—
In high school, a student interested in taking apart and rebuilding machines approached the CEO of Hewlett-Packard and asked for some parts to help him complete a class project. Duly impressed, the CEO made arrangements for the student to get the parts. And years later, he was probably thrilled to be able to say he took the time to do so. The confident, driven student who asked for the parts was Steve Jobs, a man who would go on to become the CEO of Apple Computers and a pre-eminent figure in the tech industry…
—
—
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:00
In high school, a student interested in taking apart and rebuilding machines approached the
00:04
CEO of Hewlett-Packard and asked for some parts to help him complete a class project.
00:09
Duly impressed, the CEO made arrangements for the student to get the parts.
00:12
And years later, he was probably thrilled to be able to say he took the time to do so.
00:16
The confident, driven student who asked for the parts was Steve Jobs, a man who would
00:21
go on to become the CEO of Apple Computers and a pre-eminent figure in the tech industry…
00:31
Early Life
00:41
Steve Jobs was born to two unmarried graduate students in 1955 (curiously, just 9 months
00:46
before Microsoft founder Bill Gates).
00:48
His parents gave him up for adoption, and Jobs was 30 years old and well in the midst
00:51
of tech stardom before he learned about his birth parents, the Simpsons.
00:55
Growing up, the only family he knew was his adoptive parents, a couple from Mountain View,
01:00
California who fostered his interest in taking apart and rebuilding machines.
01:04
His father, Paul Jobs, was a machinist who taught Jobs about electronics from an early
01:09
age.
01:10
Working in the family garage, the two spent hours tinkering on projects.
01:12
During these work sessions in the garage, Jobs’ father taught him a lesson that has
01:16
made its way into Apple products of all shapes and sizes.
01:24
Jobs later described this, saying, “When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest
01:28
of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces
01:31
the wall and nobody will ever see it.
01:33
You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back.
01:37
For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way
01:42
through.”
01:43
Though Jobs showed an early interest in mechanics and design, he did not show early promise
01:47
in school.
01:48
His mother had taught him to read as a toddler, but he was bored in school and often goofed
01:52
off, a habit that frustrated one teacher to the point of bribing him to behave.
01:56
This teacher saw potential in a young Jobs, and Jobs later credited Mrs. Hill with being
02:00
one of the “saints” of his life.
02:02
Jobs so excelled in that fourth grade class with Mrs. Hill that he skipped over the fifth
02:07
grade entirely and headed straight for middle school.
02:10
This jump ahead was tough for him initially: he was bullied and became a bit of a loner.
02:15
Indeed, he disliked middle school so much that he told his parents that if he couldn’t
02:19
switch schools he would just stop going to school altogether.
02:22
To keep Jobs in school, the family moved from Mountain View to Los Altos, and Jobs settled
02:28
into the Cupertino School District.
02:30
It was here, that he met and befriended Bill Fernandez, another student interested in electronics.
02:35
Fernandez later played a critical role in the creation of Apple computers when he introduced
02:40
Jobs to his neighbor – another electronics aficionado, and someone you might have heard
02:45
of…
02:46
His neighbour was Steve Wozniak (more on him in a minute).
02:55
Early Work
02:58
By the time he entered high school, Jobs was already working at Hewlett-Packard, where
03:04
a cold call to the CEO had earned him a job offer.
03:07
But while he was in high school his interests began to diversify quite a bit.
03:11
Jobs discovered a love for the classics and for literature in general – Dylan Thomas and
03:15
Shakespeare were particular favorites.
03:17
During his senior year, Jobs was so excelling in English that he was able to take classes
03:21
at Stanford.
03:22
When it came time to attend college, though, Jobs opted to attend Reed State in Oregon.
03:25
But, well, that didn’t last long.
03:28
After only one semester, Jobs’ previous aversion to formal education reared its head
03:33
and he dropped out.
03:34
He continued dropping in on classes that interested him, though he wasn’t earning credits and
03:38
wasn’t paying for anything.
03:39
Interestingly, one of those drop-in classes greatly affected his future.
