decided to organize their own small business project.

During the early years of Steve Jobs (1955-75), everyone used a landline. The monthly fee for local calls was not very high, but to call another city or country, you had to fork out. Wozniak, for fun, designed a device that allows you to "hack" a telephone line and make any calls for free. Jobs, on the other hand, set up the sale of these devices, calling them "blue boxes", for $ 150 apiece. In total, friends managed to sell more than a hundred of these devices, until the police became interested in them.

Steve Jobs before Apple Computer

Steve Jobs in his youth, however, as throughout his life, was a purposeful person. Unfortunately, in order to achieve the goal, he often showed not his best qualities and did not take into account the problems of others.

After leaving school, he wanted to study at one of the most expensive universities in the United States, and for this, his parents had to get into debt. But the guy didn't really care. Moreover, six months later he dropped out of school and, carried away by Hinduism, began to desperately seek enlightenment in the company of unreliable friends. Later he got a job at the video game company Atari. After collecting some money, Jobs went to India for several months.

After returning from a trip, the young man became interested in the Homebrew computer club. In this club, engineers and other fans of computer technology (which was just beginning to develop) shared ideas and developments with each other. Over time, the membership of the club grew, and its “headquarters” moved from a dusty garage to one of the auditoriums of the Center for Linear Accelerators in Stanford. It was here that Woz introduced his revolutionary development that allows you to display characters on the monitor from the keyboard. As a monitor, a regular, slightly modified TV was used.

Apple Corporation

Like most business projects that Steve Jobs organized in his youth, the emergence of Apple was associated with his friend Stephen Wozniak. It was Jobs who suggested to Woz that he start producing ready-made computer boards.

Soon Wozniak and Jobs registered their own company called Apple Computer. The first Apple computer based on Woz's new board was successfully presented at one of the Homebrew computer club meetings, where the owner of a local computer store became interested in it. He ordered the guys fifty of these computers. Despite many difficulties, Apple fulfilled the order. With the money earned, friends collected another 150 computers and sold them profitably.

In 1977, Apple introduced the world to its new brainchild - the Apple II computer. At the time, it was a revolutionary invention, thanks to which the company turned into a corporation, and its founders became rich.

Since Apple became a corporation, the creative paths of Jobs and Wozniak gradually began to diverge, although they were able to maintain a normal relationship to the end.

Until his departure from the company in 1985, Steve Jobs oversaw the development of computers such as the Apple III, Apple Lisa, and Macintosh. True, not one of them was able to repeat the tremendous success of the Apple II. Moreover, by that time, huge competition had arisen in the computer equipment market, and Jobs' products eventually began to yield to other firms. As a result of this, as well as many years of complaints from employees at all levels against Steve, he was removed from the position of the head. Feeling betrayed, Jobs himself quit and started a new project, NeXT.

NeXT and Pixar

The new brainchild of Jobs at first specialized in the production of computers (graphic workstations) adapted to the needs of research laboratories and training centers.

True, after a while, NeXT retrained into software products by creating OpenStep. Eleven years after its founding, this company was bought by Apple.

In parallel with his work at NeXT, Steve became interested in graphics. So he bought the Pixar animation studio from the creator of Star Wars.

At that time, Jobs began to understand the whole grand prospect of creating cartoons and films using computer programs. In 1995, Pixar made the first feature-length CGI cartoon for Disney. It was called Toy story and not only appealed to children and adults all over the world, but also earned a record amount of money at the box office.

After this success, Pixar released several more successful cartoons, six of which received an Oscar. Ten years later, Jobs ceded his company to Walt Disney Pictures.

iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad

In the mid-nineties, Jobs was invited to return to work at Apple. First of all, the "old-new" leader refused to produce a wide variety of products. Instead, he focused on developing four kinds of computers. So there were professional computers Power Macintosh G3 and PowerBook G3, as well as iMac and iBook, designed for home use.

Introduced to users in 1998, the iMac series of personal all-in-one computers quickly conquered the market and still maintains its position.

In the second half of the nineties, Steve Jobs realized that with the active development of digital technologies, it was necessary to expand the range of product types. Created under his leadership, a free program for listening to music on computer devices iTunes prompted him to develop a digital player capable of storing and playing hundreds of songs. In 2001, Jobs introduced the iconic iPod to consumers.

Despite the fantastic popularity of the iPod, which brought huge profits to the company, its head was afraid of competition from mobile phones. After all, many of them already then could play music. Therefore, Steve Jobs organized active work on the creation of his own Apple phone - the iPhone.

The new device, introduced in 2007, not only had a unique design, as well as a heavy-duty glass screen, but was also incredibly functional. Soon he was appreciated all over the world.

Jobs' next successful project was the iPad (a tablet for using the Internet). The product turned out to be very successful and soon conquered the world market, confidently displacing netbooks.

Last years

Back in 2003, Steven Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. However, he did the necessary operation only a year later. She was successful, but time was lost, and the disease managed to spread to the liver. Jobs received a liver transplant six years later, but his condition continued to deteriorate. In the summer of 2011, Steve officially quit, and in early October he was gone.

Personal life of Steve Jobs

As with all his professional activities, so with regards to his eventful personal life, a short biography can be written with great difficulty. Nobody knew everything about Steve Jobs, since he was always immersed in himself. No one could understand what was really going on in his head: neither the loving foster family, nor the biological mother with whom Steve began to communicate as an adult, nor his sister Mona (he also found her when he grew up), neither his spouse, nor children.

Shortly before entering the university, Steve had a relationship with a hippie girl Chris Ann Brennan. After some time, she gave birth to his daughter Lisa, with whom Jobs did not want to communicate for many years, but took care of her.

Prior to his marriage in 1991, Stephen had several serious affairs. However, he married whom he met during one of his lectures. For twenty years of family life, Lauren gave birth to Jobs three children: son Reed and daughters Eve and Erin.

The biological mother of Jobs, giving him up for adoption, forced the adoptive parents to sign an agreement according to which they pledged to give the boy a higher education in the future. So all childhood and early youth of Steve Jobs were forced to save money for his son's education. Moreover, he wished to study at one of the most prestigious and expensive universities in the country.

Steve Jobs in his youth while studying at the university became interested in calligraphy. It is thanks to this hobby that modern computer programs have the ability to change fonts, letter size and

The Apple Lisa computer was named by Jobs after his illegitimate daughter Lisa, although he publicly denied this.

Steve's favorite music is songs by Bob Dylan and The Beatles. Interestingly, the legendary Liverpool Four founded Apple Corps, a company specializing in music, back in the sixties. The logo was a green apple. And although Jobs claimed that the idea of ​​naming the company Apple was prompted by a visit to a friend's apple farm, it seems that he was a little cunning.

For most of his life, Jobs adhered to the principles of Zen Buddhism, which quite strongly influenced the strict and concise appearance of Apple products.

Films, cartoons and even theatrical performances have been dedicated to the Jobs phenomenon. Many books have been written about him. An example of a successful business by Jobs is described in almost all textbooks or manuals for entrepreneurs. So, in 2015, the book “The Secret of Steve Jobs’ Business Youth, or Russian Roulette for Money” was published in Russian. In just a few weeks, it began to actively spread on the Internet. It is interesting that the book gained such popularity thanks to two phrases in the title that attracted readers: “the secret of business youth” and “Steve Jobs”. It is still difficult to find a review of this work, because at the request of the author, the book was blocked on most free resources.

