STEVE JOBS by WALTER ISAACSON

This book is obviously the life story of Steve Jobs; his journey through the hurdles in life and how his efforts paid off in the successes of his empire.

CHAPTER ONE

Steve Jobs was born in the year 1955 by Joanne Schieble and Abdulfatth Jandeli both graduates who were not ready to raise a child then because of the apathy of Joanne's father towards the relationship, so they decided to allow Paul Jobs, a Mechanic and his wife, Clara Jobs to adopt him, the adoption played a major role in the life of Steve(Jobs) because of the feeling of rejection from his biological parents, Jobs grew up to become a very smart kid of which his father, a Fourth-grade teacher and the exposure by engineers and the engineering firms in his street helped.

CHAPTER TWO

Jobs got to meet someone who was as special as him named Stephen Wozniak. They were able to get along well because of the common lifestyle they shared, so they virtually did lots of things together despite their different upbringing. Woz was trained by a learned Engineer while Job's father was just a mechanic, in the year 1971, Woz found an article his mum left for him about the blue box which could make a distant call on the phone. After much work together, they were able to materialize the blue box and made some cash from it.

CHAPTER THREE

In the year 1972, Jobs started going out with Chrisann Brennan, whom he moved to a cabin in the hills above Los Altos after his graduation. Steve never had any intention to continue school but due to his parent's pleas, he decided to go to Reed College where he met people like Daniel Kottke who turned out to be Jobs college best friend Robert Friedland who influenced Jobs boldness and embraced Zen Buddhism after reading some books on Vegetarianism and Zen Buddhism, meditation and spirituality, acid and rock. His lifestyle also changed as a result of this. When Jobs realized college life and education were becoming boring, he regretted wasting his parents ' hard-earned money and dropped out of school.

CHAPTER FOUR

In February 1974, Jobs decided to return to his parents and started working night shifts because of the complaint of being unkempt and harsh, while the others work in the day, yet his skill in electronics made him outstanding. Under Atari the producer of the video game, he helped to develop the video game. He worked for a time and decided to go on a holy visit to India to learn more about Zen, so he could discover himself. His birth had been kind of a situation. After the visit still in the quest for self-discovery, he had to return home to the videogame business and resumed the night shift too because of his attitude. In this period, he brought an idea that the video game could be a single which was actualized with the help of Wozniak, though Jobs played a smart one on Wozniak with the benefits attached to the project

CHAPTER FIVE

In the 1960s there was a technological revolution that prompted some articles to challenge engineers and technologists like Wozniak who was already working for HP to join Homebrew computer club where he was inspired and had the first meeting in 1975, he wanted to produce a company where one can type on the keyboard and it would be displayed on the screen, Jobs heard this and was excited about it. Eventually, the project was successful and Jobs with his financial knowledge helped them sell more copies of the computer. They then decided to have a company of their own. Then Apple was birthed (after the invention of Apple 1 which had great qualities but the design wasn't attractive enough), so they decided to include a better design in their project which had a sleek metal case, a keyboard, a power supply, and cables.

CHAPTER SIX

The thought of creating the first full computer occurred to Jobs which birthed the thirst for the invention of Apple 2, which would have power supply and colorful displays, but the expenses were not something they could afford, so they decided to get sponsors/partners during which a man named Don Valentine who suggested that for him to sponsor or support they need a business plan. Then they were able to meet Mike Markkulawho helped with the business plan and some financial support, after which Wozniak was convinced after a series of pleas and convincing. He left HP for Apple, and with the help of a man that designed Apple 2 named Regis McKenna, the project was successful and lunched. When Jobs was becoming too harsh in his approach to the workers Markkula, he invited Mike Scott to be the new president of Apple, it wasn't going too easy for Scott, but it was working.

CHAPTER SEVEN

It had been quite a while since Brennan, but the lack of commitment on Jobs's side made it that way. They've been into several on and off relationships and Brennan was seeing another guy but she eventually started staying with Kottke, whom she eventually got pregnant for but Jobs denied the paternity. But he was proven 94% wrong. Therefore, he was made to cater for the child who was named Lisa by Jobs after lots of rejection towards the mother and baby. After the case was settled, Jobs got tired polishing his appearance and started another relationship with Barbara Jasinski. 

