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The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs

• Walter Isaacson

Reprint: R1204F

The author, whose biography of Steve Jobs was an instant best seller after the Apple CEO’s death in October 2011, sets out here to correct what he perceives as an undue fixation by many commentators on the rough edges of Jobs’s personality. That personality was integral to his way of doing business, Isaacson writes, but the real lessons from Steve Jobs come from what he actually accomplished. He built the world’s most valuable company, and along the way he helped to transform a number of industries: personal computing, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, retail stores, and digital publishing.

In this essay Isaacson describes the 14 imperatives behind Jobs’s approach: focus; simplify; take responsibility end to end; when behind, leapfrog; put products before profits; don’t be a slave to focus groups; bend reality; impute; push for perfection; know both the big picture and the details; tolerate only “A” players; engage face-to-face; combine the humanities with the sciences; and “stay hungry, stay foolish.”

Six months after Jobs’s death, the author of his best-selling biography identifies the practices that every CEO can try to emulate.

His saga is the entrepreneurial creation myth writ large: Steve Jobs cofounded Apple in his parents’ garage in 1976, was ousted in 1985, returned to rescue it from near bankruptcy in 1997, and by the time he died, in October 2011, had built it into the world’s most valuable company. Along the way he helped to transform seven industries: personal computing, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, retail stores, and digital publishing. He thus belongs in the pantheon of America’s great innovators, along with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Walt Disney. None of these men was a saint, but long after their personalities are forgotten, history will remember how they applied imagination to technology and business.

• WI Walter Isaacson, the CEO of the Aspen Institute, is the author of Steve Jobs and of biographies of Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein.

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Steve Jobs’ Impacts on the World Research Paper

Introduction, who was steve jobs, great milestones.

Thesis statement: Steve Jobs changed the world in many ways especially with his inventions in technology.

This is a research paper on how Steve Jobs changed the world. His full names were Steven Paul alias “Steve Jobs”. He was one of the greatest American business gurus and inventors.

He was until his time of death the Chairman, co-founder and Chief executive officer of Apple Inc. formerly known as Pixar animation Studios when it was acquired by Disney. Precisely, this research paper will prove that wherever Steve worked, he changed things for better and therefore changed the lives of people and thus the world; he engineered the greatest changes towards the end of his life.

Steve Jobs was born in February 24, 1955. He was born in the city of San Francisco, California to an unwed graduate student called Joanne Simpson and a native Syrian who was a professor of mathematics named Abdulfattah John Jandali. He was later adopted by a couple Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain view, California and hence his name changed to Steve Jobs.

However, his mother Joanne Simpson conditioned the Jobs to take Steve to college though they themselves were a lower middle class couple with no high school education. The Jobs bound themselves to this condition upon adoption and they later adopted a baby girl named Patti in 1958 (Romain, 2011).

In his early years, Steve Jobs was a nasty kid who did not have any concern in his studies until he was in the fourth grade. Actually, his teacher named Imogene had to bribe him with candy and her own cash to make him learn which he did in earnest.

Due to his brilliance, he skipped fifth grade and went to a middle school called Crittenden Middle School which was in a hostile environment due to poor living status of the area residents. This forced him to demand for a transfer to another school at the age of 11 years. He was considerably transferred to Cupertino Junior High in Los Alto a step which effectively made his future (Romain, 2011).

Los Alto was in Santa Clara County a world of computer engineering from the ancient times. Among the many companies based there was the Shockley Semiconductor Company, Hewlett Packard and HP Company of engineers.

Steve Jobs curiosity about the electronic wares in his neighborhood grew with time and his father later introduced him to the co-founder of HP, Heathkits who had detailed electronic manuals on coding, joining and repairing different electronic gadgets. This fascinated him and his love for electronics grew much stronger in his teen-age.

And as such, when he joined Homestead High School he anxiously enrolled in an electronics class where he courageously pursued his craving for electronics. But Steve also had business interests and hence they got along with his neighbor Bill who had electronic interest.

Bill later in 1969 introduced Steve to a computer whiz kid named Woz. Bill and Woz had built the Cream Soda Computer which fascinated Steve. Woz and Steve built and consequently started an illegal business in high school of selling computer hackers that enabled one to make free calls in the US. However, they stopped this when they realized the police were on their trail.

