The world will truly miss Steve Jobs. Born in 1955, Steve was only 56 years old when he passed away from cancer this week. Steve Jobs will be remembered as one of the great business leaders of our time, right alongside of John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, and Sam Walton. Jobs and Apple did for the personal computer owner what Henry Ford did for the automobile industry. While Jobs didn’t invent the personal computer, he brought it to the masses and made Apple and Mac the premium model that everyone wanted. But Jobs didn’t stop there. Jobs and Apple invented devices and business models that encouraged people to pay for music, for television shows and movies, for books, and for applications.
Steve Jobs started Apple Computer along with Steve Wozniak in the 1970’s literally in a garage. Jobs was pushed out of the company when it finally took off, but came back to reign supreme in 1977, taking the company on a skyrocketing success that put the company’s first rise to shame. When asked about his business model on 60 Minutes, Jobs is quoted as saying, “My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other’s negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are not done by one person; they are done by a team of people.” Jobs summed up that self-concept at the end of his keynote speech at the Macworld Conference and Expo in January 2007 by quoting ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky:
“There’s an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. ‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.’ And we’ve always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very, very beginning. And we always will.” Jobs and Apple held that precept as truth. Apple was and is one of the best employers in the United States.
Steve Jobs gave us more than Apple. When he left Apple, he started NeXT Computer in 1985. NeXT was later (1997) acquired by Apple, and so Steve Jobs went back being the CEO of Apple. Meanwhile, in 1986 Jobs bought The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar) from Lucasfilm’s computer graphics division, which then was partnered with Disney. The first film under this partnership was Toy Story. Other box-office hits include A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Cars (2006), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), and Toy Story 3 (2010).
Steve Jobs had ongoing medical problems over the years. Wikipedia states, “On January 17, 2011, a year and a half after Jobs returned from his liver transplant, Apple announced that he had been granted a medical leave of absence. Jobs announced his leave in a letter to employees, stating his decision was made “so he could focus on his health”. As during his 2009 medical leave, Apple announced that Tim Cook would run day-to-day operations and that Jobs would continue to be involved in major strategic decisions at the company. Despite the leave, he made appearances at the iPad 2 launch event (March 2), the WWDC keynote introducing iCloud (June 6), and before the Cupertino city council (June 7). Jobs announced his resignation from his role as Apple’s CEO on August 24, 2011. In his resignation letter, Jobs wrote that he could “no longer meet his duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO”. On October 5th, Apple released a separate statement saying that Jobs had died. The statement read “We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today. Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.”