CHAPTER EIGHT

In a bid to get an invention of his own Jobs went on to produce Apple 3 which didn't turn out too well and Jobs eventually dissolved the appointment with the previous hardware engineers. He got another one with Apple to get a better programming Bill Atkinson, by 1979 Jobs named Lisa after his daughter, but Jobs was not contented that he had to steal more features from  Xerox PARC to manufacture something that beats the idea that Xerox and Apple 3. In a quest to become better Jobs designed materials but they had to build on the previous in the process of this, this made Jobs harsh to his workers and therefore Mike Scott and Mike Markkula decided to reduce him for his temper to be calm by making him a non-executive chairman of the board

CHAPTER NINE

Barely four years after Markkula joined the company, they were planning on going public by selling their shares but Kottike asked Jobs for a founder's stock which Jobs refused. Wozniak was there to comfort them by selling some of his own at a cheap price to some of the workers who didn't have the chance to buy shares, then the shares were opened to the public. This was when Jobs hit real big money but this didn't lead to an extravagant life.

CHAPTER TEN

Jef Raskin, a very hard bone for Jobs to chew also came in with his own idea after his resignation as a lecturer. Therefore, Macintosh was the proposed project, where a computer has all it's components in one body aside from the mouse but the chip became an issue between Jobs and Jef, and with Scott's intervention, Jef was made to step down for Jobs and was hired by Canon. After this, Jobs brought the Mac project over to his team and recruited more able hands to his team. He tried bringing Wozniak who had an accident that led to partial Amnesia from which he recovered eventually and went back to school after ten years with Apple, Scott became hard on workers too and eventually lost their favor which made him replaced by Markkula, in the time Scott went on a Narcolepsy(infection of the eyes) leave

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Jobs eventually became demanding, tasking and not easily satisfied by the Macintosh team. None of them was comfortable with this attitude but in the long run, it was appreciated because they could achieve a lot, he shifted most of them from their comfort zone. They were even times he made their suggestions look insensible, but brings it back to them as his. They got to understand him and adapt. Some of them would even stand up to him when he treats them wrongly. Wozniak felt his attitude helped, but going easy on them would have helped too.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Due to Jobs Jobs's for perfection, he started working on the design of the Macintosh which he was so passionate about. And all he emphasized simplicity and perfection, something that won't go out of fashion in the shortest while. After these designs were completed, he celebrated with his team by making them sign on a piece of paper which he did also and toasted with a champaign.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

In the year 1981, Job kick-started a competition with IBM's computer with Lisa which was seen to go beyond ordinary to spiritual. Jobs also took total control of the production of both Lisa and Macintosh. He then seized that opportunity to create an operating system that works only on Apple systems and also eliminated the cursor control key from the Macintosh.1982 brought the expectation of man of the year to Jobs but he was disappointed eventually because he believed Moritz the pressman has used the story he got from Kottke his friend concerning his daughter Lisa against him. Hence he felt Kottke betrayed him and he couldn't become the man of the year. In the year 1983, Lisa was launched which would be sold to big companies when Macintosh was out. Jobs also made sure he enlightened the Macintosh team and hence became determined to be outstanding through a mini party he held and it almost became controversial between Lisa's team and Macintosh's team. 1983 left Macintosh with the problem of an appropriate disk drive and all suggestions from Belleville to get it from Sony were followed by criticism from Jobs, but Belleville didn't relent on it and that became the resultant option appreciated by Jobs.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

At the end of 1982, MarkKula's wife insisted he resigned as president, but after scrambling through and making offers to a couple of people he then settled for John Sculley who became a close pal to Jobs and equally gave him a tough time before he succumbed but eventually gave in. They eventually got along well, spent time together and understood each other but had clashed on the price of the Macintosh, Sculley insisted on increment in price but this didn't go well with Jobs on that.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Preparations for the lunching of Macintosh started with adverts and left surprises on the faces of the people, with series of appearances on magazines and press meetings with Jobs and team members, and in preparation for the 24th, January 1984 press conference. Jobs requested for a demo that would make Macintosh be the first computer to talk on its own, on the lunching day, after criticizing IBM he introduced the features of Macintosh which ended with apologies.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Bill  Gates was also born in the year 1955, he was also rude but had an opposite personality with Jobs. They eventually met but things didn't go well between them because Gates betrayed the agreement by producing an application software with a spreadsheet for IBM which infuriated Jobs and the splitting of the two companies hurt Jobs more than Gates. Gates eventually got back on Jobs for what he did at Xerox PARC when he also stole their software.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Jobs remained his usual rude self which was evident in the way he played with some members of Lisa's team and made Macintosh team leaders of groups after he brought the two teams together. His rude behavior has also been shown at the countries he visited, but his relationship with Sculley waxed stronger. The sales of Macintosh went down due to some qualities like inner disk drive that was not included and this was driving Jobs crazy. Year The year hope happened a memorable year for Jobs as he turned 30 and he threw a huge party with respect to that, which was grazed by his friends and acquaintances with gifts, special renditions, and so on. Some of Apple's workers were resigning already and Wozniak happened to join the list so he could start his own remote company, but Jobs won't let him. And he was no more in good terms with Sculley.