Steve Jobs achieved what many can only dream of. Along with Bill Gates, he became a symbol of the computer industry. At the time of Jobs's death, he owned just over ten billion dollars, which he had earned through his labor.

Not only bibliographers are concerned about the topic of the fate of people who left their mark on world history. Those who want to succeed in life are interested in the life paths of celebrities. For example, they study both the biography of S. Jobs and the story of his success.

The full name of Steve Jobs is Steven Paul Jobs. The date of birth of this American entrepreneur in the field of IT technologies is February 24, 1955. Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco. It was Steve Jobs who stood at the origins of Apple's CEO, being not only its founder, but the chairman of the board of directors. The CEO of the Pixar film studio owes his birth to him.

Steve Jobs died relatively recently - October 5, 2011. Steve Jobs died as a result of pancreatic cancer, which he tried to fight for eight years.

Adoption

The biography of Steve Jobs is different from the fate of many people. After all, he spent his childhood, youth not with his parents.

Steve Jobs was born out of wedlock to Joana Schible. Steve's father was Syrian Abdulfatta (John) Jandali. The young people were both students. Joan's parents, German immigrants, were against their daughter's marriage to Jantali. As a result, the pregnant Joan, hiding from everyone, left for San Francisco, where she was safely relieved of her burden in a private clinic and gave the child up for adoption.

The childless Jobs family adopted a baby. Adoptive father, Paul Jobs, worked in a company that produced laser systems, performing the duties of a mechanic. His wife Clara, nee Hagopyan, was American, in which Armenian blood flowed. She worked for an accounting firm.

Steve Jobs saw his own mother only at the age of 31. At the same time, he met his blood sister.

Childhood

When Steve Jobs celebrated his second birthday, he had an adopted sister, Patty. Almost at the same time, the family moved to Mountain View.

Paul Jobs, in addition to official work, was engaged in part-time work, repairing old cars for sale in his own garage. He tried to involve his adopted son in this case. The work of an auto mechanic Steve Jobs was not carried away, but, thanks to the hours spent together in the company of his father for car repairs, the young man learned the basics of electronics. In his free time, Paul, along with his son, was engaged in disassembling, assembling and repairing radios, televisions - this was the thing that young Steve Jobs liked!

The mother of Steve Jobs also does a lot with her son. As a result, the boy enters school able to read and count.

Meeting with Stephen Wozniak (Legend 1)

Biography of Steve Jobs, perhaps, would have been different, if not one seemingly insignificant phone call, which entered an important line in the success story of Steve Jobs.

While assembling some kind of electrical appliance, the teenager made a home call to William Hewlett, who was then president of Hewlett-Packard Company, asking him to help him find some parts. After a twenty-minute conversation with Steve, Hewlett agreed to help the kid.

But most importantly, he offered the teenager to work during the summer holidays in the company he led. There was a fateful meeting between Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak, from there the story of his success originates.

Meeting with Stephen Wozniak (Legend 2)

According to this version, Steve Jobs met Steven not at all at work in the company, but through his classmate Bill Fernandez. Just an acquaintance seemed to coincide with the start of work. By the way, in addition to this, Steve Jobs was also engaged in delivering newspapers. And the very next year he became a warehouse employee in an electronics store. Thanks to his diligence and high capacity for work, at the age of 15, Steve had the opportunity, with the help of his father, to buy his own car, which he changed to a more modern one the next year. We can say that the success story of the future creator of "Apple" Steve Jobs originates precisely at this time - in the period of early youth. Even then, an insatiable desire to become rich woke up in him, which he tried to realize through work.

Father's Resentment

The free money of Jobs Jr. brought the family not only joy, but also trouble. It was then that the biography of the future entrepreneur entered an ugly page: the young man became interested in hippies, became addicted to marijuana and LSD. The father had to make a lot of efforts to get his son back on the right track.

Friendship with Stephen Wozniak

New friend Jobs was considered a "legend" of the school, he was her graduate. Among themselves, the guys called Stephen "Woz". Despite the fact that Woz was five years older than Jobs, they developed a wonderful relationship. Together they were collecting records of Bob Dylan. School evenings, music and light shows that young people staged at school have always been a huge success.

College

Enrolling in 1972 at Reed College, located in Portland, Oregon, Jobs Jr. decided to drop out immediately after the first semester. It was a rather decisive step, because the parents had already paid a substantial amount for the tuition fees. But the young man insisted. He later called this step one of his best decisions.

But in reality, making the decision to leave college was much easier than surviving in a new environment. Steve now had to sleep on the floor in his former classmates' rooms. He handed over empty Coca-Cola bottles in order to be able to buy himself some food. On Sundays, the guy walked 7 kilometers to the other end of the city to the Hare Krishna temple in order to get the opportunity to eat normally.

This life continued for a full year and a half, until Steve returned to California in the fall of 1974. And here again, a wonderful meeting with Stephen Wozniak helps him make a fateful turn. Jobs decides to go to work for Atari, a video game company. And again, Steve starts to work. At that time, Jobs Jr. did not think about becoming a billionaire, did not build ambitious plans for the future in his imagination. His greatest desire, his cherished dream then was to go to India.

First steps to stunning success

In his spare time at the firm, Steve attended the Homebrew computer club in Palo Alto with Wozniak. And there they came up with a "great idea" - to make underground devices with which you could make free calls over long distances. Young people called their "discovery" "blue boxes". Of course, this can be called a dishonest business, but the guys simply did not know where to invest their intellectual potential and how to earn money as soon as possible.

But the actual success story of Jobs began in the late seventies of the last century, when he and Woz projected one of the first personal computers with commercial potential. It was the Apple II, which later became Apple's first mass-produced portentous product. Steve Jobs, together with Stephen Wozniak, organized this company themselves. Then a year later came the "descendants" of the Apple II, Apple Lisa and Macintosh (Mac).

During this period, Apple shareholder Steve Jobs was worth $8.3 billion. Moreover, only $ 2 billion was invested directly in Apple shares.

However, Jobs had to leave his "brainchild" in 1985, so he lost the power struggle on the board of directors of Apple. And then another remarkable trait of his character appeared again, thanks to which the success story of Jobs in this difficult period did not stop, but entered a new round.

NeXT and Pixar

Jobs after the defeat did not become discouraged, but began to look for new ways to apply his energy. And now he is the creator of a new company that develops a computer platform for business and higher education institutions. This company is called NeXT.

And a year later, Jobs's success story is replenished with a new page: he acquires a division in the Lucasfilm film company that deals with computer graphics. He went to great lengths to turn a small division into a major Pixar studio. It was here that the films "Toy Story" and the famous "Monsters Corporation" were created.

But even now, Jobs is no longer just the creator of the studio, but also its main shareholder. The purchase of the studio in 2006 by The Walt Disney Company turned Jobs into one of the largest private shareholders and members of the board of directors of the world's most famous Disney company.

