Steve Jobs was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin to Joanne Simpson and an Egyptian-Arab father. Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California then adopted him. The writer Mona Simpson is Jobs' biological sister. In 1972, Jobs graduated from Homestead High School in Cupertino, California and enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Oregon. One semester later he had dropped out. But instead of going back home he hung around college and took up the study of philosophy and foreign cultures.
Steve Jobs had a deep-seated interest in technology so he took up a job at Atari Inc. which was a leading manufacturer of video games. He struck a friendship with fellow designer Steve Wozniak and attended meetings of the "Homebrew Computer Club" with him. Wozniak and Jobs developed a system with a toy whistle available in the Cap'n Crunch cereal box to make it possible to make free long distance telephone calls. They called off the amateur venture after someone told them of the possible legal consequences.
After saving up some money Steve Jobs took off for India in search of enlightenment with his friend Dan Kottke. Once he returned he convinced Wozniak to quit his job at Hewlett Packard and join him in his venture that concerned personal computers. They sold items like a scientific calculator to raise the seed capital. There is controversy as to where did the name Apple originate. According to one belief, Apple originated from a pleasant summer, Jobs had spent as an orchard worker in Oregon. There is another school of thought that says that the symbol of a rainbow-colored apple that has been bitten into is a tribute to Alan Turing who was a homosexual and had died after biting a cyanide-laced apple.
In 1976, Jobs, then 21, and Wozniak, 26, founded Apple Computer Co. in the Jobs family garage. The first personal computer was sold for $666.66. By 1980, Apple had already released three improved versions of the personal computer. It had a wildly successful IPO which made both founders millionaires many times over. Steve Jobs had managed to rope in John Sculley of Pepsi to head the marketing function in Apple.
A tiff with the Apple board and John Sculley led to the resignation of Steve Jobs. As soon as he resigned he immersed himself in his brand new venture. Steve Jobs decided that he wanted to change the hardware industry. The company was called NeXTStep and the new machine was called NeXT Computer. He plowed in more than U.S. $250 million into the company. The machine was a commercial washout but it did help in object-oriented programming, PostScript, and magneto-optical devices. Tim Berners-Lee developed the original World Wide Web system at CERN on a NeXT machine. Bitterly disappointed with NeXTStep, Jobs accepted the offer that Apple made him.
Steve Jobs also started Pixar Inc., which has gone on to produce animated movies such as Toy Story (1995); A Bug's Life (1998); Toy Story 2 (1999); Monsters, Inc. (2001); Finding Nemo (2003); and The Incredibles (2004). This venture has made him one of the most sought-after men in Hollywood.
Post Pixar, Steve Jobs wanted another round of revolutionizing to do. This time it was the music industry. He introduced the iPod in 2003. Later he came up with iTunes, which was a digital jukebox. A million and a half iPods later, the music industry still does not know whether this invention will save it or destroy it. Apple has a great advertising track record and its 'Rip, Mix, Burn' campaign was another feather in its cap. Now the industry uses a Mac to make the music and an iPod to store it.
Steve Jobs lived with his wife, Laurene Powell and their three children in Silicon Valley. Lisa Jobs is his daughter from a previous relationship.
In 2004, there was a cancerous tumor in his pancreas, which was successfully operated upon. At the Apple Computer Worldwide Developers Conference in 2006, when Jobs addressed the audience during his keynote speech, he looked weak and his speech was not as vibrant as it would usually be. This raised concern about his health. In 2008, rumors about his health issues intensified after an article in Fortune Magazine said that Jobs did not consider undergoing surgery to treat his pancreatic cancer. The rumors about his health were fueled further by his obituary published by Bloomberg, which they later declared was a mistake.
In 2009, Jobs announced that he would be going on a 6-month leave of absence and that Tim Cook would be the acting CEO of Apple. It was clear that Jobs had serious issues with his health. In June 2009, it was reported that Jobs had undergone a successful liver transplant. It looked like he would soon resume work. In 2011, after a brief leave of absence, Steve Jobs resigned. His resignation from the position of Apple CEO came as a shock to many. But he had always maintained that he would step down on the day he felt he wouldn't be able to meet his duties and expections as the CEO. On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs passed away. His innovation did distinguish him as a leader; a true leader who left behind a legacy.
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