Jobs wanted Sculley to step down as the chairman saying that he knew nothing about computers. But Sculley wanted Jobs to step down as the director of Macintosh as the sales were going down already. Then Jobs decided to stage a coup against Sculley, due to his adamancy and shared the plan with Gassee who came from France to take over from Jobs. Gassee finally unveiled Jobs plan, and Jobs didn't deny after a confrontation on this, Jobs was eventually ejected from his position after so much war which didn't go well with him at all.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Jobs eventually left Apple with a controversy that almost led to a court case due to Jobs' betrayal by taking Apple's major workers to go start another company named NeXT, he was then able to sell shares and make another close friendship with Ross Perot. Another clash kicked off between Jobs and Gates because  Gates refused to design a Microsoft operating system for Jobs. Jobs started badmouthing Microsoft to other companies that they believed NeXT was better. Finally, NeXT was lunched with lots of excitements for the masses that gathered but the proposed price was not encouraging and the time of production was quite far. Gates never relented on looking down on NeXT during that period.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Jobs was attracted to Pixar, a company that made an animation using computers (they dealt with, software animations) and the art combined with technology skills got his interest and bought the largest part of the company but allowed the original owners to run it. But their first product didn't go well as the price Jobs wanted it to be sold was too high but the company eventually won a contract with Disney. Then Jobs got to meet John Lasseter who had a strong passion for animated movies, this passion got Jobs' attention and he was willing to support Lasseter. Even though he was losing lots of money to NeXT and Pixar he still gave much to Lasseter and was commended with an award after one of the animations won the best-animated movie.

CHAPTER TWENTY

In 1982, Jobs met a singer named Joan Beaz but they broke up because she was older than him and also had a 13yrs old son. Jobs couldn't live with that. In the year 1986, he started the search for his biological mother after his adopted mum had cancer. He spent time with her and ask her a lot of questions. She eventually died, but Jobs' search was fruitful as he found his mother Joanne Simpson and sister Mona Simpson who was already a writer and bonded with them. Mona also found their Father Abdulfattah during which Jobs was also making up His wrongs with his daughter Lisa. But he never had an interest in meeting his father. He eventually fell in love with Tina Reese after a series of relationships that didn't work out. They finally didn't end up together because they were almost directly opposite in every way.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Jobs met Laurene Powell when he went to give a lecture and after lunch together they became inseparable despite there misunderstandings. She seemed to be the perfect woman for him. She got pregnant along the line but they eventually got married on March 18, 1991. The wedding was graced by just 40 people, according to the Zen Buddhism religion which influenced the cake which had no eggs and other organic ingredients. After the wedding, they moved from the isolated Woodside mansion to the charming and unpretentious house on a corner in a family-friendly neighborhood in old Palo Alto. Then, Lisa started having problems in school of which the only solution Jobs could provide was to take her in. But her stay with Jobs was an adventure of arguments, during this period Lisa was co-editor and writer for magazines. After a few months of Jobs marriage, he gave birth to Reeds Paul Jobs who had almost all his traits excluding the cruel part of Jobs, then they had Erin Siena Jobs who was very quiet and reserved, and Eve Jobs who turned out to be jovial and strong-willed amongst the others.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Pixar agreed to partner with Disney but their first production had a little controversy as Pixar was lacking funds and needed Disney to fund it. But Disney wouldn't agree on a soft note. So, after the movie went viral and ended up well, Pixar decided to sell shares and make customers using the movie as an avenue so as to raise funds for half of the deal and share the profits equally which Disney agreed to and it turned out great eventually.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Unfortunately, things didn't work out as planned for NeXT as only a few software could run on it, the sales rate was extremely low compared to Sun by Microsoft. Jobs was contemplating on selling it to Microsoft, during this period Apple was loosing so much already and Jobs couldn't help but feel bad so he had to sell NeXT to Apple to get back into the system so he can run Apple again, the new CEO Gil Amelio couldn't get to trust Jobs easily but still decided to risk it for the restoration of the falling Apple, and then bought NeXT and welcome Jobs back but camouflaged as an adviser to the CEO this time around.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Jobs eventually became the adviser but never liked Amelio because he felt Amelio was incompetent, after a while Amelio was asked to leave but then Jobs refused to become the CEO and preferred advising the CEO, but before the CEO Jobs raised the price of the stock rate and dissolved the former board members leaving just two to appoint a set of new board members, he also made the partnership between Apple and Microsoft work and announced it to the public.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