Jobs family

Constantly busy with business, creating and promoting the latest technologies, developing unique projects, Jobs gives his work "150% of his time and effort," as he himself put it. But then a love named Chris-Ann breaks into the life of a young man. With her, Jobs spends quite a lot of time, but suddenly the personal life of the entrepreneur again faded into the background.

The mother of his daughter Lisa did not become Steve's legal wife. Even the birth of a daughter in 1977 did not change the life of the "workaholic" at all. They joked that Steve hardly noticed the birth of his daughter. And, despite the fact that during this period the state of the young father has already exceeded the million mark, Jobs does not even want to pay her alimony.

The girl lived with her mother, Jobs practically did not communicate with her. Steve's personal life did not change until his death. Although closer to old age, Steve Jobs realized that personal life is not only you. He remembered his daughter, began to communicate with her a little, to get to know her.

Later, a certain Lauren became Steve's wife, who gave birth to his son Reed in the early 90s.

The poorest CEO

Looking for information about what was the state of Jobs in the heyday of his business, the reader will be involuntarily amazed. And there is something! Jobs even got into the Guinness Book of Records: he, the chief executive of the largest company, has the most modest salary! It cannot be argued that the data recorded in official documents corresponded to reality. This was probably done to reduce taxes. But, one way or another, and the documents testified to the annual income of Jobs, which was equal to one dollar.

With the advent of the new millennium, Jobs' success story is replenished with new pages.

• 2001 - introduction of the first iPod by Jobs;
• 2006 - introduction by the company of a network multimedia player Apple TV;
• 2007 - introduction of the iPhone mobile phone, its active promotion on the sales market;
• 2008 - Introduction of the MacBook Air. thinnest laptop in the world.

Some facts from the life of Jobs

It would be wrong to say that Steve Jobs, whose biography is being studied by many today, was a man created from merit alone. The life of an entrepreneur had its "dark" sides, many of Jobs' actions were negative. Today, many can condemn, blame Steve. But how many can boast that they could create something truly significant from almost nothing, that they made a fortune as a billionaire, starting to earn money by delivering newspapers?

I don't trust a computer that I can't lift.

With the creator of the iPhone, Steven Paul Jobs, better known as Steven Paul Jobs, Steve Jobs, is one of the founders of Apple, Next, Pixar corporations and a key figure in the global computer industry, a person who largely determined the course of its development.

The future billionaire was born on February 24, 1955 in the town of Mountain View, California (ironically, this area would later become the heart of Silicon Valley). Steve Abdulfattah's biological parents John Jandali (a Syrian immigrant) and Joan Carol Schible (an American graduate student) gave their illegitimate child up for adoption to Paul and Clara Jobs (née Hakobyan). The main condition for adoption was Steve's higher education.

Even at school, Steve Jobs became interested in electronics, and when he met his namesake Steve Wozniak, he first thought about a business related to computer technology. The partners' first project was the BlueBox, a device that allows free long-distance communications and was sold for $150 apiece. Wozniak was involved in the development and assembly of the device, and thirteen-year-old Jobs was selling illegal goods. This distribution of roles will continue in the future, only their future business will now be completely legal.

In 1972, after graduating from high school, Steve Jobs enters Reed College (Portland, Oregon), but quickly loses interest in learning. After the first semester, he was expelled of his own free will, but remained to live in the rooms of friends for about a year and a half, sleeping on the floor, living on the money for the returned Coca-Cola bottles and once a week coming to free lunches at the local Hare Krishna Temple. Then he got into calligraphy courses, which later prompted him to think about equipping the Mac OS system with scalable fonts.

Then Steve got a job at Atari. There Jobs is engaged in the development of computer games. Four years later, Wozniak creates his first computer, and Jobs, continuing to work at Atari, establishes its sales.

Apple

And from the creative tandem of friends, the Apple company grows (the name “Apple” Jobs suggested due to the fact that in this case the phone number of the company went in the telephone directory right before “Atari”). Apple was founded on April 1, 1976 (April Fool's Day), and the first office-shop was the garage of Jobs' parents. Apple was officially registered in early 1977.

And the second most development was Stephen Wozniak, while Jobs acted as a marketer. It is believed that it was Jobs who convinced Wozniak to refine the microcomputer circuit he had invented, and thereby gave impetus to the creation of a new market for personal computers.

The debut computer model was called the Apple I. In a year, the partners sold 200 of these machines (the price of each was $666.66). A decent amount for beginners, but it's nothing compared to the Apple II that came out in 1977.

The success of Apple I and especially Apple II computers, coupled with the appearance of investors, make the company the undisputed leader in the computer market until the early eighties, and two Steves millionaires. It is noteworthy that the software for Apple computers was developed by the then young company Microsoft, created six months later than Apple. In the future, fate will bring Jobs and.

Macintosh

The key event was the signing of a contract between Apple and Xerox. Revolutionary developments that Xerox long time could not find a worthy application, later became part of the Macintosh project (a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured and sold by Apple Inc.). In fact, the modern personal computer interface, with its windows and virtual buttons, owes much to this contract.

It's safe to say that the Macintosh is the first personal computer in the modern sense (the first Mac was released on January 24, 1984). Previously, the control of the machine was carried out with the help of intricate commands typed by "initiates" on the keyboard. Now the mouse becomes the main working tool.

The success of the Macintosh was simply stunning. In the world at that time there was no competitor, even close comparable in terms of sales and technological potential. Shortly after the release of the Macintosh, the company ceased development and production of the Apple II family, which had previously been the company's main source of income.

Jobs leaving

Despite significant progress, in the early 80s. Steve Jobs is gradually starting to lose ground in Apple, which by that time had grown into a huge corporation. His authoritarian style of management leads first to disagreement and then to open conflict with the board of directors. At the age of 30 (1985), the founder of Apple was simply fired.

Having lost power in the company and work, Jobs did not lose heart, and immediately set to new projects. First, he founded NeXT, which specialized in the production of complex computers for higher education and business structures. This market was too narrow, so it was not possible to achieve any significant sales.

Much more successful was the graphics studio The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar), bought from Lucasfilm for almost half the price ($5 million) of its estimated value (George Lucas was getting divorced and needed money). Under Jobs' direction, several super-grossing animated films were released. The most famous: "Monsters Corporation" and the famous "Toy Story".

In 2006, Pixar was sold to Walt Disney for $7.5 billion, while Jobs received a 7% stake in Walt Disney. By comparison, Disney's heir apparent only inherited 1%.

Return to Apple

In 1997, Steve Jobs returns to Apple. First, as an interim director, and since 2000, as a full-fledged manager. Several unprofitable directions were closed and work on the new iMac computer was successfully completed, after which the company's business rapidly went uphill.

Later, a lot of developments will be presented that will become trendsetters in the technology market. This is an iPhone mobile phone, an iPod player, and an iPad tablet computer, which went on sale in 2010. All this will make Apple the third largest company in the world by capitalization (it will bypass even Microsoft).

Disease

In October 2003, an abdominal scan revealed that Steve Jobs had pancreatic cancer. In general, this diagnosis is fatal, but the head of Apple turned out to have a very rare form of the disease that can be cured with surgery. At first, Jobs refused it, because, according to personal convictions, he did not recognize interventions in the human body. For 9 months, Steve Jobs hoped to recover on his own, and all this time, no one from Apple management informed investors about his fatal illness. Then Steve nevertheless decided to trust the doctors and informed the public about his illness. On July 31, 2004, Stanford Medical Center performed a successful operation.