On clearing High School, Steve wanted to join a high class college named Reed College and the Jobs had to take him in honor of the promise they made to his mother of providing Steve with higher education. However, Steve dropped out of college before Christmas the same year because he could not understand his interests and course of life. He decided to do things which interested him but ended up doing weird things like sleeping on the floor and going without food in order to survive.

Due to cash desperation, he sought for a job at Atari which was the first video company in 1974. He looked up and was inspired by Atari founder, Nolan Bushnell who had successfully invested in pinball machines. It was Nolan Bushnell who inspired Steve Jobs to start Apple. But while he was working with the Atari, his wiz friend, Woz had been hired by Hewlett-Packard a vibrant engineering company where he worked passionately in circuit design (Romain, 2011).

From 1974, computer inventions and advancements took full thrust. In 1974, a mountain view-based Intel introduced the first microprocessor. Later on, Ed Roberts launched the Altair which was a box that flashed lights on and off. In 1975, Bill gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft and wrote an interpreter for Altair. All these excited Woz and of concern was Altair and Microsoft interpreter though he believed he could do better than them.

And so he started building his own computer which he based on MOS’s Technology 502. He advanced this to a powerful and perfect computer board which was compatible with a keyboard and screen. Woz later showed his works to Steve and his engineering friends who were all amazed yet appreciative of his brilliance. Pursuant to Steve’s entrepreneurial skills, they decided to assemble the computers and sell them to meetings franked by engineers from Homebrew.

Steve was of the idea that they needed to upgrade there business to a company at whatever cost. Steve had to sell his car and Woz his HP 65 calculator for them to start building keyboards and after much thought they named the company Apple Computer.

They later turned it into a corporation with the help of Ron Wayne from Atari, drew a company logo and split the company shares. Their fist order came from Paul Terrell from Homebrew who bought 50 computers. This was a huge success to the Apple partners and more sales fell in place later on in an encouraging speed.

In 1976, Steve and Woz bought the other co-founder Ron Wayne marking the exclusive step of Apple computer. On clearing his contract with HP, Woz continued to advance the Apple design basing on the original design. The new design-Apple II produced color, handled high resolution graphics and had a built- in basic interpreter. As Woz strived to finish Apple II, Steve was busy selling Apple I in the Personal Computer Festival in 1976. However, Apple I got stiff completion from Altair in the festival (Romain, 2011).

While Apple II was complete they sold their vision to an investor who was a former Intel employee called, Mike Markkula. Mike Markkula was very instrumental in their development as he designed a business plan, called for advertisement of Apple II, drew another logo for the company, and hired technical staff for the company.

With this, the new Apple Company was up for competition and in April 1977, they got a chance to showcase their computer product at the West Coast Computer Faire held in San Francisco. Apple II stole the show in this Conference with its prototype nature and plastic casing. In that show alone Apple II got 300 orders marking another forward step. It was the start of personal computer revolution.

However, there were other competitors in this industry which included Radio Schack’s TRS-80 and Commodore PET but Apple II stood out exceptionally with its superb design, compatibility with color TV and integrated keyboard. Woz improved Apple II by including the 8 expansion slots hence boosting the demand for Apple II. But it is the spreadsheet called VisiCalc that castigated the success of Apple II. This was because it only worked with Apple II and was an invention itself.

Many projects were later initiated to develop Apple II like the Macintosh project which neither Steve Jobs nor Woz participated in. But Steve chose to participate in another project named after her daughter, the Lisa project.

Lisa project was a significant project for Apple Computers because it wanted to borrow some advancement from Xerox PARC. Xerox PARC had the first Graphical User Interface (GUI) and a mouse. This project led to change in management in Apple Computer; Steve was named chairman of the board as Apple went public in 1980.

The IPO was financially beneficial to Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was later thrown out of Lisa project and made the head of Macintosh. He wanted to have his own successful computer and to revenge for being thrown out of Lisa project. Steve hired enough and professionally qualified staff for this job. Though he succeeded, at 30 years of age he officially lost his position at Macintosh due to conflicts with the management.

Under his capacity as the chairman of the board in Apple, he wanted Apple to build a high-end computer that could hold one megabyte of memory, perform one million instructions per second, and display one million pixels on a screen. However, though the board bought the idea they were reluctant to actualize it due to the partner Next who was to join the company to help in doing this task.

As a result Steve resigned from Apple on September 17, 1985 and started NeXT Inc. with other engineers amidst strong opposition from Apple. He later founded Pixar. He later developed the NeXT’s revolutionary software that turned too expensive to invest in. He also advanced Pixar Image Computer (PIC) to PIC II and RenderMan.