03:44
Something that he explained in his famous 2005 Stanford commencement address (something,
03:48
by the way, that is well worth watching).
03:50
“If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would
03:54
have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.”
03:58
Career Beginning
04:09
Despite being a college dropout, Jobs was able to secure a job with Atari computers
04:12
in 1974.
04:13
He worked as a tech, assisting the engineers who were doing the heavy duty coding work.
04:17
Jobs didn’t have a lot of money at this time, and he was trying to scrape funds together
04:21
to travel to India to study Eastern religion – his interests in things outside technology
04:27
had stuck around.
04:28
The head of Atari, Neil Bushnell, years later said he thought Jobs was saving money by actually
04:33
living in the office…
04:34
“I’m not sure about this but I actually think Steve was living there, so people used
04:38
to complain that he didn’t smell that well…
04:40
I’d come in on the weekend and he’d be there, I’d come in late at night and he’d be there.”
04:43
The time at Atari also marked a key point in the friendship between Jobs and his old
04:48
friend Steve Wozniak.
04:49
Jobs was assigned to design a circuit board for the video game Breakout, and he approached
04:53
Wozniak to help because Atari was offering a bonus if it could be designed using fewer
04:57
chips.
04:58
Jobs also needed the project completed in only four days.
05:01
What Jobs didn’t tell Wozniak was that Atari had offered Jobs a large bonus for using fewer
05:06
chips – a bonus Jobs received and kept for himself even though Wozniak did the majority
05:11
of the work.
05:12
When Wozniak found out about the lie ten years later, he is reported to have cried.
05:16
But Wozniak didn’t know of Jobs’ deceit at the time, and the two continued experimenting
05:20
with technology together.
05:21
But, their tinkering was put on hold for seven months, though, when Job’s alleged living
05:24
in the office had saved him enough money to travel to India.
05:27
He went to India in search of spiritual enlightenment, something that was rather in fashion in the
05:33
60s and 70s.
05:34
He did this trip on an incredibly tight budget – he slept on the street, sweated on crowded
05:39
buses, and ate the bare minimum…
05:41
He also must have eaten some pretty sketchy food, reportedly getting dysentery and losing
05:46
forty pounds.
05:48
During this time he was also meditating and learning about Zen Buddhism.
05:52
He wanted to go to Tibet, but after his travelers’ checks were stolen he decided to head home
05:56
to the U.S.
05:57
Back home, he continued his practice of meditation, as well as another habit he’d picked up…
06:02
his use of psychedelic drugs.
06:04
Jobs was a big fan of LSD, a drug he started using in college and would credit with expanding
06:08
his creativity and vision of the world:
06:10
“Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life.
06:15
LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when
06:19
it wears off, but you know it.
06:21
It reinforced my sense of what was important—creating great things instead of making money, putting
06:26
things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.”
06:35
The Beginning of Apple
06:41
Back in the United States, Jobs had no money and lived in his parents’ toolshed that
06:45
he had converted to a bedroom.
06:47
But he and Wozniak continued to work on computers, with Jobs convincing Wozniak that at least
06:52
one of Wozniak’s early products was sellable.
06:55
Wozniak had built a product, known as a ‘blue box’ that could mimic the tones of a telephone
06:59
system and essentially trick a phone into making a free long distance call for the user.
07:03
With technology today we don’t think twice about calling someone on the other side of
07:07
the planet, but In the 1970s this was a big deal.
07:10
Now, as you might have guessed, these blue boxes were totally illegal, but they still
07:15
sold well.
07:16
Yep, Steve Job’s first business…
07:18
Selling illegal devices to make long distance phone calls for free!
07:22
Now, the next brainchild that Wozniak had was much more legitimate…
07:26
It was a product that would become the Apple I.
07:29
In 1976, Jobs suggested selling it, and he and Wozniak officially started Apple Computers.
07:35
The company was first run out Jobs’ parents’ garage, and most of their customers were hobbyists.
07:40
But enough computer hobbyists were laying out money for the Apple I that Jobs and Wozniak
07:44
had cash in their pockets.
07:46
Jobs began searching for investors, and Wozniak kept designing.
