STEVE JOBS

On February 24th of 1955, Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco, California. His parents were unwed college graduates, and decided that it was best to have him adopted. Paul and Clara Jobs, a lower-middle-class couple from the Bay Area adopted Steve. It’s crazy to think that a boy who grew up in apricot orchards is now one of the most successful people in the world. I am only going to focus on a couple of his main successes, the first Apple computer, Macintosh, and the iPod revolution.

Growing up he was fascinated by the engineers who would fill their garages with electronic devices, and in 1969, he became friends with a “computer wiz kid” named Stephen Wozniak (Woz). They worked together to make a computer board, and Woz had the idea of designing his own computer which they soon after sold. The first Apple Computer had been born. During Apple’s first years, they worked hard and made a more improved computer called the “Apple II” which they finished in 1977. This was the most advanced computer in the market, and Mike Markkula saw the potential in it. He invested $250,000 in their business and predicted that they would make at least $500,000 in less than two years. Mike was right, but it didn’t stop at $500,000. People continued to buy the Apple II, and on December 1980, Steve Jobs’ net worth passed $200 million-he was only 25.

Soon after the release of the “Lisa Computer” he was thrown out of the project because he was too temperamental for a manager. He decided to take revenge by starting a little project called Macintosh. Its development started in 1979 with the motto “a computer as easy to use as a toaster.” He recruited brilliant engineers to his Mac team and called them “pirates” as part of the rebellion. In January of 1984 he introduced Macintosh. The Mac’s first months had them encouraged, but as time when on sales started to drop. The Apple team started to become annoyed with Jobs’ arrogance and so they moved him to remain only as chairman of the board. While he was gone the company continued to plummet and they new they needed him back to make an improved Mac. 10 years later Steve Jobs was back at Apple, and soon after he introduced the iMac. This brought the company back to greatness, and in January 2000 he became the CEO of Apple.

From then on it only got better for Steve Jobs. In early 2001 he began working on Apple’s first MP3 player, which came out just in time for the holiday season that same year. It was a great success because of its amazing design, brilliant user interface, and the ability to connect and sync with iTunes. Because of this, people started buying Macs just so they could use the small portable iPod. In 2002 they opened the iTunes Music Store, and in 2003 they developed a Windows version. The iPod’s market share was close to 75%. Each year Apple continues to come out with a better version of the iPod, making it smaller and easier to use.

Steve Jobs is an extraordinary man. With no college education, he left his mark on more than five industries: the Apple II, Macintosh, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, and his animation with Pixar. (which I didn’t talk about) Even though he was kicked out of his own company, he came back and turned it into one of the world’s most successful companies. He never gave up, and never will.