Modern Day Hero Steve Jobs: I Came, I Saw, I CEO

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.” – Steve Jobs

With the fast-paced innovations of technology in this millennium, it opened its doors to several new business ideas. For the past few decades, we have heard and read stories about several startup businesses founded by young individuals who are already wizards in their own right. We regard them as modern day heroes who helped shaped the world to what we now see it is today. One of these guys is Steve Jobs. His name is already synonymous with charisma and inspiration.

He was the Chairman, CEO and co-founder of Apple Inc. which is a leading manufacturer of electronic devices such as the Macintosh Computer (MAC), iPod, iPhone, and the music and video software called iTunes. Jobs is regarded by many as an intense creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries. These include the personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. Known as a business and sales wizard, he is credited with many of the electronic inventions now patented by Apple. He was also the CEO of Pixar Animation Studios until it was acquired by Disney in 2006.

He was born Steven Paul Jobs in San Francisco to Joanne Carole Schieble and Syrian Abdulfattah John Jandali but he was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. He attended the Cupertino Middle School followed by high school at Homestead H.S. in the same town of Cupertino. He spent his childhood in the South Bay area, which would later known as Silicon Valley. During high school, he held a summer job at Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto. While attending lectures and working at HP, he met Steven Wozniak whom he later co-founded Apple.

Just like any other dot com billionaires, Steve Jobs dropout from college. He attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, for about six months. When he returned to California in 1974, he began attending meetings at the Homebrew Computer Club with his friend Wozniak. At that time, he took a job at Atari and discovered that a popular whistle can emulate the tones needed to make long distance phone calls with AT&T. That idea sparked him to convinced Wozniak to go into business with him to create “blue boxes,” a device to make free long distance phone calls.

Later, he continued to work with Wozniak on other projects and one of those is a computer that Wozniak had built for himself. On April 1, 1976, they founded Apple Inc., which started with printed circuit boards. Their first personal computer is called the Apple I and sold it for $666.66. It was followed with the Apple II, which is a large success for their business and they began selling shares in December of 1980.

In 1984, they introduced the Macintosh which was later became a huge success. It is the first personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI) in which individuals could interact with the items on the screen. As Apple grew even more, Jobs experienced tension with the board that led him to leave Apple in May of 1985.

In 1986, Steve Jobs went on to found the company called NeXT, a company designed around aesthetic interpersonal computing. It later focused more on software development. The said company has a major role in the development of email and the world wide web. In 1996, Apple acquired NeXT, reinstating Jobs as the Chief Executive Officer.

Jobs is remembered by many for his work ethic. Such characteristic has helped developed Apple to a very successful company that it is today. Jobs also help the company avoid bankruptcy in the 1990s. He is also instrumental in the establishment of the new electronic divisions as well as the creation of the iPod, iPhone, and other personal devices. On the October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs died after complications with pancreatic cancer.