However, Pixar and NeXT did not do well in subsequent years. As a result he fired employees and encountered huge losses. Steve Jobs got married on March 18, 1991 to Laurene Powell a Stanford MBA student and Laurene gave birth to Reed Paul. In 1989, Pixar signed a contract with Disney for a full feature film made of computers only and this investment paid off even as that of NeXT was in the verge of collapsing. He named himself president and CEO of the company in February 1995.

In 1995, Microsoft launched Windows 95 which was very successful and thereby making Apple lose monopoly. The company lost much of its share in the market, fired most of its staff and set into motion the idea of Steve coming back to rescue Apple.

In 1996 Apple agreed to buy NeXTSTEP Company which was owned by Steve. In the deal, Steve was paid 400 million dollars and appointed informal adviser to CEO of Apple. After the continued poor performance in Apple, the CEO was fired and Steve appointed chairman of the board and CEO of Apple. He only agreed to become an interim CEO.

He later made a deal with Microsoft a step that propelled Apple to a better market position. He worked hard to reinstate Apple to its proper position and in 1997, he renovated Power Mac and Power book which sold well in the market. On May 1998 he unveiled the iMac which was the first mainstream computer which was compatible with the USB and that did not include a floppy disc drive. The satisfaction guaranteed by iMac boosted its sales and increased the company’s going concern.

In January 1999, Steve introduced a new Power Mac G3 tower which was more appealing. In July 1999 Steve unveiled the iBook and Apple’s first Wi-Fi product, the Airport base Station. Steve Jobs had completely changed Apple in his two years tenure as interim CEO. He redeemed its public image, launched highly defined products and attracted an overwhelming number of software developers. He became a full time CEO of the company in January 5, 2000 much to the joy of the company shareholders.

On March 24, 2001, Steve introduced Apple’s new operating system, Mac OS X which became the core of Apple’s turn around and recent success. IMovie, iDVD, iTunes, and iPhoto were released in 2002.

They were followed by iCal in 2003, Garageband in 2004 and iWeb in 2006. In November 2001, Apple introduced the iPod with a storage capacity of 5GB. It quickly became a hotcake for all music lovers. On April 28, 2003 Apple unleashed the iTunes Music Store whose success exceeded the company’s expectations. In February 2006, Apple through its CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPod hi-fi.

This is a stereo speaker system designed to work only with iPods. Steve later introduced the Apple TV at Macworld in 2007. But the greatest achievement was the unveiling of the iPhone in January 2007. It is during this unveiling that Steve announced the change of Apple Computer name to Apple Inc.

After long years of suffering with cancer, Steve Jobs resigned as the Apple CEO on 24 August, 2011 handing the reign to Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook (Poornima, 2011). This had a significant impact on the company’s shares which tumbled in his first day of resignation. Steve Jobs succumbed to pancreas cancer on October 5, 2011.

• In 1977, Apple Computer sold 1977 personal computers, in 1978 it sold 8,000 and in 1979, it sold 35,000 personal computers.
• Though in 1987, NeXT Company under the partnership of Steve and other had no products, the company was valued over 125 million dollars due to the powerful name of Steve Jobs.
• The Pixar IPO of 1995 was the IPO of the year and the company made 123 million dollars.
• iMac was a remarkable achievement for Apple, selling two million units in its first two years of introduction.
• AirPort set the standard for the future of Wi-Fi.
• On unveiling the iTunes Music Store, five million songs were sold in just eight weeks, and another eight million in the subsequent weeks, bringing iTunes’ share of legal music downloads to 70%.
• Steve Jobs and his legion of 50,000 coders and designers became the most valuable company in the world.
• iTunes is now the world’s leading online music retailer , with over 200 million registered users who have so far downloaded 15 billion songs.

Steve Jobs changed the world in many ways especially the world of technology. His partnership with the spreadsheet VisiCalc which worked only on the Apple II was a revolution in the computer world. Millions of accountants, small businesses, and private individuals used it to do calculations with ease.

His introduction of a more developed iMac which came in several colors was another breakthrough in computer design. Up to this day, its mark can be felt in a myriad of different products. iMac was additionally the first mainstream computer to offer USB connectivity which was a great technological advancement. Apple Computer also shifted to USB. The iMac was also the first personal computer not to include a floppy disk drive.