In December 2008, doctors discovered a hormonal imbalance in Jobs. In the summer of 2009, according to representatives of the Methodist Hospital at the University (Scientific Medical Center) of Tennessee, it became known that Steve had undergone a liver transplant. March 2, 2011 Steve spoke at the presentation of a new tablet - iPad 2.

Promotion Methods

To define the charisma of Steve Jobs and its impact on the developers of the original Macintosh project, his colleague at Apple Computer Bud Tribble coined the phrase "Reality Distortion Field" (PIR) in 1981. Later, the term was used to define the perception of his key performances by reviewers and fans of the company.

According to colleagues, Steve Jobs is able to convince others of anything, using a mixture of charisma, charm, arrogance, perseverance, pathos, self-confidence. Basically, PIR distorts the audience's sense of proportion and proportion. Small progress is presented as a breakthrough. Any errors are hushed up or presented as insignificant. The difficulties overcome are greatly exaggerated. Certain opinions, ideas and definitions can change dramatically in the future without any regard to the very fact of such changes. In principle, PIR is nothing more than a mixture of political propaganda and advertising technologies.

For example, one of the most typical examples of PIR is the claim that consumers are "suffering" from competitors' inferior products, or that a company's products "change people's lives." Also, often unsuccessful technical solutions are explained by the fact that the consumer does not need it. The term is often used in a pejorative context to criticize Apple, or its supporters. However, many companies today are moving to a similar technique themselves, seeing how far it has been able to move Apple economically.

Steven Paul Jobs is an American engineer and entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Apple Inc. He is considered one of the key figures in the computer industry, a man who largely determined its development. Today's story is about him. About his path, about how this extraordinary personality was able to achieve truly phenomenal heights in business, despite all the blows of fate, which more than once forced Jobs to get up from his knees.

Success Story, Biography of Steve Jobs

Born in San Francisco on February 24, 1955. It cannot be said that he was a desired child. Just a week after the birth, Steve's parents, American Joan Carol Schible and Syrian Abdulfattah John Jandali, abandoned the child and gave him up for adoption. Adoptive parents were Paul and Clara Jobs from Mountain View, California. They named him Steven Paul Jobs. Clara worked for an accounting firm, and Paul was a mechanic for a company that made laser machines.

As a child, Jobs was a big bully who had every chance of becoming a juvenile delinquent. He was expelled from school after the third grade. The transition to another school was a significant moment in the life of Jobs, thanks to a wonderful teacher who found an approach to him. As a result, he took up his head and began to study. The approach, of course, was simple: for each task completed, Steve received money from the teacher. Not much, but enough for a fourth grade student. In general, Jobs's success was great enough that he even skipped the fifth grade, going straight to high school.

Childhood and youth of Steve Jobs

When Steve Jobs was 12, on a childish whim and not without an early display of teenage sass, he called William Hewlett, then president of Hewlett-Packard, on his home number. Back then, Jobs was assembling an electric current frequency indicator for a school physics classroom, and he needed some details: "My name is Steve Jobs, and I would like to know if you have spare parts that I could use to assemble a frequency counter." Hewlett chatted with Jobs for 20 minutes, agreed to send the necessary parts and offered him a summer job at his company, within the walls of which the entire Silicon Valley industry was born.

It was at work at Hewlett-Packard that Steve Jobs met a man whose acquaintance largely determined his future fate - Steven Wozniak. He got a job at Hewlett-Packard, leaving the boring classes at the University of California, Berkeley. Work in the company was much more interesting to him due to his passion for radio engineering. As it turned out, at the age of 13, Wozniak himself assembled not the easiest calculator. And at the time of his acquaintance with Jobs, he was already thinking about the concept of a personal computer, which then did not exist at all. Despite their different personalities, they quickly became friends.

When Steve Jobs was 16, he and Woz met a then-famous hacker named Captain Crunch. She told them how, with the help of special sounds made by the whistle from the Captain Crunch cereal, they could fool the switching device and make calls around the world for free. Soon, Wozniak made the first device, called the "Blue Box", which allowed ordinary people to imitate the sounds of the Crunch whistle and make free calls around the world. Jobs was engaged in the sale of goods. The blue boxes sold for $150 each and were very popular with the students. Interestingly, the cost of such a device was then $ 40. However, not much success has been achieved. First, problems with the police, and then with some bully who even threatened Jobs with a gun, brought the blue box business to nothing.

In 1972, Steve Jobs graduated from high school and entered Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but dropped out after his first semester. Steve Jobs explains his decision to drop out this way: “I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my parents' savings went to college tuition. Six months later, I didn't see the point. I didn't know at all what I was going to do with my life, and I didn't understand how college would help me figure it out. I was pretty scared at the time, but looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life.”

Dropping out of school, Jobs focused on what was really interesting to him. However, it was not easy to remain a free student at the university now. “It wasn't all romantic,” Jobs recalls. – I didn’t have a dorm room, so I had to sleep on the floor in my friends’ rooms. I rented five-cent Coke bottles to buy my own food and walked seven miles across town every Sunday night to have a proper meal once a week at a Hare Krishna temple…”

The adventures of Steve Jobs on the college campus after the expulsion continued for another 18 months, after which in the fall of 1974 he returned to California. There he met up with an old friend and technical genius, Stephen Wozniak. On the advice of a friend, Jobs got a job as a technician at Atari, a popular video game company. Steve Jobs did not have any ambitious plans then. He just wanted to earn money for a trip to India. After all, his youth fell precisely on the heyday of the hippie movement - with all the consequences that follow from here. Jobs became addicted to light drugs such as marijuana and LSD (it is interesting that even now, having left this addiction, Steve does not regret at all that he used LSD, moreover, he considers it one of the most significant events in his life that turned his worldview upside down) .

Atari paid for Jobs's trip, but he also had to visit Germany, where he was tasked with sorting out production problems. He did it.

Jobs went to India not alone, but with his friend Dan Kottke. It wasn't until he arrived in India that Steve traded all his belongings for a beggar's tattered clothes. His goal was to make pilgrimages across India, hoping for the help of mere strangers. During the trip itself, Dan and Steve nearly died several times due to India's harsh climate. Communication with the guru did not bring enlightenment to Jobs. Nevertheless, the trip to India left an indelible mark on the soul of Jobs. He saw real poverty, a radically different thing from that held by the hippies in Silicon Valley.

Returning back to Silicon Valley, Jobs continued to work at Atari. Soon he was assigned to develop the BreakOut game (Atari was making not only a game at that time, but a full-fledged slot machine, and all the work fell on the shoulders of Jobs). According to Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, the company offered Jobs to minimize the number of chips on the board and pay $100 for each chip he could remove from the circuit. Steve Jobs was not very well versed in the construction of electronic circuits, so he offered Wozniak to split the bonus in half if he took up this business.

Atari was quite surprised when Jobs presented them with a board that had 50 chips removed. Wozniak created a scheme so dense that it was impossible to recreate it in mass production. Jobs then told Wozniak that Atari had only paid $700 (not $5,000 as it actually was), and Wozniak got his cut, $350.