After Amelio was asked to leave Fred Anderson became the interim CEO and Jobs also called Lee Clows to join Apple and he agreed, after which they started a "think different"  campaign which Jobs fell in love with. Jobs tried getting a permanent CEO within the space of six months but were not successful. Therefore, he occupied the position which stressed him since he was running both Apple and Pixar. Due to Michael Dell's suggestion on closing down Apple if he happens to be in Job's shoes, a rivalry was ignited between DELL and Apple. The production of Clones and most of the product Jobs didn't deem fit was stopped and about 3000 workers were laid off in 1997 to get Apple back in shape.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

When Jobs gathered all the management heads, sitting amongst them was Jony Ive who already had it in mind to leave Apple because they valued profits to design, but Jobs return changed that course and he got to know they had the same value for design. After that event, Ive and Jobs became very close, that he was given an office with strict management and coordination, he also spends lots of time in the design studio and attached great value to it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

May 1998 was another tough period for Apple staff as they were preparing for the release of iMac. Jobs' temper rose virtually over every mistake made even during the lunch rehearsals. The lunching program eventually turned out great and he introduced the colorful Bondi blue computer but before he introduced Steve Wozniak, Mark Markkula, and Mike Scott. The sales were the best in the history of Apple. The computer was simple with the conjunction of monitor and CPU to be monitor alone with the keyboard and mouse, after then 5 more juicy colors were added to it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

After three months of work with Jobs due to the resignation of the previous Apple's head of staff. Jobs emerged the post for a year for lack of competent hands, then in 1998, he met Tim Cook who was about 37 and had a good understanding and mindset with Jobs. Ever since Jobs returned, he had not been under the appropriate payroll and said he didn't want people to think he was back for the money. So, Woolard decided to grant Jobs' wish of an airplane as a gift. In the year 2000, the Macintosh operating system, OSX, was released with software from NeXT that was bought. It was at this lunching that Jobs declared himself as CEO and not as ICEO anymore.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

In the year 1999, Jobs started having secret interviews to employ reliable retailers for Apple, Ron Johnson was interviewed, and in the year 2000 he came back himself and Jobs had a chat on how the store will be big and spacious with an entrance. Then they had to work together and after a series of trials and revisions, they completed the prototype store. On May 19, 2001, the first Apple Store opened in Tyson’s Corner. The stores made huge profits and in 2002 Jobs ventured into renovating the stores and more outstanding stores were built which generated 15% of Apple's revenue.

CHAPTER THIRTY

After a retreat with some of Apple's staff, it was decided that Apple should not be limited to computers, but also digital vices. After several delegations, they came up with iMovie which made it easy to burn videos on camcorder first and then on computers(iMac). The next was iTunes in 2001 which made it easy to burn music on Apple computers in mp3 format. In a bid to produce a light mobile music player, Jobs and Rubenstein could not get the required materials for it, so they kept searching till Rubenstein found a Toshiba lab that offered a chip of 5gig memory, and Jobs consented immediately and Tony Fadell was cajoled into apple immediately and he remodified portal player, after which suggestions kept crawling in to produce iPod on 23rd, October 2001.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

In the year 2002, it was discovered that people were going against the piracy laws to get their songs. Therefore, Jobs decided to set up an iTunes store where he would buy music from the industry and make it available for people to access payments and a percentage of the money going into the industry. Through this, he was able to cajole about two dozens musicians to agree and it was launched on the 28th of April 2003. Microsoft eventually marveled at the revenue rate and planned on doing theirs. And after much argument on this, Jobs decided to lunch it to Microsoft in October 2003. Sony also launched her own in May 2004 but couldn't last like iPod, so Jobs committed to improving iPod by adding shuffle, reducing the screen till it was finally removed and iPod now fetch half of Apple's revenue.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Bob Dylan was one of Jobs' favorite musician and poet whose songs he couldn't stop flaunting on his iPods and musical devices. He also made a special black version for another band he loved so much (the Beatles) and helped them with their advert which helped their popularity and album sales. He, however, declined continuity after he made a red version for AID's campaign.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Pixar kept growing despite the betrayal from Michael Eisner who copied the "Antz's" story Pixar was preparing to release, he made it big but couldn't beat the victory of Pixar and Jobs didn't forgive him for that. After which he built a very mighty building for Pixar this time, not in an isolated place but a place they could be out in the open and inspired by meeting people, Eisner was ejected from being CEO due to his clash with Jobs which was affecting the company, and afterward Bob Iger became the CEO of Disney, who struck a  merger with Jobs even though Eisner was not in support but it went through.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