The iApps introduced by Steve Jobs were a digital suite of applications which eventually evolved into iLife that had a common purpose of making digital lives easier. In January 2004, Steve unveiled the iPod mini, which came in different colors and soon became world’s best selling MP3 player. In 2005, Steve jobs introduced the iPod shuffle, which is a cheap, flash version of the iPod. This was great improvement in accessibility and portability of music.

The introduction of Apple operating system, Mac OS X was an independent yet advanced platform because the system could run on any kind of computer unlike earlier systems. In addition Mac OS X was more perfect in that it had a protected memory and pre-emptive multi-tasking, which allowed multiple applications to run concurrently without crushing the system.

It also provided high levels of networking unlike other systems. The Mac OS was simple and easy-to-use, highly accessible and stable than Windows. Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone which was less than half an inch thick, allowed calls, took photos, handled contacts and emails, browsed the Web, listen to music and watch movies in a defined comfort.

Prior to the introduction of the iPhone by Apple, wireless carriers monopolized and mistreated handsets manufacturers; they dictated the phone’s features, pricing and marketing, in exchange for the right to use their networks. The iPhone deal by Steve Jobs gave them an equal muscle and hence reversed this balance of power. His introduction of Apple TV was a plus to the technology as the TV was now more accessible and portable.

Steve Jobs also gave kindly to charity and hence improved lives of desperate and needy people. Due to his sound managerial skills and advancements in Apple Computer, Steve was increasingly recognized as a national icon, a symbol for the country’s new entrepreneurial class. His dream of changing the world started shaping up to reality.

What Steve unveiled and sold was of higher form and function. It was a platform for competitive and fair business which removed the expensive layer of magazine designers, disk jockeys, secretaries and postal workers and cable guys who were all zoomed out by his inventions (Kessler, 2011). The invention and subsequent demand of the iPod proved that many people want a sizable yet portable device; Steve Jobs provided this. Apple produced one of the excellent forays in advertising hence boosting marketing.

Since his return to Apple computer in 1997, Steve Jobs reengineered it into the most valuable technology company in the world, overcoming other market leaders like Microsoft or HP. This might have been the greatest turnaround in business history as the company was formerly headed for the drains (Fortune Editors, 2011).

He was such a great influence to the world that upon his death, Apple wrote on their website that the company had lost a visionary and creative genius; the world had lost an amazing human being, a dear friend, and an aspiring mentor (Apple, 2011).

It is quite clear from the research paper that Steve Jobs was a great man who influenced many and the world at large through his inventions, management and participation. Being the co-founder of Apple Inc. he had an upper stake in the technology world and his contribution to the company will always be felt. He and the entire Apple Inc. made life, business, music, calculations, advertisements, movies and personal computers in general accessible and portable.

His entrepreneurial skills paid off in the running of the company, partnerships and bargaining for deals. His return to Apple Inc and consequent turnaround of the company which was initially facing bankruptcy will form part of his historical achievements. His hard work and never-give up attitude propelled him to his success and we can only name him, the Genius of Technology.

Apple. (2011). Steve Jobs 1955-2011 . Apple Inc . Web.

Fortune Editors. (2011). 10 ways Steve Jobs changed the world. Money CNN. Web.

Kessler, A. (2011). How Steve Jobs Changed The World . The Wall Street Journal. Web.

Poornima, G. (2011). S teve Jobs resigns from Apple, Cook becomes CEO . Reuters. Web.

Romain, M. (2011). Steve Jobs . All about Steve Jobs. Web.

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Steve Jobs, Essay Example

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Among all business leaders in recent times, Steve Jobs is arguably the best example of the fact that perseverance commands success. Steve Jobs was considered a difficult boss at Apple before he was ousted but when he returned, there was little change in his leadership style. This demonstrates that Jobs always remained true to himself whether others approved of his leadership style or not. Jobs might not have been a likeable person on a personal level but he was authentic.

Even though we often hear about the virtues of democratic leadership style as it motivates employees and improves communication between leaders and subordinates, Jobs ruled in an autocratic manner. No wonder, Fortune magazine called him one of the leading egomaniacs in the Silicon Valley (Williams, 2012). When Jobs started his second term at Apple, he was not happy with one of the shipping company. He asked them to be faster with delivery but they refused since their service was already in accordance with the agreed upon terms. He directed his manager to break the contract despite manager’s objection that it would lead to costly lawsuit which did happen eventually (Austen, 2012). Author Andrew Keen wrote in his book The Cult of the Amateur that there is not an ounce of democracy at Apple and without Jobs’ authoritarian leadership, Apple would be just another Silicon Valley outfit (Chaudhuri, 2012). Jobs would be involved in all the details and hired like-minded people (Branson, 2011). But he still drew admiration because he personally demonstrated what he said. He didn’t only preach innovation but practiced it himself.