Founding of Apple

In 1975, Wozniak demonstrated the completed PC model to Hewlett-packard management. However, the authorities did not show the slightest interest in the initiative of one of their engineers - everyone then imagined computers solely as iron cabinets stuffed with electronic components and used in big business or the military. Nobody even thought about home PCs. Atari did not help Wozniak either - they did not see commercial prospects in the novelty. And then Steve Jobs made the most important decision in his life - he persuaded Steve Wozniak and his colleague from Atari draftsman Ronald Wayne to create their own company and engage in the development and production of personal computers. And on April 1, 1976, Jobs, Wozniak, and Wayne formed Apple Computer Co. as a partnership. And so began the history of Apple.

Like Hewlett-Packard once did, Apple was established in a garage that Jobs' father gave to his adopted son and his companions - he even pulled a huge wooden machine, which became the first "assembly line" in the history of the corporation. The start-up company needed start-up capital, and Steve Jobs sold his van and Wozniak sold his beloved Hewlett Packard programmable calculator. As a result, they helped out about $1300.

At Jobs' request, Wayne designed the company's first logo, which, however, looked more like a drawing than a logo. It depicted Sir Isaac Newton with an apple falling on his head. However, later this original logo was significantly simplified.

Soon they received the first large order from a local electronics store - 50 pieces. However, the young company did not then have the money to buy parts to assemble such a large number of computers. Then Steve Jobs convinced component suppliers to provide materials on credit for 30 days.

After receiving the parts, Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne assembled the cars in the evenings, and within 10 days they delivered the entire batch to the store. The first computer of the company was called Apple I. Then these computers were simply boards to which the buyer had to independently connect a keyboard and monitor. The store that ordered the cars sold it for $666.66 because Wozniak liked numbers with the same digits. But despite this large order, Wayne lost faith in the success of the undertaking and left the company, selling his ten percent stake in the initial capital to partners for $ 800. Here is how Wayne himself later commented on his act: “Jobs is a hurricane of energy and purposefulness. I was already too disillusioned with life to ride through it in this hurricane.”

One way or another, the company had to develop. And already in the autumn of the same year, Wozniak completed work on the Apple II prototype, which became the first mass-produced personal computer in the world. It had a plastic case, a floppy disk reader, and support for color graphics.

To ensure successful sales of the computer, Jobs ordered the launch of an advertising campaign and the development of a beautiful and standard packaging for the computer, on which the new company logo was clearly visible - (Jobs' favorite fruit). It was supposed to indicate that the Apple II works with color graphics. Subsequently, Jean-Louis Gase is the ex-president of several structural divisions and the founder of Be, Inc. - said: “A more suitable logo could not have been dreamed of: it embodied aspiration, hope, knowledge, and anarchy ...”

But then no one released anything like that, the very idea of ​​​​such a computer was perceived by big businessmen with undisguised skepticism. As a result, it turned out to be very difficult to find funding for the release of the Apple II created by friends. Both Hewlett-packard and Atari again refused to finance the unusual project, although they considered it "fun".

But there were also those who picked up the idea of ​​a computer that was supposed to be available to the general population. The famous financier Don Valentine brought Steve Jobs together with the equally famous venture capitalist Armas Cliff "Mike" Markkula. The latter helped young entrepreneurs write a business plan, invested $92,000 of his personal savings in the company, and secured a $250,000 line of credit from Bank of America. All this allowed the two Steves to “get out of the garage”, significantly increase production volumes and expand the staff, as well as launch the fundamentally new Apple II into mass production.

The success of the Apple II was truly grandiose: the novelty was sold out in hundreds and thousands of copies. Recall that this happened at a time when the entire world market for personal computers did not exceed ten thousand units. In 1980, Apple Computer was already an established computer manufacturer. It had several hundred people in its staff, and its products were exported outside the United States.

In 1980, the same week John Lennon was assassinated, Apple Computer went public. The company's shares were sold out within one hour! Steve Jobs is now one of the richest Americans. Jobs' popularity grew every day. A simple young guy with no education who suddenly became a millionaire. Why not the American dream?

Personal computers quickly broke into the daily life of people in developed countries. For two decades, they have firmly taken their place among people, becoming indispensable assistants in production, organizational, educational, communication and other technological and social affairs. The words spoken by Steve Jobs in the early 80s became prophetic: “In this decade, the first meeting of the Society and the computer took place. And for some insane reason, we were in the right place at the right time to do everything for the flourishing of this novel.” The computer revolution has begun.

Project Macintosh

In December 1979, Steve Jobs and several other Apple employees gained access to the Xerox Research Center (XRX) in Palo Alto. There, Jobs first saw the company's prototype, the Alto computer, which used a graphical interface that allowed the user to issue commands by hovering over a graphic object on the monitor.

As colleagues recall, this invention struck Jobs, and he immediately began to confidently say that all future computers would use this innovation. And no wonder, because it contained three things through which the path to the heart of the consumer lies. Steve Jobs already then understood that it was simplicity, ease of use and aesthetics. He immediately got excited about the idea of ​​creating such a computer.

Then the company spent several months developing a new Lisa computer, named after Jobs' daughter. Starting on this project, Jobs set the goal of making a $2,000 computer. However, the desire to realize the revolutionary innovation that he saw in Xerox Laboratories cast doubt on the fact that the originally conceived price would remain unchanged. And soon, Apple President Michael Scott removed Steve from the Lisa project and was appointed chairman of the board of directors. The project was led by another person.

In the same year, Steve, removed from the Lisa project, turned his attention to a small project run by talented engineer Jeff Raskin. (Prior to this, Jobs tried several times to cover up this project) Raskin's main idea was to create an inexpensive computer, costing about $ 1,000. Raskin called this Macintosh computer after his favorite variety of McIntosh apples. A computer
was supposed to be a complete device that combines a monitor, keyboard and system unit. Those. the buyer received the computer ready to work at once. (It's worth noting here that Raskin didn't understand why the computer needed a mouse, and didn't plan to use it on the Macintosh)

Jobs begged Michael Scott to put him in charge of the project. And he immediately intervened in the development of the Macintosh computer, ordering Raskin to use the Motorola 68000 processor in it, which was supposed to be used in Lisa. This was done for a reason, Steve Jobs wanted to bring the Lisa GUI to the Macintosh. Next, Jobs decided to introduce a mouse into the Macintosh. None of Ruskin's wranglings had any effect. And realizing

that Jobs completely selects his project wrote a letter to company president Mike Scott, where he described Steve as an incompetent person who would ruin all his undertakings.

As a result, both Raskin and Jobs were invited to talk to the president of the company. After listening to both, Michael Scott still instructed Jobs to bring the Macintosh to mind, and Raskin went on vacation in order to smooth the situation. In the same year, Apple president Michael Scott himself was fired. Mike Markkula assumed the presidency for some time.

Steve Jobs planned to finish working on the Macintosh computer within 12 months. But the work was delayed, and in the end he decided to entrust third-party companies with developing software for the computer. His choice rather quickly fell on the young company Microsoft, which was known at that time for having created the Basic language for the Apple II computer (and a number of others).