07:49
In 1977, just a year after the company launched, they put out another version of their computer,
07:56
the Apple II.
07:57
This time, it had color graphics and was much more user-friendly allowing for it to be used
08:01
outside of just the hobbiest market.
08:03
They sold $3 million of the Apple II in their first year alone, but this figure was about
08:09
to become dwarfed…
08:10
Two years later, they had sold $200 millionworth, but again, this seemingly huge number was
08:16
about to be dwarfed again…
08:18
In 1980, only four years after their launch, Jobs and Wozniak went public.
08:23
By the end of Apple’s first day of public trading the company was worth an astounding
08:28
$1.2 BILLION.
08:29
Steve Jobs was only twenty-five years old.
08:37
Family
08:40
During the nascent years of Apple, Jobs was dealing with much personal turmoil.
08:46
His longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend Chrisann Brennan had moved in with him, and
08:51
she got pregnant.
08:52
Jobs was, by all accounts, not thrilled about this news.
08:55
He later told Brennan: “I never wanted to ask that you get an abortion.
08:58
I just didn’t want to do that.”
09:00
Brennan had been offered a job at Apple, but given Jobs’ reaction to her pregnancy she
09:05
did not want to take it.
09:06
She left him and their house, and began working as a cleaner.
09:09
Despite asking for support from Jobs, he did not provide any support for his child until
09:14
a paternity confirmed that he was the father.
09:17
Even then, despite his company being worth over a billion dollars, he was only required
09:21
to provide $500 a month in child support.
09:24
Despite these early problems, Lisa and Jobs later reconciled, and Lisa even lived with
09:28
Jobs during her high school years.
09:30
She then attended Harvard, and today works as a writer in New York City.
09:34
Though it took him years to admit to it, Jobs named one of Apple’s early products after
09:37
his daughter.
09:38
But the LISA computer was not as successful as the Apple II had been.
09:41
This failure was followed by another – the Apple III, which again failed to live up to
09:46
expectations (and not just Job’s expectations, but everyones).
09:54
Getting Sent to “Siberia”
10:01
Despite Apple being Job’s company, the fact that is was public, meant that the Apple board
10:04
had the power to oust him as CEO.
10:07
And in 1983, they did just that.
10:10
They didn’t fire him though, they just sent him to “Siberia” (not literally of course,
10:15
but he referred to the office he was put in as Siberia, illustrating well the fact that
10:19
he was in some sort of exile.)
10:21
Most Apple employees were probably pleased to see him go….
10:23
He was notoriously difficult to deal with, and a former Apple employee described Jobs’
10:28
attitude toward work as “management by character assassination.”
10:32
By 1985, he was tired of hanging out in Siberia and decided to leave the company he had founded
10:38
and start a brand new one.
10:39
“What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating,” Jobs
10:44
said of this experience.
10:45
“I even thought about running away from the valley.
10:47
But something slowly began to dawn on me-I still loved what I did.
10:51
And so I decided to start over.”
10:53
He started “Next Computer Company,” which brought its first product to market in 1988.
11:00
That computer, though, it had a price of $10,000, a price way higher than most consumer were
11:04
willing to pay.
11:05
Needless to say, it didn’t sell well.
11:08
It wasn’t a good start for Job’s fledging company and so he decided to shift the company
11:13
to building software.
11:16
Pixar
11:19
But Jobs’ focus was drawn elsewhere… somewhere rather unusual – the movies.
11:31
In 1986, he bought Pixar from George Lucas.
11:34
As part of his dream for this company, Jobs wanted to be responsible for the first movie
11:37
done entirely with computer-animation.
11:40
It took four years, but he eventually achieved that dream.
11:43
That movie was Toy Story.
11:45
It was released in November 1995 it became a favorite film for kids and adults, and to
11:50
this day maintains a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes..
11:55
A year after the release of Toy Story, there was even better news…
11:58
Jobs took Pixar public and in something of a deja vu situation, his shares were worth
12:03
one BILLION dollars after the first day of trading.
12:05
This first day of trading was the first in a string of good days for Jobs.