Steve Jobs also subscribed to Herzberg’s ‘Theory X’ according to which workers are lazy and need guidance. This should not imply that Apple’s employees were lazy and incapable but only that Jobs’ approach reflected his pursuit for perfection. Jobs often reiterated that Apple’s mission was to build the best products in the industries it competes in. This is he micromanaged his employees and no product left the company’s door without his approval.

Steve Jobs was also a transformational leader. When he re-joined the company, Apple was waiting to join the list of extinct companies (Chakrabortty, 2011). Jobs didn’t only save the company but also made it into one of the most admired companies, with a loyal customer base that most other companies only dream of. Jobs’ subordinates believed in him because they knew he was passionate about the company and the products it delivered to the market. They also witnessed Jobs’ obsession with quality and, thus, became motivated themselves to deliver the best products to consumers.

Steve Jobs was not afraid to think outside the box and he encouraged his subordinates to do the same. In fact, the company’s original motto was “Think Different”. Steve Jobs was not only transformational but also visionary. Effective leaders scan the external environment to look for emerging trends but Jobs told the consumers what the trends should be (Verganti, 2011). He singlehandedly redefined several industries including smart phones, portable music players, and tablet computing.

Steve Jobs might not have been great at human relationships but he did believe in his people and pushed them to do their best. An effective leader understands that people are one of the company’s best assets and he invests in them. Despite Jobs’ cold treatment of his subordinates, one would rarely read about Apple’s best employees leaving the company which is a proof of the fact that Jobs’ subordinates also believed in their leader and admired his pursuit of perfection.

Jobs was also a successful leader because he understood the strengths of his company and focused on few things Apple could do really well instead of trying to be everything. Jobs knew that the reputation of the company is built on ‘innovation’ and ‘quality’ and Apple can only defend its reputation by doing few things doing them really well. On annual retreats, Jobs would ask his subordinates to recommend ten products and would eventually shortlist them to only three. When Google’s new CEO Larry Page visited Jobs, Jobs advised him to focus on only five products Google could do really well and get rid of the rest (Isaacson, 2012). This also teaches us that Jobs didn’t overestimate his own or Apple’s capabilities and focused on utilizing limited resources efficiently.

One of the most important qualities of an effective leader is to provide direction to their employees and ensure everyone is working towards the same objectives. Every employee at Apple knew where Jobs was taking the company and they also knew what Jobs expected from them. Apple’s employees were also willing to trust Jobs’ judgments and vision because he had proven himself right time and time again. Jobs didn’t only held legitimate power that came from being the company’s CEO but also expert power over his subordinates.

Steve Jobs might not have the most friendly communication style but his direct communication style did prevent miscommunication. Jobs was known to be blunt and straight forward and he himself admitted, “If something sucks, I tell people to their face, It’s my job to be honest.” (Pullen, 2012). Jobs got away with his abrasive communication style because he commanded respect and admiration from his followers but he did demonstrate the importance of clear communication so that there are no misunderstandings and subordinates know exactly what their leaders expect from them.

Another reason why Jobs was a successful leader is that employees at Apple were given roles that made the best use of their specific strengths and abilities. Thus, there was a good fit between their responsibilities and capabilities. In addition, Apple hired people who were a good fit to the organizational culture. As a result, the employee turnover was low because the new recruits also believed in the company’s mission (McInerney, 2011).

Steve Jobs has cemented his place as one of the most inspirational leaders of all times but that doesn’t mean his leadership style can be successfully adopted by anyone.  This is because Job’s leadership style was situational. When he returned to the company, it had no vision and proper strategy in place and everyone had given up on the company. Jobs not only provided everyone with a vision but also won their loyalty and admiration through passion for the company and its products as well as by delivering results. This is why his ordinates even kept up with his cold temper because they shared his vision and they trusted him (Henson, 2011).