Steve Jobs went to Redmond, the main headquarters of Microsoft. Ultimately, both parties agreed that they were ready to cooperate, and Steve invited Bill Gates and Paul Allen (the two founders of Microsoft) to come to Cupertino to see firsthand the experimental Macintosh model.

Microsoft's main task was to create application software for the Macintosh. The most famous program of the time was Microsoft Excel.

At the same time, the first marketing plan for the Macintosh computer appears. It was written personally by Steve Jobs, who knew little about this, so the plan was rather arbitrary. Jobs planned to launch the Macintosh computer in 1982 and sell 500,000 computers a year (the figure was taken from the ceiling). First of all, Steve convinced Mike Markkula that the Macintosh would not compete with Lisa (the plans were to launch the computers around the same time). True, Markkula insisted that the Macintosh should be released a little later than Lisa, namely October 1, 1982. There was only one problem - the deadlines were still unrealistic, but Steve Jobs, with his characteristic persistence, did not want to listen to anything.

At the end of the year, Steve Jobs appeared on the cover of Time magazine. The Apple II was named the best computer of the year, but the magazine article was mostly about Jobs. It claimed that Steve could become an excellent king of France. It claimed that Jobs got rich on the work of other people, and he himself does not understand anything: neither in engineering, nor in programming, design, and even more so business. The article cited the statements of many anonymous sources and even Steve Wozniak himself (who, after the accident, left Apple). Jobs was very annoyed by this article and even called Jeff Raskin to express his indignation. (Jeff, this is the man who was at the helm of the Macintosh before Steve) Jobs began to understand that a lot for him personally would depend on the success of the Mac.

Steve at that time bought himself an apartment in Manhattan, the view from the windows of which overlooked New York's Central Park. It was there that Jobs first met John Scully, the president of Pepsi. Steve and John walked around New York for quite some time, discussing the prospects for Apple and talking about the business in general. It was then that Jobs realized that John was the man he wanted to be President of Apple. John was great at business, but he didn't know much about technology. So, according to Jobs, they could be a great tandem. There was only one problem: Scully was doing a great job at Pepsi at the time. As a result, Steve Jobs was able to lure Scully to Apple, and even the famous phrase addressed by Jobs to John Scully entered the history of the business: “Are you going to sell sugared water for the rest of your life, or are you going to change the world?”

It should be noted that by this time a group of software developers for Macintosh still did not have time, but Steve Jobs, without shouting and tantrums, was able to breathe new strength into programmers, and make them work for the last week with almost no sleep. The result was stunning. Everything was ready. The principle “if you have the right people in your team, then you will succeed” worked here. The Macintosh group had the right people.

The presentation of the Macintosh turned out to be phenomenal, a technological revolution, along with the oratorical skills of Steve Jobs forever entered history.

Soon, John Scully merged the Lisa and Macintosh development team, led by Steve Jobs. The first 100 days of Macintosh sales were phenomenal, and then the first serious problems began. The main problem for all users was the lack of software. In addition to standard programs from Apple at that time, only the office suite from Microsoft was available for Macintosh. All other developers could not figure out how to create software with a graphical interface. This was the main reason that slowed down sales of the computer.

Soon problems began with the hardware. Jobs was against the possibility of Mac extensions, which consumers didn't like. Apple employee Michael Murray once said, "Steve did market research by looking at himself in the mirror every morning." Things were heating up at Apple. At that moment, conflicts clearly began to occur between the Macintosh development team and the rest of Apple. Jobs, in turn, constantly belittled the merits of the new models of the Apple II computer, which at that time was Apple's cash cow.

Apple's black streak continued and Steve Jobs, as always, in his own manner began to blame others for the company's failures, or rather another one, its president John Scully. Steve claimed that John was never able to readjust and enter the high-tech business.

As a result, a few months after his birthday, Steve Jobs was fired from the company, which he himself founded. This was due to a number of behind-the-scenes intrigues that Steve led in order to gain power and become president of the company.

After his dismissal, Steve refused the honorary position of the representative of the company and sold all the shares of Apple that he had at that time. He left only one symbolic share.

After Steve's dismissal, there will be some heyday of Apple, which will lead to the highest sales in the history of the company. Then hard times will come that will lead Apple to near collapse, but in 1997 Jobs will again lead the company to pull it out and make it one of the biggest players in the industry. But that's still 12 years away, and Steve is rich and young. And most importantly, he is full of energy and ready for new achievements. He wasn't going to quit the business. Although it should be noted that he could. He could become a simple venture investor. Forget about work, but it was not in the spirit of Steve, and therefore he decided to found a computer company Next.

Life after Apple

Next was supposed to develop computers that would be used primarily in education. Steve Jobs received an investment from Ros Pero, who invested $20 million in Next. Perot received a fairly good stake in the company - 16 percent. To be sure, Jobs did not present any business plans to Perot. The investor completely relied on Steve's devilish charm.

The Next computers used the revolutionary NextStep operating system, which was built with the principles of the object-oriented programming that would become ubiquitous. Nevertheless, Jobs will not be able to achieve much success with Next, but on the contrary, he will squander a lot of money.

It should be noted that Next computers were used by a number of creative personalities in their work. For example, such game hits from ID Software as Doom and Quake were created on them. In the late 80s, Steve Jobs tried to save Next by signing a contract with Diney, but nothing worked, Disney continued to work with Apple.

At that time, it seemed that Jobs's luck had left him and he would soon become bankrupt. But there was one "but". Steve was great at organizing a small group of talented people to create something meaningful. That's exactly what he did with PIXAR, which gave the world computer animation.

In 1985, Jobs bought Pixar from George Lucas (director of Star Wars). It should be noted that the initial price Lucas set for Pixar was $30 million. Jobs waited for the right moment, when Lucas urgently needed money, but there were no buyers, and after long negotiations, he received the company at a price of 10 million. True, at the same time, Steve promised that Lucas would be able to use all the achievements of Pixar in his films for free. At that time, Pixar had a Pixar Image Computer at its disposal, which cost an exorbitant amount of money and sold quite poorly. Jobs began looking for a market for it. At the same time, Pixar continued to develop software for animation, and to make some experiments in creating their own animation.

Soon, Jobs will open 7 sales offices of Pixar in different cities, which will have to sell Pixar Image Computer. This idea will fail, because the Pixar-built computer will be aimed at a very narrow circle of people, and it will not need additional representation.

A pivotal moment in Pixar's history was the hiring of Disney artist John Lasseter, who would eventually take the studio to new heights. John was originally hired to create short animations that showcase the capabilities of Pixar's software and hardware. Pixar's success began with the short films "Andre and Wally B" and "Luxo, Jr."

The turning point came when Jobs funded the short film Tin Toy, which would go on to win an Oscar. In 1988, Pixar introduced the RenderMan software product, which for a long time would be the only source of income for Steve Jobs.

At the end of 1989, Jobs had two companies that made first-class products, but sales in both cases left much to be desired, and the press predicted the failure of both Pixar and Next.

As a result, Jobs begins to act actively. The first thing he did was to sell Pixar's money-losing computer business. Part of the staff, and everything that was connected with Pixar Image Computer computers, was sold for several million to Vicom. Ultimately, Pixar was transformed into a pure animation company.

