Steve Jobs
Great PeopleA Garage in Los Altos
In 1976, in the Silicon Valley suburb of Los Altos, California, two friends named Steve began assembling circuit boards. Steve Jobs, then twenty-one, and Steve Wozniak, a gifted engineer, founded Apple Computer on April 1, 1976. Wozniak designed the machines; Jobs sold the vision. Their first product, the Apple I, was a bare board that hobbyists had to complete themselves. The following year the Apple II arrived, one of the first personal computers aimed at ordinary people rather than engineers. Jobs was not a programmer or a hardware whiz—his genius lay in sensing what people wanted before they knew it themselves, and in insisting that technology could be beautiful.
Rise, Fall, and Exile
Born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco and adopted as an infant, Jobs dropped out of Reed College but continued auditing classes, including a calligraphy course he later credited for his obsession with typography and design. As Apple grew into a major company, tensions mounted. In 1984 the Macintosh launched with a famous Super Bowl advertisement directed by Ridley Scott. Yet Jobs's demanding, sometimes abrasive style clashed with executives, and in 1985 he left the company he had co-founded after a power struggle with CEO John Sculley. Rather than retreat, Jobs founded a new computer firm called NeXT and bought a small graphics division from filmmaker George Lucas—the company that became Pixar.
The Pixar Gamble
Pixar spent years as a struggling maker of computer hardware and animation software before finding its true calling. Jobs poured money into it, and in 1995 the gamble paid off spectacularly with the release of Toy Story, the first feature film animated entirely on computers. The film was a critical and commercial triumph, and when Pixar went public that same year, Jobs became a billionaire. The success restored his reputation as more than a fallen tech founder—he had helped launch a new art form. Pixar would go on to produce a string of beloved films, and Jobs's role showed his talent for backing bold creative work.
The Return and Reinvention
By the mid-1990s Apple was floundering, losing money and market share. In 1997 the company purchased NeXT, bringing Jobs back into the fold, and soon he became interim CEO—informally dubbed the 'iCEO.' What followed is often called one of the great corporate turnarounds. Jobs slashed confusing product lines and championed sleek, memorable designs. The colorful iMac appeared in 1998, followed by a cascade of world-changing products: the iPod music player in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, and the iPad in 2010. His onstage keynote presentations, delivered in a black turtleneck, became cultural events. Jobs insisted that Apple sit at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts, a phrase he repeated often.
Legacy and Final Years
Jobs was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2003. He continued working through years of treatment, delivering a widely quoted commencement address at Stanford University in 2005 in which he urged graduates to 'stay hungry, stay foolish.' He resigned as Apple's CEO in August 2011 and died on October 5, 2011, at his home in Palo Alto. Opinions about Jobs remain complex: admirers celebrate his design instincts and ability to inspire, while critics point to his combative management and treatment of colleagues. What is not disputed is his impact. The devices he shepherded reshaped how billions of people communicate, work, and listen to music, making him one of the most influential figures of the digital age.
Key Dates to Remember
- February 24, 1955 — Steve Jobs is born in San Francisco, California, and later adopted.
- April 1, 1976 — Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer.
- 1985 — Jobs leaves Apple after a power struggle and later founds NeXT.
- 1995 — Pixar releases Toy Story, and the company's public offering makes Jobs a billionaire.
- 1997 — Jobs returns to a struggling Apple, beginning a historic turnaround.
- October 5, 2011 — Steve Jobs dies in Palo Alto, California, at age 56.