IMac has been improved and the market was dropping so Jobs decided to try something new and after much thinking Ive suggested a system in which the monitor could be detached from the keyboard. Chris Galvin and Jobs were having problems as the product IBM-Motorolla was not fast enough so they decided to go for Intel whose CEO was Paul Otellini. He seemed hard not until when Jobs invited him to Apple's top 100 management retreat. He hugged Jobs on getting there and everything was settled. However, some issues arose as a result of Apple's stock and after backdating took place, Jobs was fined some amount of money which he paid eventually

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was advised to undergo surgery immediately but he was reluctant to seek alternative measures while the cancer was spreading to his lungs and other parts. He eventually had the surgery after persuasions from friends and loved ones and chemotherapy was suggested too due to the spreading. But he was telling everyone he was cured already and eventually opened up to at a speech he gave at Stanford in July 2005. That same year when he returned from his medical leave, he made Tim Cook his chief operating officer at that point Jon Rubinstein and Avie Tevaniandecided to leave because Tavenian had made enough money and Ruby was not happy not being the new chief operating officer. Jobs eventually returned to being aggressive but not like before.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

In 2005, it was noticed that phones were selling more so Jobs decided to make something like that from the iPod that was recently produced which made them partner with Motorola but Motorola couldn't give them what they wanted. This got Jobs furious to want to do it by himself, so he got all Apple workers on their toes, though it was brainstorming and was launched in January 2007.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

As of 2008, Jobs's health was worse with cancer and he lost lots of weight. But he didn't want it to go public nor get to the press, his situation was almost looking impossible in getting a liver transplant but he eventually got it done and within six months, he had fully recovered and was back to work, though he wasn't as rude as he used to be according to his workers.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

The criticism from one of Microsoft engineers about his 2002 software promoted him to produce the iPad which was doubtlessly challenging from the screen size to the curvy edges, and also the battery, but it was eventually launched on the 27th, January 2010. Then the advertisement became a thug of war as Jobs wouldn't settle for any of the advert suggestion, but in the end, he settled for one, and companies started coming for app production which didn't interest Jobs at first but after much persuasion, he recruited some that produced hundreds of thousands of applications and millions of downloads, and also iBook was started where the publishers get 70% of the profit and Apple gets 30%, it wasn't very easy because they want to have the information and data's of the subscribers but Jobs wouldn't allow that and some of them later agreed to his terms and conditions.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

In the year 2010 Jobs got to know that Google who was a very close company to Apple was producing her own version of iPhone, this got Jobs furious and after several threats, Google didn't back out of it. He got upset with the flash adobe produced too, but during this period Apple's iPhone 4 had an issue of signal loss which is as a result of the aluminum case that cuts the signals from the antenna and he killed the case by admitting the fact that no product is perfect but the sales kept breaking barriers.

CHAPTER FORTY 

iPad 2 came to life on March 2, 2011, after some adjustments like front and back cameras were included and also a magnetic cover on the screen in place of the cover people get that will cover the front camera, after which he took his wife back to where they were joined together for there 20th wedding anniversary, it was a very emotional one, Apple then built a software (iCloud) which allows the user to save files in the cloud and sync them when they need them, he also had a plan of building the best office of 3million square meters that could contain 12,000 staffs, after numerous corrections a circular building was concluded on and Jobs was very proud of it.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Jobs' son Reed became a smart intelligent boy and took most of his father's traits but wasn't the harsh type, and did well-studying cancer while Erin who got little of her father's attention wanted to be an architect and Eve who was also like her father as a girl wanted to participate in horse riding in the Olympics. Job's wife fixed a meeting with Obama once. It took Jobs a while to agree to the meeting which led to another meeting with top people in the industry which includes Mark Zuckerberg and others. The meeting ended with suggestions that can advance education, financial and industrial issues. Cancer that seems to have left resurfaced again and it was so severe that it spread to his bones and it became difficult to treat as he has lost so much weight and the treatments became hard and severe so he had to become Apple's chairman and made Tim Cook the CEO.

Photo Credit: Amazon

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