Like most businessmen, Steve Jobs often spoke to students. In 1989, he had a chance to read a speech at Stanford. Jobs, as always, led a real show and looked first-class on stage, but suddenly there came a moment when he began to stutter, and it seemed to many that he had lost the main thread of the speech.

It was all about the woman who was sitting in the hall. Her name was Lauryn Powell and Jobs liked her. And not just liked, he experienced feelings for her that were unknown to him before. At the end of the lecture, Steve exchanged phone numbers with her and got into his car. He had a business meeting for the evening. But getting into the car, Steve realized that he was doing something wrong, and that at the moment he did not want to be at a business meeting at all. As a result, Jobs caught up with Lauryn and invited him to a restaurant that same day. The rest of the day they walked around the city. Subsequently, Steve and Lauryn will get married.

Amid success in his personal life, Jobs continued to experience problems in the business sphere. At the end of the year, another reduction was carried out at Pixar. It should be noted that many employees were fired, but the reduction did not affect the group of animators, headed by John Lasseter. It became clear that Steve was betting on them.

Steve Jobs is one of those people who only listen to themselves. He doesn't care what others think, even if he's wrong. Of course, there is always a narrow circle of people who can express their point of view to Steve and he listens to it, for example, now such people include Apple chief designer Jonathan Ive.

In the early 90s, the circle of people who could argue with Steve included Pixar co-founder Elvy Ray Smith. Elvy often pointed out Jobs' blunders, and, after all, he knew more about animation than Steve did. Once at a Pixar meeting, Jobs was talking some nonsense that he didn’t even bother to figure out. Alvy jumped up from his seat and began to prove what Steve was wrong about. Here he made a mistake. Jobs has always been a strange and extraordinary person. At the meeting, he had a special whiteboard on which only he could write. To prove his point, Alvy began to write something on Steve's white board. Everyone froze, after a few seconds, Jobs was in front of Smith and bombarded him with a mass of personal insults, which, according to those present, were irrelevant and really vile. Soon Elvy Ray Smith left Pixar, the company he founded.

The real breakthrough for Pixar came in the early 90s when Jobs received financial backing from Disney. Under the contract, Pixar had to create a full-length computer cartoon, and Disney assumed all the costs associated with the promotion of the film. Considering what a powerful marketing machine Disney is, that was great. Jobs managed to get the most favorable conditions for Pixar from Disney.

In 1991, two important events took place in the life of Steve Jobs. 36-year-old Jobs married his 27-year-old girlfriend Lauryn (the wedding was ascetic), and also signed a contract with Disney to produce three animated films. Under the terms of the contract, Disney assumed all the costs of creating and promoting the pictures. This contract became a real lifeline for Jobs, whose fall was already written in all the newspapers. They saw him bankrupt. No one then knew that Pixar would give Steve billions.

In 1992, Jobs realized that he could no longer finance Next on his own and secured a second investment from Canon (the first was $ 100 million) of $ 30 million. At that time, sales of Next computers increased significantly, but in general, Next sold as many computers in a year as Apple sold in a week.

In 1993, Steve made an important decision (albeit a difficult one for him) to begin to gradually phase out production of Next personal computers and focus the company's efforts on software (this was an important decision from a historical point of view, since NextStep would later become the basis for Mac OS X, which will revive Macintosh computers from the crisis).

At that time, there was one person who guaranteed the success of Jobs. It was the director, artist and animator in one person - John Lasseter. Disney fought for it with all its might. But, he continued to work at Pixar. In many ways, his presence in the company was the reason that Disney really wanted to work with the Steve Jobs studio.

Pixar's first animated film, Toy Story, was released around Christmas 1995 and was a resounding success.

The mid-1990s were a terrible time for Apple. First, John Scully was fired, and Michael Spindler did not last long as president. The last person to lead Apple was Jill Amelio. Ultimately, the company was losing market share by leaps and bounds. Besides, it was already unprofitable. In this regard, the leaders were looking for someone who would buy Apple, making it part of their business. However, neither negotiations with Phillips, nor with Sun, nor with Oracle were successful.

Jobs at the time was busy planning Pixar's IPO. He intended to hold it immediately after the release of Toy Story. The IPO was Jobs' only hope at the time.

The situation around Apple was getting more complicated. It got to the point that at the end of 1996, Bill Gates constantly called the head of Apple Computer, Gil Amelio, persuading him to install the Windows NT operating system on Macintosh computers.

As a result, after long negotiations, Apple acquires Steve Jobs' Next for $377 million and 1.5 million shares. The main thing that Apple needed was the NextStep operating system and a group of people developing it (more than 300 people). Apple got it all, and Steve Jobs was named advisor to Gil Amelio.

However, there were no significant changes. The same people were on the board of directors, and Apple's losses were increasing. It was the best moment to overthrow Amelio. And Jobs took advantage of it. At that time, a number of devastating articles appeared in various business magazines that were addressed to Gil Amelio. The board of directors did not tolerate him any longer and announced the dismissal of Amelio. No one then remembered that Amelio promised to pull Apple out of the crisis in 3 years, and worked for only 1.5, while significantly increasing the company's cash. But, as it turned out, this was not enough. At that moment, it became clear to everyone that Steve Jobs, who was the darling of the press, would lead Apple. How else? The man who lost everything and managed to get back on his knees and become a millionaire (thanks to Pixar). In addition, Jobs stood at the origins of Apple, which means he could breathe fire into the eyes of all employees.

For starters, Jobs was named acting CEO. One of the first decisions Steve made was to call Bill Gates. Apple gave Microsoft the rights to a number of user interface developments, and MS invested $150 million in the company's shares, and also committed to releasing new versions of Microsoft Office for the Macintosh. On top of all this, Internet Explorer has become the default browser on the Mac.

Jobs quickly took control into his own hands. He closed the unprofitable Newton project, which had plagued Apple for many years (it was the first PDA in history, but it failed because it was simply ahead of its time). At this point, an old friend of Steve Jobs and the head of Oracle, Larry Ellison, is on the Apple board of directors. This was a significant support for Steve.

At the same time, Apple's famous "Think Different" ad appeared for the first time, which remains the company's credo to this day.

At the 1998 MacWorld Expo, Steve Jobs spoke to attendees about how the company was doing. In the end, already leaving, he said: “I almost forgot. We're making a profit again." The hall burst into applause.

By 1998, Pixar had released four hugely successful animated films: Toy Story, Flick's Adventure, Toy Story 2, and Monsters, Inc. Overall, Pixar's total revenue at the time was $2.8 billion. It was a phenomenal success for the Jobs studio. In the same year, the revival of Apple began. Steve Jobs introduced the first iMac. True, it is worth saying here that the development of the iMac began even before the arrival of Jobs at Apple under Gil Amelio. However, all the merits regarding the iMac are assigned to Steve and nothing can be done about it.

The arrival of Jobs at Apple also had a positive effect on the reduction of the company's inventories, which were previously equal to 400 million dollars, and after the arrival of Jobs dropped to 75 million. This was due to the fact that Jobs was attentive to all the small details of the production process.

Following the success of the iMac (computer and monitor in one), Apple introduced a new line of iBook portable computers. At the same time, Apple received the rights to the SoundJam MP program from C&C. This program would later become known as iTunes and would launch the popularity of the iPod.

