Remembering Steve Jobs
A Silicon Valley kid growing up in the 60's – the co-founder of Apple by 21. Steve Jobs’ passion and entrepreneurial spirit led to innovations that transformed our lives. From Apple to Pixar Animation Studios and everything in between, he was one of the giants of the computer world - a man with a vision.
The Silicon Valley Kid
I stumbled on to this interview conducted by David Marrow, then executive Director of the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program. It was 1995; Jobs had already left Apple and founded the NeXt Computer company. He was 40 years old, yet to be diagnosed with the disease that would eventually cause his liver to fail. 14 years before Jobs underwent surgery for a liver transplant.
“I was born in San Francisco, California, USA, planet Earth, February 24, 1955. I can go into a lot of details about my youth, but I don't know that anybody would really care about that too much.”
He talked about being a kid in Silicon Valley, the positive influence his father had on his life and the inspiration he drew from a neighbor down the street who had a passion for electronics and a very cool ham radio. He recounts how inspired he was by Heathkits.
"...I mean you looked at a television set you would think that 'I haven't built one of those but I could. There's one of those in the Heathkit catalog and I've built two other Heathkits so I could build that.' Things became much more clear that they were the results of human creation not these magical things that just appeared in one's environment that one had no knowledge of their interiors. It gave a tremendous level of self-confidence, that through exploration and learning one could understand seemingly very complex things in one's environment. My childhood was very fortunate in that way."
He wasn’t a great student. It doesn’t appear he was much of a conformist, either, and since most public school programs stress staying within the lines, Jobs had a hard time playing by the rules. How fortunate for us, instead of staying within the lines Steve Jobs gave us a whole new canvas to play with.
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During his high school years Steve got a summer job at Hewlett Packard where he worked with Steve Wozniak - later to become the co-founder of Apple. After one semester of college, Jobs began working with Wozniak at Atari where he struck a deal with an Atari executive: If Jobs could reduce the number of chips in the circuit board designed for the game
Breakout, he would be awarded a bonus. According to Wikipedia, Jobs asked Wozniak to work on the project with him. Wozniak rose to the challenge and reduced the number of chips by 50, a 'design so tight that it was impossible to reproduce on an assembly line.' Jobs initiated the project and collected most of the bonus awarded for their success, but it was Wozniak who made it happen. Steve was known for his power to persuade, power later to be dubbed, "the reality distortion field."
Read more from Wikipedia
An On-going Rivalry
There is no doubt that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were considered adversaries for years. The media played it up. Lines were drawn, camps formed. Looking back at this, I remember the tremendous influence these two men had on those of us just entering the business. It's like looking back at your high school yearbook picture. You notice the dated fashion, the hairdo you were sporting; you remember where your head was at. Recounting the years of the PC wars conjures similar thoughts - the industry was young, ambitious, competitive and so very exciting. You listen to the old interviews where Jobs is forecasting the impact of the Internet and you can't help but remember the sound of that screaming 56K line churning to life. This is where we were. Jobs advanced the industry, catapulting us from that screaming little router to the sleek design of the iPhone here by my side. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs influenced and motivated each other as they grew to become giants in a burgeoning new industry. A statement released by Gates acknowledges the influence Jobs had in his life:
"I'm truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs' death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work. Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives. The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely."
Jobs returns to Apple
Apple bought NeXT for $429 million in 1996 and by 1998 Jobs' influence turned Apple around. Sharing NeXt technology and terminating a host of projects, Jobs eventually expanded the company to include consumer electronics, music distribution and more recently, Apple entered the cellular phone industry. Jobs was a visionary, always thinking ahead he challenged those working with him to set the trends, anticipate the need and continuously innovate. In his 2007 keynote speech at the Macworld Conference and Expo he cites a quote by ice hockey legend, Wayne Gretsky:
There's an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.' And we've always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very very beginning. And we always will.
Larger Than Life
It would be hard to write about Jobs without discussing his larger-than-life personality. 'Fortune' wrote that he was "considered one of Silicon Valley's leading egomaniacs." According to Wikipedia, former colleague Jef Raskin said that Jobs "would have made an excellent king of France."
Having travelled to India in the '70's, Steve returned a Buddhist and was undoubtedly influenced by this chosen spiritual path (though few would mark his management style as one of quiet contemplation).
To Infinity And Beyond
His influence in the world of computer animation should not go without mention. Leading Pixar, Steve re-invented himself and the industry by applying that perseverance he speaks of way back in 1995. Jobs bought the company that would become Pixar in 1986 from Lucasfilms. After years of lackluster performance, Pixar partnered with Disney and went on to produce computer-animated feature films.
Toy Story was released in 1995 and was an immediate award-winning success to be followed by
A Bug's Life,
Finding Nemo,
WALL-E and several others.
Saying Goodbye to Steve Jobs
It is impossible to capture his story in a blog post. His contributions leave a deep impression on the industry he helped build, continuing to transform our lives, influence our way of communicating and our way of thinking.
There are so many farewells to Jobs circulating, but perhaps one of the most touching memorials was found on
Apple's site.
Steve Jobs Quotes
The Wired Interview - By Gary Wolf - Wired magazine – 1995 a budding web
Steve jobs on creativity...
'Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they've had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.'
From the interview cited in the post and conducted David Marrow, then executive Director of the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program.
Advice to entrepreneurs
I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance. It is so hard. You put so much of your life into this thing. There are such rough moments in time that I think most people give up. I don't blame them. Its really tough and it consumes your life.
How did Steve Jobs' innovations influence your life?
Photos
Jobs and Wozniak - Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs (foreground) speaks during an Apple event Jan. 27, 2010 in San Francisco. Projected behind him is a picture from Apple's beginnings, showing Jobs on the right with his co-founder, Steve Wozniak. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
A photo dating April 24, 1984, from left, Steve Jobs, chairman of Apple Computers, John Sculley, president and CEO, and Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, unveiling the new Apple IIc computer. (Sal Veder/AP Photo)
A bearded Jobs giving the keynote speech at the opening of MacWorld Expo in San Francisco on Jan. 6, 1998. (Susan Ragan/AP Photo)
Steve Jobs with the two members of the band U2 -- Bono, left, and The Edge. The release of a new family of Apple iPod products, Oct. 26, 2004 in San Jose, Calif. (Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)