12:09
Shortly after Pixar went public, Apple put out the welcome mat for Steve Jobs to return.
12:14
When he returned in 1997 the company was operating at a loss, and they needed Jobs’ vision
12:19
and drive back at the helm.
12:21
Apple also announced that they would buy the struggling Next Computer Company – turning
12:25
a previous failure of Jobs into a success…
12:30
Return to Apple
12:38
Jobs triumphantly returned to the company that he founded.
12:41
The company wanted him to bring Apple to the forefront of the personal computer market.
12:46
Within months of his return, Jobs was named CEO.
12:48
He paid himself a salary of only one dollar a year, and in exchange brought both business
12:53
acumen and creative design ideas to the company He negotiated a financial deal with Microsoft
12:58
that brought Apple cash flow it needed to stay afloat, while helping Microsoft avoid
13:02
the perception that they were a monopoly.
13:04
Then, he envisioned the big idea that helped bring Apple back to profitability in its own
13:08
right – the iMac.
13:10
It was in 1998 that Apple released the brightly colored, egg-shaped desktop computer called
13:14
the iMac.
13:15
The iMac is even still made today… although it looks rather different today!
13:19
From the iMac forward, Apple and Jobs just couldn’t miss.
13:22
They revolutionized the way people listen to music in 2001 with the iPod, and then the
13:26
way they communicated in 2007 with the iPhone, and then were pioneers in the tablet market
13:31
with the 2010 release of the iPad.
13:34
Jobs once said of Apple, “We started out to get a computer in the hands of everyday people,
13:38
and we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”
13:41
Today, it’s nearly impossible to walk down the street without seeing someone with an
13:45
Apple-made device in their hands.
13:47
Through these years of professional success, Jobs had still found the time to focus on
13:52
his family.
13:53
In 1986 his adoptive mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, and this, for the first
13:57
time, prompted Jobs’ interest in his biological parents.
14:00
When his adoptive mother passed away, Jobs spoke to his father about contacting his birth
14:04
parents, whose names he had on documents from his parents.
14:07
Jobs met both his birth mother, Joanna Scheible, and his biological sister, Mona Simpson, shortly
14:11
after his adoptive mother died.
14:13
Scheible and Jobs’ birth father had divorced in 1962 when the Syrian migrant opted to return
14:19
to Syria after earning his PhD.
14:21
When Jobs was introduced to Mona, she was still searching for their father.
14:25
Jobs joined her in the search, and what they found out was surprising.
14:28
Their father was not in Syria working in academia…
14:31
Rather, their father was living in California and running a restaurant.
14:35
Incredibly, Jobs said he had met the man Mona identified as their father, he had shaken
14:40
his hand, had eaten in his restaurant… but never knew he was his father.
14:44
Jobs had no interest in getting to know his father as he had gotten to know his mother
14:48
and Mona, though, explaining his decision by saying, “I learned a little bit about
14:51
him and I didn’t like what I learned.”
14:54
While getting to know his birth family, Jobs also decided to start a family of his own.
14:57
In 1989, Jobs gave a lecture at Stanford Business School and he was riveted by a woman in the
15:02
front row.
15:03
“She was right there in the front row in the lecture hall, and I couldn’t take my eyes
15:06
off of her … kept losing my train of thought, and started feeling a little giddy,” this
15:11
is how he described feeling when he first saw Laurene Powell.
15:14
Laurene Powell was an MBA student at Stanford, and Jobs struck up a conversation with her
15:19
after the lecture.
15:20
He invited her out to dinner that night, and the two began a romantic relationship.
15:23
A Zen Buddhist monk presided over their wedding ceremony at Yosemite National Park in 1991,
15:29
and over the next seven years the couple had three children.
15:32
They remained married until Jobs’ death in 2011.
15:39
Sickness
15:41
Amidst all of the successes of the early years of the 21st Century, Jobs was not free from
15:51
worry.
15:52
And neither was Apple Computers.
15:54
In 2003, Jobs received the news all of us dread – he had cancer.
