Steve Jobs
Co-founder of Apple (By: Maria Villella)
Background and Early Beginnings
Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco, California on February 24th, 1955. His birth parents were still in college and un-married at the time so they placed him up for adoption. Paul and Clara Jobs soon adopted Steve and moved to the suburban city of Mountain View which would later become known as Silicon Valley. As a young child Steve Jobs would often tinker around with electronics in the garage with his father. His father would teach Steve how to take apart electronics and put them back together which became a hobby that quickly sparked his interest.
Educational Background
In elementary school Steve Jobs was said to be the class clown but, he tested so well that his teachers wanted him to move up to high school, which his parents declined. Steve was enrolled in Homestead High School in 1971 where he was introduced by a friend to who would end up being his future business partner, Steve Wozniak who was in college at the time. Steve went on to attend Reed college for only one semester before he dropped out because he was more interested in eastern philosophy and fruitarian diets then the classes he was taking.
Joining the Workforce
After Steve dropped out of Reed college he moved to Oregon and quickly moved back to California to find a job. Steve was hired at Atari where he saved enough money to take a trip to India with his friends to 'seek enlightenment'. When he came back he started to have an interest in his friend Woz's newest activities. Woz was very heavily into computers; so much that he built his own computer board because he wanted a computer for himself. Steve immediately realized that Woz could sell these boards to people who wanted to build a computer without the hassle of putting together a computer kit. Thus, Apple was born.
Picking the 'Apple'
After realizing they could sell Woz's "computer boards" Steve convinced Woz that they should start a company together. On April 1, 1976 Apple Computer Co. was born. The following months were spent in Jobs's garage, assembling Apple 1 computer boards and selling them to independent computer dealers around their area. At this point Woz had already started working on a new idea, a better computer, the Apple 2. The Apple 2 computer would be expandable, more powerful, and would support color graphics. They both knew that this idea would and could be hugely successful. With this new knowledge, Steve started to seek venture capital. Steve managed to convince former Intel executive and former angel funder, Mike Markkula to invest $250,000 in Apple Computer Co. in January of 1977. Because of the brand new and 'amazing' features the Apple 2 came and crushed all of it's competitors and it's sales made Apple Computer Co's founders millionaires.
What Is Apple Known for Today?
Today Apple Computer Co. is known for it's iOS operating system, iTunes, and it's devices: iPads, iPad Minis, iMacs, Mac Book laptops, iPods, Apple watches, and last but not least, iPhones.
Things You May Not Know about Steve Jobs
Obviously, Steve Jobs is known as one of the co-founders of one of the top grossing computer companies in the world, but what else was there to know about him?
- Steve had bought a small group of scientists from the computer graphics division of George Lucas' Lucasfilm empire and formed a corporation called 'Pixar'.
- Steve married his wife, Laurene Powell-Jobs and they had three children: Reed, Erin, and Eve.
- Steve also had a child out of wedlock with his highschool girlfriend in 1978.
- Steve was diagnosed with a rare pancreatic cancer in 2003 which could have possibly been cured with surgery which, against everyone else's advice, he did not undergo surgery until a year later in July of 2004.
- Steve passed away from pancreatic cancer on October 5, 2011 at age 56.
Steve Jobs - Inspirational Speech "If today were the last day of my life"
My Personal Opinion
I believe Steve was successful because he loved what he did. As you read in the first paragraph, Steve loved tinkering around with computers and he was very passionate about it. He expanded his horizons and worked with good people to come up with new innovations and it got him very far in life. His legacy will live on.
Works Cited
Steve Jobs Biography. 2015. 19 March 2015. <http://www.biography.com/people/steve-jobs-9354805>.
all about Steve Jobs.com. 2015. 20 March 2015. <http://allaboutstevejobs.com/bio/shortbio.php>.