Steve Jobs had unconventional leadership style but he still enjoyed high levels of loyalty because of his commitment to the company and his impressive track. Jobs also gave his subordinates a clear vision and made sure that everyone in the company was compatible with the company’s culture. He also understood his company well and demonstrated through commitment to few products that quality and innovation were central to the company’s mission. He pushed his employees to do their best and gave them responsibilities that suited their strengths and abilities. In addition, he was also straight forward with his employees so they also knew what their leader wanted from them and what he liked or disliked.

Austen, B. (2012, July 23). The Story of Steve Jobs: An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale? Retrieved October 18, 2012, from http://www.wired.com/business/2012/07/ff_stevejobs/all/

Branson, R. (2011, October 7). True business leaders think differently . Retrieved October 18, 2012, from http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog/true-business-leaders-think-differently

Chakrabortty, A. (2011, January 24). CEOs like Steve Jobs style themselves as messiahs, not mere managers. But that’s just an excuse to rake it in . Retrieved October 18, 2012, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/25/chief-executives-coin-it-as-messiahs

Chaudhuri, A. (2012, April 26). Authoritarian leadership, the secret behind Steve Jobs success! Retrieved October 18, 2012, from http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/story/authoritarian-leadership-the-secret-behind-steve-jobs-success/33963/

Henson, R. (2011, November 1). Faculty Insight: The Leadership of Steve Jobs . Retrieved October 18, 2012, from http://business.rutgers.edu/news/faculty-insight-leadership-steve-jobs

Isaacson, W. (2012, April). The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs . Retrieved October 18, 2012, from http://hbr.org/2012/04/the-real-leadership-lessons-of-steve-jobs/ar/1

McInerney, S. (2011, October 7). Steve Jobs: an unconventional leader . Retrieved October 18, 2012, from http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/management/steve-jobs-an-unconventional-leader-20111007-1lcmo.html

Pullen, J. P. (2012, May 18). Jobs or Zuckerberg: Who’d Make the Better Boss? Retrieved October 18, 2012, from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/223570#

Verganti, R. (2011, October 7). Steve Jobs and Management by Meaning . Retrieved October 18, 2012, from http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/10/steve_jobs_and_management_by_m.html

Williams, R. (2012, April 12). Why Steve Jobs is not a leader to emulate . Retrieved October 18, 2012, from http://business.financialpost.com/2012/04/12/steve-jobs-is-not-a-leader-to-emulate/

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Steve Jobs revolutionized six industries (computing, music, phones, animation, tablet computing and digital publishing). He died on Oct. 5th, 2011 worth at the time $10.2 Billion dollars. That fact makes this essay even more remarkable.

This is Steve Jobs’ final essay:

I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In some others’ eyes, my life is the epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. In the end, my wealth is only a fact of life that I am accustomed to. At this moment, lying on my bed and recalling my life, I realize that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in have paled and become meaningless in the face of my death.

You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone bear your sickness for you. Material things lost can be found or replaced. But there is one thing that can never be found when it’s lost – Life. Whichever stage in life you are in right now, with time, you will face the day when the curtain comes down.

Treasure love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well and cherish others. As we grow older, and hopefully wiser, we realize that a $300 or a $30 watch both tell the same time. You will realize that your true inner happiness does not come from the material things of this world.

Whether you fly first class or economy, if the plane goes down – you go down with it. Therefore, I hope you realize, when you have mates, buddies and old friends, brothers and sisters, who you chat with, laugh with, talk with, have sing songs with, talk about north-south-east-west or heaven and earth, that is true happiness! Don’t educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy. So when they grow up they will know the value of things and not the price. Eat your food as your medicine, otherwise you have to eat medicine as your food.

There is a big difference between a human being and being human. Only a few really understand it. You are loved when you are born. You will be loved when you die. In between, you have to manage! The six best doctors in the world are sunlight, rest, exercise, diet, self-confidence and friends. Maintain them in all stages and enjoy a healthy life.

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Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down — that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

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.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer animated feature film,  Toy Story , and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, 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.

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. 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.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

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. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called  The Whole Earth Catalog , which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: It was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of  The Whole Earth Catalog , and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Home — Essay Samples — Business — Steve Jobs — Steve Jobs: Modern Genius of the Twenty-First Century

Steve Jobs: Modern Genius of The Twenty-first Century

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Published: Jun 13, 2024

Words: 733 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

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Product development: pushing boundaries and setting new standards, customer experience: creating an apple ecosystem, convergence of technology and art: the intersection of functionality and aesthetics.

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