Taking the Road to Perseverance
By: Paul Lally
Steve Jobs
One person who has succeeded very well is Steve Jobs. He created the Macintosh computer, which has put his company, Apple Computers Inc., on the map. This success has lead to a lot we know today. Without Macintosh, many of the things we know and love would not exist, like the iMac, iPhone, and iPad. Not only that, but the Macintosh was the computer used by scientists and astronauts to get to the moon.
This all started one summer day. Steve was walking his college campus when he was borrowed from his friends for a moment. His professor started going on and on about how he should take some classes to earn a degree. Jobs declined, because he said it was a waste of time. He also said that it would only grant him job security, which he did not have the time for him. Later that day, he went into work. His boss started complaining about him not showering or not wearing shoes, as well as his poor behavior. This ended in his boss demanding positive change, but Steve requested that he worked on his own project. He requested this out of the blue. He got the project, with a tight deadline of course. He he delivered to Atari, He would be paid $5,000. "And..." his boss continued, I have a solution to your social and behavior problems. Work here during the night, whilst everyone is at home.
Steve came into work that night, and began working on his design. "It has too many circuits..." he went on saying. He dialed Steve Wozniak, one of his best friends who was also interested in electronics. Immediately, he came into the office to help with the design of the project, "The best game you have ever seen". The next day, the game was complete. The game resulted in "Breakout" by Atari. This really impressed his boss at Atari. Later, Jobs stops by Woz's house to drop off his payment, $350. (Jobs told him that they were getting paid $700, not $5,000.) After plopping down on a chair in Woz's living room, he sees a project that Woz himself is working on. It was a buggy computer terminal board that connects to a TV for a display. (Sounds a lot like the Apple 1, right?) That night, they start discussing how the market would react to it, what Hewlett-Packard would have to say about it. "Nobody wants to buy a computer..." Woz was exclaiming. "But the market has never seen a computer like this before..." Jobs countered. Woz wanted to dismiss this terminal because "It is just a hobby..."
Once this terminal was finished as a kit, Steve tried to sell it to a local Radio Shack to be put on shelves. 50 units were put on the shelves in total. The man at the counter was very skeptical about this though. After the Apple 1, the Apple II came around. It was an improved apple 1, but it had a case and better hardware. These computers were the birth of Apple, one of the biggest computer companies in the world. Their products like the MacBook, iMac, iPhone and iPad bring in a lot of customers and revenue, which made Apple as a whole a success.
Today, Mr. Jobs is no longer alive. He had caught Pancreatic cancer in his 20's, but it slowed because of his mainly vegetarian diet. The most likely cause of this cancer would be the chemicals he was frequently round in Silicon Valley. He died on October the 5th, in 2011 in Palo Alto, California. Some say he is still here with us through the production of Apple's products. But, Apple may slowly go under because of the Absence of Jobs. This is because of the slow failure that Apple had in the mid 80's to the mid 90's. Their computers slowly went downhill in quality, and when Jobs came back it was like the company was revived. So, in conclusion, Steve Jobs with the help of Steve Wozniak had a huge success. They created one of the most profitable companies, while keeping all of their customers happy.
The Apple 1 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak