Steve Jobs By Walter Issacson (Summary)

What comes directly to your mind when you hear the name Steve Jobs? Most probably, iPhone comes to your mind at first, then maybe the Apple, Macintosh and so on. Most people then know his launch of the iPhone with the interesting lines “iPad, Phone and Internet Connection” and also the commencement speech at the Stanford University. But what if I tell you Steve Jobs is far more greater than you think he is. Read along and I will show you how crazy he was and what a genius he was.

So lets begin from his childhood. His story is always incomplete if you don’t include his early childhood. He knew from his childhood days that he was adopted. And he was greatly affected by this fact. He thought that he was an unwanted child. There is one story when he was six years old. A neighborhood girl asked him if he was adopted. Then he ran storming into the house. His parents then told him that he was not unwanted. He was special that’s why they chose him. These things began to surround his head. Whether he was unwanted or special. To run from these facts came his drive for success as he says later in his life.

Another habit developed from his childhood was his demanding nature. He got everything he wanted. He never settled for anything else. While changing schools and selecting colleges, he only went where he chose. This demanding nature was reflected later during his days at Apple. Once he changed the design of iPhone after 9 months of work only because he didn’t like the design. And he was ready to hand his employees gun if any of them wanted to shoot him.

Another thing that he learned was from his father. His father was a carpenter. While fencing their house, he designed not only the front face but also those parts which no one would ever see. His father always used to tell that no matter how hidden a thing may be, you should always handle them with care. These teachings came into light while designing every products at Apple. The fact can be seen if we look at the interior part of macbook and any other laptops. Macbooks are beautifully managed however other laptops have dirty inside.

Now onto his days at Apple, one of his most unforgettable gift was to the music industry. He changed the way people listen to music by creating the iPod. During those days, the music players in the market were big and bulky. They could hold at max 50 songs. And they were very hard to use. To go through the songs was very difficult. Then, iPod was launched. It was small enough to fit into a pocket. It could hold up to 1000 songs. The device was very user friendly. Scrolling through the songs was also very easy. The launch of iPod surely changed the way people listened music. Everyone was started to be seen with the white earphones. People could listen music at road, work, office, jogging, home.

Another gift to music industry was its protection. During the time period, piracy of music has increased greatly. Artists were hopeless and so was music industry. Music revenue fell down 9%. Music company could do nothing. So the head of Sony and Warner companies went to Steve Jobs for the solution. This resulted in the creation of iTunes Store. This stopped piracy and also paved the way for the e-commerce. The creation of iTunes increased the sales of iPod. Artists wanted to be on the advertisement of iPod. When Bob Dylan starred in one of the iPod ad, his album topped the Billboard chart after 30 years. iPod had really become a power house. About 45% of the revenue of the Apple was from iPod. Creation of iPod and iTunes Store surely saved the music industry.

Another sector where Jobs created revolution is the animation industry. After getting fired from Apple, Jobs bought the Lucas Film Division which was renamed to Pixar. John Lasseter, who was the main designer, made a short animated movie called Tin Toy which won the Academy Awards. Jobs was so fascinated that he wanted to take it to the next level. So, he got monetary help from Disney and created Toy Story, which grossed higher than The Batman Forever. After that, Disney gave back to back 10 hits but Disney couldn’t do that with it single movie. Disney had all the rights to the characters. So at last Pixar and Disney collaborated to make Pixar as the animation studio of Disney. Disney’s animation would not have been as successful as it is now without Pixar. Pixar was one of the greatest companies which was created by Jobs.

Steve Jobs was a real pioneer. The things that seem simple to us these days were a huge things in the past days. These simple things were all created by Jobs. His contribution is far more than just iPhone and macintosh. His saved the music industry and also started animated movies which are not talked enough as they seem very simple these days. His contribution to this technological age will always be grateful.