Steve Jobs – creative genius

Steve Jobs has become a legend in the world of computers and gadgets and changed the way we all use technology.
Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco, California, and was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs.
In 1961, the family moved to Mountain View, California. This area was becoming a center of electronics, and soon people started to call it “Silicon Valley”. (Silicon is used to make all sorts of electronic parts.)
As a high school student, he boldly asked William Hewlett, co-founder and president of the Hewlett-Packard computer firm, for some parts he needed to complete a class project. Hewlett was impressed enough to give Jobs the parts and offer him a summer internship at Hewlett-Packard.

After graduating from high school in 1972, Steve went to Reed College in Portland, Oregon. In 1974, he dropped out of college to work as a video game designer. He was able to save enough money to finance a trip to India in the summer of 1974. While there, he practiced meditation, studied eastern culture and religion. But by the fall, he became ill with dysentery and was forced to return to the United States. He became a Buddhist with his head shaved and dressed in traditional Indian clothes. He even wanted to become a monk in a Buddhist monastery.
In 1976, Steve and his school friend Stephen Wozniak founded a small computer company and called it “Apple”. Jobs saw a huge gap in the existing computer market, as no product was targeted for home use. The two friends started working on their first personal computer. When The Apple II was produced in 1977, it was an instant success.
Seven years later, Apple introduced the Macintosh computer. It was the world’s first small computer. It was also very easy to use. However, the sales of the first Macs weren’t very good. This led to tensions in the company, and in 1985 Jobs resigned.

In 1986, Jobs bought a small company called Pixar which specialized in computer animation. Over the following ten years he built Pixar into a large corporation. One of the most successful of Steve’ projects was Toy Story, the first full- length film to be completely computer-animated.
In the late 1990s, Apple had very serious financial problems. They asked Jobs to come back. He agreed, and quickly organized a clever advertising campaign that urged customers to “think different” and buy Macintoshes.
Steve Jobs changed Apple from a small computer company to a gadget superpower. It’s now one of the richest companies in the world.
He died on October 5, 2011.

Interesting Facts
– Steve was a democrat and funded the Democratic Party (using his wife’s name) for each Presidential election.
– Steve’s favorite musician was Bob Dylan, whose songs he played in his youth with his guitar at home. He also loved The Beatles and Grateful Dead.
– His favorite art was photography. For a long time his house was only decorated with large black-and-white photographs of cultural icons such as Albert Einstein.
– Steve was a vegetarian and never ate meat. There was a time when he was a “fruitarian” and ate only fruit.
– The name of Steve’s biological father was Abdulfattah Jandali. He had a sister, novelist Mona Simpson. Steve learned about her existence as an adult. Mona’s first novel Anywhere But Here talked about her relationship with her parents, who, ironically, were Steve’s parents.
– Apple founder was in the Guinness Book of Records as the director with the most modest salary in the world, according to official documents his salary was $ 1 per year.
– On August 29, 2008 Bloomberg news department published a 17-page obituary dedicated to the death of Steve Jobs. Fortunately, the error was quickly discovered.

Steve Jobs’s quotes
– Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

– The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking!

– Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

– You watch television to turn your brain off, and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on.

– I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates.

– Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

Sources:
Encyclopedia of World Biography
Speak Out 4, 2011

Steve Jobs – creative genius

Here are some portraits of Steve Jobs