15:58
His doctors had found a cancerous tumor in his pancreas, and though operable it was a
16:02
rare form of cancer…
16:03
Jobs refused to listen to his doctors and have an operation right away, though.
16:07
Instead he opted to explore other options, namely veganism and acupuncture.
16:12
In 2004, with these alternative methods not improving his condition, Jobs opted to have
16:16
the tumor surgically removed.
16:18
Several cancer specialists have since said that period of waiting may have cost Jobs
16:22
years of his life.
16:24
In 2005, Jobs gave a commencement address at Stanford University that frankly and poignantly
16:28
discussed his thoughts on life and death now that he had to confront the matter head-on.
16:32
The fifteen minute speech reflected on three moments in his life that helped get him to
16:36
where he was, and in telling those stories he imparted a message to the graduates – and
16:40
to the world – to do what you love, remember you are going to die, and have trust in your
16:45
inner voice.
16:46
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered
16:50
to help me make the big choices in life.
16:53
Because almost everything-all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure-these
17:00
things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
17:06
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking
17:11
you have something to lose.
17:13
You are already naked.
17:15
There is no reason not to follow your heart,” he said.
17:18
He closed the speech with simple words from the 1970s counter-cultural magazine The Whole
17:23
Earth Catalog: “Stay hungry.
17:25
Stay Foolish.”
17:26
The commencement address struck a chord around the world.
17:29
It has been viewed over 27 million times on YouTube and serves as an inspiration, and
17:34
a stark reminder of our limited time on Earth.
17:36
It is a speech that truly every human can relate to, given by a man whose mind and drive
17:41
were far more extraordinary than most humans…
17:51
Death
17:55
Jobs continued to work at Apple following the surgery, but in 2008 people began asking
17:59
questions about his health as his appearance began to show his illness.
18:03
He was gaunt, graying, and just didn’t seem healthy.
18:05
The company continued to explain this away…
18:07
After questions were raised at one tech event Apple attributed his appearance to a simple
18:11
bug and said he was taking antibiotics.
18:14
Shareholders continued to worry, and in 2009 the truth came out – Jobs was suffering from
18:19
ill health and ended up having a liver transplant.
18:22
Tim Cook, Apple’s head of Worldwide Sales, filled in as CEO while Jobs was recovering
18:26
from the procedure.
18:27
Jobs managed to return to his post and continued to be involved in the day-to-day operations
18:31
of Apple with his prognosis being described as “excellent”.
18:34
But it was not to be.
18:36
Only a year and a half after returning to the helm of Apple Jobs had to step down as
18:40
CEO.
18:41
In providing his reasons to the company’s board, he stated:
18:43
“”I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties
18:47
and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know.
18:50
Unfortunately, that day has come.”
18:52
Though he stepped down as CEO and handed Tim Cook the reins of his company, Jobs did serve
18:58
as Chairman of the Apple Board.
19:00
Sadly, it was for only six weeks that he would work for Apple in this capacity.
19:04
On October 4, 2011, Jobs lost consciousness.
19:07
He stayed at home, surrounded by his family, and died of complications from his pancreatic
19:11
cancer on October 5th.
19:13
He was only 56 years old.
19:15
The world greeted the death of this technology icon with shock and grief.
19:19
California’s Governor issued a proclamation for a Steve Jobs Day to be celebrated, and
19:23
the companies with which he was associated all issued statements about the life, creativity,
19:28
and innovation of their founder and partner.
19:30
His family held a private funeral, the details of which are still unknown.
19:33
In 56 years of life and 30 years in the tech industry, Steve Jobs was at the helm of guiding
19:39
the world into the future.
19:40
He was certainly a difficult man to deal with, but he was an innovator, a businessman, and
19:45
a visionary whose ideas shaped the world we live in today.
—
This post was previously published on YouTube.
—
What’s your take? Comment below or write a response and submit to us your own point of view or reaction here at the red box, below, which links to our submissions portal.
◊♦◊
Sign up for our Writing Prompts email to receive writing inspiration in your inbox twice per week.
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member, today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all-access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class, and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group, and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
◊♦◊
Get the best stories from The Good Men Project delivered straight to your inbox, here.