After the release of iTunes, Apple turned its attention to the mp3 player market. Steve Jobs found the PortalPlayer company and, after a series of negotiations, entrusted it with the development of a player for Apple (the hardware and software were made by Apple itself). This is how the iPod was born. During development, Jobs made a lot of claims against the employees of Portal Player, which ultimately only played into the hands of consumers who received the best (at that time) mp3 player. At the same time, it should be noted that the now famous designer Jonathan Ive from Apple was responsible for the appearance of the iPod player (now he is the chief industrial designer of the “fruit” company). I must say that the success of all new Apple products released since the return of Steve Jobs to the company is also the merit of Quince. Even the design of the first iMacs was his work.

Soon, new versions of the iPod player began to come out, which became more and more popular every day.

At the same time, the new operating system Mac OS X was introduced, which marked the beginning of the entire series of OS X operating systems that gave a second life to Macintosh computers.

The subsequent history is known. iPod has become the most popular player of our time. Macintosh computers are gaining popularity more and more, and not so long ago, Apple even released its mobile phone called the iPhone, which became a real bomb that incorporated all the best features of the products of the “fruit” company.

Here is a selection of some of his most interesting sayings that will help you succeed in life:

1. Steve Jobs says, “Innovation separates the leader from the follower.”
There is no limit to new ideas. It all depends on your imagination. The world is constantly changing. It's time to start thinking differently. If you're in a growing industry, think of ways that will get you more results, nicer clients, easier work with them. If you are in a dying industry, quickly quit and change it before you lose your job. And remember that delay is inappropriate here. Start innovating now!

2. “Be the standard of quality. Some people weren't in an environment where innovation was the trump card."
It's not a fast track to excellence. You should definitely make excellence your priority. Use your talents, abilities and skills to make your product the best and then you will jump over the competition, add something special, what they lack. Live by higher standards, pay attention to the details that can improve the situation. It's easy to have an edge - just decide right now to offer your innovative idea - in the future you will be amazed at how this merit will help you in life.

3. “There is only one way to do great work, and that is to love her. If you don't get there, wait. Don't get down to business. As with everything else, your own heart will help you to suggest an interesting case.
Do what you love. Look for an activity that gives you a sense of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in life. The presence of a goal and the desire for its implementation brings order to life. This contributes not only to improving your situation, but also gives you a charge of vivacity and optimism. Do you enjoy getting out of bed in the morning and waiting for the start of a new working week? If you answered “no”, then look for a new activity.

4. “You know that we eat food that other people grow. We wear clothes that other people have made. We speak languages ​​that were invented by other people. We use mathematics, but other people also developed it ... I think we all say this all the time. This is a great opportunity to create something that could be useful to mankind.”
Try to make changes in your world first and maybe you will be able to change the world.

5. “This phrase is from Buddhism: A beginner's opinion. It's great to have a beginner's opinion."
It is a kind of opinion that allows you to see things as they are, which can constantly and in a moment realize the original essence of everything. Beginner's opinion - Zen practice in action. It is an opinion that is innocent of prejudice and expected outcome, judgment and prejudice. Think of the beginner's opinion as that of a small child who looks at life with curiosity, wonder, and amazement.

6. "We think that we mostly watch TV so that the brain can rest and we work at the computer when we want to turn on the convolutions."
Many scientific studies over the decades have clearly confirmed that television has a detrimental effect on the psyche and morals. And most TV watchers know that their bad habit makes them dumb and kills a lot of time, but they still continue to spend a huge part of the time watching the box. Do what makes your brain think that develops it. Avoid being passive.

7. “I'm the only person who knows what it's like to lose a quarter of a billion dollars in a year. It's very good at shaping the personality."
Do not equate the phrases "make mistakes" and "be a mistake." There is no such thing as a successful person who never stumbled or made a mistake - there are only successful people who made mistakes, but then changed their lives and their plans based on these same mistakes made earlier (without making them again) . They consider mistakes as a lesson from which they learn valuable experience. To make no mistakes means to do nothing.

8. "I'd trade all my technology for a meeting with Socrates."
Over the past decade, bookstores around the world have seen a plethora of books showing the lessons of historical figures. And Socrates, along with Leonardo Da Vinci, Nicolaus Copernicus, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein, is a source of inspiration for independent thinkers. But Socrates was the first. Cicero said of Socrates that "he brought philosophy down from heaven, bestowing it on ordinary people." So, apply the principles of Socrates in your own life, work, study and relationships - this will bring more truth, beauty and perfection into your everyday life.

nine. " We are here to contribute to this world. Otherwise, why are we here?»
Do you know that you have good things to bring to life? And did you know that those good things were abandoned while you poured yourself another cup of coffee and made the decision to just think about it instead of making it a reality? We are all born with a gift to give it life. This gift, well, or this thing is your calling, your goal. And you do not need a decree to achieve this goal. Neither your boss, nor your teacher, nor your parents, no one can decide this for you. Just find that single target.

10. " Your time is limited, don't waste it living another life. Don't get hooked on a creed that exists on other people's thinking. Don't let the eyes of others drown out your own inner voice. And it is very important to have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you really want to do. Everything else is secondary.»
Are you tired of living someone else's dream? Undoubtedly, this is your life and you have every right to spend it the way you want without any obstacles and barriers from others. Give yourself the opportunity to develop your creative talents in an atmosphere free from fear and pressure. Live the life you choose and where you are the master of your own destiny.

Stories of Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs' speech to the 2005 Stanford graduates (part one)

Steve Jobs' speech to the 2005 Stanford graduates (part two)

Apple's board of directors said in a brief statement - " Its brilliance, energy and passion have been the source of countless innovations that have enriched and improved the lives of all of us. The world has become immeasurably better thanks to Steve. His greatest love was his wife Lauren and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who have been touched by his extraordinary talents.».

Fans and fans of Steve Jobs reacted to the news of his death. On the site created by them Steve Jobs Day (http://stevejobsday2011.com ) its authors propose to consider the day of Steve Jobs on October 14, when the iPhone 4S should go on sale.

Put on a black turtleneck, blue jeans, sneakers and go to work, school, college. Take a picture in this form, post a picture on Twitter, Facebook. Tell about the place of Apple, Steve Jobs and his inventions in everyone's life. This will be the schedule of the day on October 14 for millions of admirers of the genius Jobs.

Mark Zuckerberg : " Steve, thank you for being a mentor and friend. Thank you for showing that what you do can change the world. I will miss you».

Former colleagues, friends and politicians - everyone speaks and writes today only about Jobs.

Barack Obama: " Steve is one of America's greatest innovators - brave enough to think differently, determined enough to believe in his ability to change the world, and gifted enough to do so.».

Bill Gates : " Steve and I first met about 30 years ago. We have been colleagues, competitors and friends for more than half of our lives. It was an insanely great honor to be friends with and work with Jobs. There are few people who manage to leave such a deep impression as Steve, and his influence will be felt for many generations. I will miss Steve very much».

Arnold Schwarzenegger: « Steve lived the California dream every day. He changed the world and inspired us to follow his example. Thank you Steve».

Dmitry Medvedev: " People like Steve Jobs are changing our world. My sincere condolences to relatives and everyone who appreciated his mind and talent».

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