Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was an American businessman, inventor, and entrepreneur, best known for co-founding Apple Inc. and revolutionizing the technology industry. He was born on February 24, 1955, and passed away on October 5, 2011, at the age of 56. Jobs’ visionary leadership and relentless pursuit of innovation led to the creation of some of the most iconic consumer products of the 21st century.

Key highlights of his life and career include:

  • Co-Founder of Apple Inc.: Jobs, alongside Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, co-founded Apple in 1976. They initially started by designing and selling personal computers, with the Apple I and Apple II being early successes. The company’s later developments, including the Macintosh, would go on to reshape personal computing.

  • Innovative Products: Jobs played a pivotal role in the development of groundbreaking products that changed the way people interact with technology. Some of the most iconic products launched under his leadership include:

    • The iPod (2001): A portable music player that transformed the music industry.

    • The iPhone (2007): A revolutionary smartphone that integrated music, communication, and internet browsing, significantly impacting the mobile phone market.

    • The iPad (2010): A tablet that changed the way people consume content and interact with technology.

    • Macintosh Computers: The development of the Macintosh in 1984 changed personal computing with its graphical user interface, setting a standard for future computers.

  • NeXT and Pixar: After being ousted from Apple in 1985, Jobs founded NeXT, a computer platform development company focused on higher education and business markets. He also bought The Graphics Group, which later became Pixar, a company that revolutionized animation and was acquired by Disney in 2006. Jobs became Disney’s largest individual shareholder and a member of its board of directors.

  • Return to Apple: Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 when the company was struggling, and his leadership turned Apple into one of the most valuable companies in the world. His focus on design, functionality, and user experience helped Apple become synonymous with innovation and elegance.

  • Legacy: Steve Jobs is remembered not only for his business acumen but for his ability to anticipate and shape the future of technology. His work influenced not just the tech industry but also the entertainment, retail, and design sectors. He left a lasting legacy through Apple's emphasis on sleek, minimalist design, intuitive user interfaces, and a seamless ecosystem of products.

Jobs' life and career were marked by his intense drive, perfectionism, and sometimes controversial management style. Despite his early death in 2011 from pancreatic cancer, his impact on the world of technology and consumer culture remains profound. His work continues to influence tech giants, entrepreneurs, and designers around the world.

Articles by the author

Things don't have to change the world to be important.

Steve Jobs

Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them.

Steve Jobs

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

Steve Jobs

My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each others' negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts.

Steve Jobs

I don't think I've ever worked so hard on something, but working on Macintosh was the neatest experience of my life. Almost everyone who worked on it will say that. None of us wanted to release it at the end. It was as though we knew that once it was out of our hands, it wouldn't be ours anymore.

Steve Jobs

Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people.

Steve Jobs

What is Apple, after all? Apple is about people who think 'outside the box,' people who want to use computers to help them change the world, to help them create things that make a difference, and not just to get a job done.

Steve Jobs

When you're young, you look at television and think, there's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want.

Steve Jobs

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Steve Jobs

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.

Steve Jobs

Our DNA is as a consumer company - for that individual customer who's voting thumbs up or thumbs down. That's who we think about. And we think that our job is to take responsibility for the complete user experience. And if it's not up to par, it's our fault, plain and simply.

Steve Jobs

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.

Steve Jobs

It's not a faith in technology. It's faith in people.

Steve Jobs

A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.

Steve Jobs

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.

Steve Jobs

I want to put a ding in the universe.

Steve Jobs

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Steve Jobs

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

Steve Jobs

It's not the tools that you have faith in - tools are just tools. They work, or they don't work. It's people you have faith in or not. Yeah, sure, I'm still optimistic I mean, I get pessimistic sometimes but not for long.

Steve Jobs

We don't get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we've chosen to do with our life.

Steve Jobs