An inspirational story- Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California. His mother
decided to put him for adoption, as at the time she was still unwed. When she found
out that her son’s future parents, Justin and Clara Jobs were not college graduates she
agreed to sign the adoption papers only after they promised that they would give her
son a chance to go to college. Steve grew up in Cupertino, California.
He did go to college but dropped out due to the high costs. Since he could not afford a
dorm room, he slept on the floor of his friend’s room. He would walk 7 miles across
town to get one good meal at the Hare Krishna temple on Sundays. He did continue
with calligraphy classes – an invaluable learning for young Steve and the foundation
for his font system in the Mac.
Steve managed to get a job at Hewlett Packard in Palo Alto – this is where he met
Steve Wozniak – the man who would eventually be Jobs’ co-founder of Apple
Computers. The two Steve’s founded Apple Computers, establishing the company
operations in a garage on April 1, 1976. Steve Jobs was convinced they could design a
personal computer. They called it Apple and their first product was the Apple I. In
that year itself, the duo sold their prized possessions to produce 50 machines for a
local store.
However, the advent of IBM’s highly successful PC and a horrible expensive launch
by Apple of Lisa (a failure) put the company under a lot of pressure.
Commandeered by Jobs who apparently pushed the company’s engineers mercilessly,
Apple introduced the Macintosh in 1984, the first small computer with a GUI.
Thereafter, several companies copied this easily accessible interface. The Macintosh
paid rich dividends as it was a great success and after 10 years of hard work and full
of ups and downs, Apple computer had grown into a 2 billion dollar company with
4000 employed.
A sad turn of events followed where Jobs was fired by John Sculley, the CEO Jobs
had appointed himself. Further he lost a bitter battle in court.
This was a golden chance in disguise for Jobs, as he could now think about new
technology without anyone looking over his shoulder, “I didn’t see it then, but it
turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever
happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of
being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the
most creative periods of my life.”
During the next five years he started two companies – NeXTStep and Pixar. Though,
NeXTStep was not a success, Pixar was a sensation and they created the first
computer-animated film, Toy Story and when Pixar’s stock went public, Steve Jobs
became a billionaire.
In December 1996 Jobs convinced Apple to buy NeXT and make its software the
foundation of the next-generation Mac OS. The technology he developed at NeXT
became the catalyst of Apple’s comeback. Initially appointed as Apple’s adviser,
Steve Jobs was named Apple’s interim CEO in 1997.
The decade following Jobs’ return to Apple has been the most spectacular for the
company. Revolutionary products – iPod, iphone and iMac have changed the way
people view technology. While Apple was enjoying success after success, Steve faced
another personally tragedy. In 2004 he was diagnosed with cancer on his pancreas and
was informed that the cancer was incurable and he could only live for another three to
six months. Later, a biopsy showed that he actually had a very rare form of pancreatic
cancer that is curable with surgery. This stroke of fortune was vital especially for
Apple and after the successful surgery; he returned with a vengeance. Under his
brilliant skills of bringing out the best in others, Steve Jobs continues to direct and
drive Apple to reach soaring heights and bring fantastic products to people around the
globe.