Steve Jobs

He spent his early school years dreaming up pranks and he couldn’t make it through the fourth grade without bribing from his teacher. He dropped out of college after just six months and was ousted from the company that he co-founded. But Steve Jobs went on to build an empire that revolutionized the world.

This is his story.

The early years

Born on Feb. 24, 1955, to his biological parents Joanne Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali, Jobs was soon adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs and named Steven Paul Jobs. The Jobs family lived in Mountain View, Calif., part of an area that later would become known as Silicon Valley.

A brilliant child with a creative mind, Jobs was easily bored in school. His extraordinary performance on exams prompted the school administrators to suggest he skip a grade, but his parents rejected the idea.

The young Jobs was fascinated by electronics. His father, a machinist by trade, often would invite Jobs to work with him on electronics in the family garage. Under Paul Jobs’ tutelage, the small boy learned how to take machines apart and then reconstruct them, a hobby that filled him with confidence and proficiency with electronics.

Jobs was introduced to his future business partner, Steve Wozniak, while attending Homestead High School. The two bonded instantly over common interests and, in Wozniak’s words, “an independent attitude about things in the world.” They kept up steady contact until Apple’s official launch several years later.

He spent his early school years dreaming up pranks and he couldn’t make it through the fourth grade without bribing from his teacher. He dropped out of college after just six months and was ousted from the company that he co-founded. But Steve Jobs went on to build an empire that revolutionized the world.

This is his story.

The early years

Born on Feb. 24, 1955, to his biological parents Joanne Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali, Jobs was soon adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs and named Steven Paul Jobs. The Jobs family lived in Mountain View, Calif., part of an area that later would become known as Silicon Valley.

A brilliant child with a creative mind, Jobs was easily bored in school. His extraordinary performance on exams prompted the school administrators to suggest he skip a grade, but his parents rejected the idea.

The young Jobs was fascinated by electronics. His father, a machinist by trade, often would invite Jobs to work with him on electronics in the family garage. Under Paul Jobs’ tutelage, the small boy learned how to take machines apart and then reconstruct them, a hobby that filled him with confidence and proficiency with electronics.

Jobs was introduced to his future business partner, Steve Wozniak, while attending Homestead High School. The two bonded instantly over common interests and, in Wozniak’s words, “an independent attitude about things in the world.” They kept up steady contact until Apple’s official launch several years later.

After graduating from high school, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Ore., but dropped out after six months. For the next year and a half, he drifted aimlessly, taking the occasional creative class at Reed. After a short 1974 stint as a video game designer for Atari, he flew off to India on a quest for spiritual fulfillment that ended in experimentation with psychedelic drugs.

Launching Apple

In 1976, at 21 years old, Jobs was ready to make his mark in the world of technology. His singular goal: “To put computers in the hands of everyday people.”

Together with Wozniak, Jobs launched Apple Computer, a small corporation based out of the Jobs’ family garage. Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak traded in his beloved scientific calculator to help fund the venture. They were ready to do anything to make it happen.

The pair pooled their smarts and skills to create computers that were small, cheap and accessible to the common consumer. With Jobs in charge of marketing and Wozniak working on production, the Apple I was rolled out, retailing at $666.66. The personal computer earned the young corporation $774K. The Apple II followed soon after, increasing the company’s sales by 700 percent in just three years to a staggering $139 million.

Apple Computer became a publicly traded company in 1980, with a market value of $1.2 billion by the end of its first day of trading. When the company reached this milestone, Jobs asked marketing expert John Sculley of Pepsi-Cola to take over the role of CEO for Apple.

The company was riding a high wave of success when it hit a sudden dip. The next few products Apple launched had considerable design flaws, leading to many recalls and growing consumer disappointment. IBM soon surpassed Apple in sales and the company struggled to reclaim its footing.

In 1984, Apple released the Macintosh, marketing the desktop computer as youthful and creative. The Macintosh sold well, but still could not compete with IBM’s PCs.

Sculley believed Jobs was hurting the company and urged Apple’s executives to subtly push him out. Jobs was given a more marginalized position, which triggered his departure from the company in 1985.

NeXT and Pixar

After leaving Apple, Jobs launched a hardware and software enterprise called NeXT, Inc. The tech company created a specialized operating system, but the everyday consumer wasn’t enamored by the product.

While working on the development of computer-generated graphics for animated movies, Jobs, in 1986, took interest in Lucasfilm, Ltd. He acquired the company and turned it into Pixar. The company dabbled in several small projects with varying degrees of success until the release of the hit movie Toy Story in 1995. Jobs was named executive producer of the film. Pixar thrived under his leadership, becoming one of the most successful animated movie studios of all time, producing titles like Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. The company merged with Walt Disney in 2006, making Jobs Disney’s largest shareholder.

Apple purchased NeXT in 1996 for $429 million and asked Jobs to return to a leadership position in Apple. Jobs agreed, assuming the role of interim CEO from 1997 to 2000, and then becoming permanent CEO until his eventual resignation in August of 2011.

Reinventing Apple

When Jobs accepted the role of CEO at Apple, he quickly put together a new management team, modified the stock options and started rolling out a line of innovative products.

The first product launched under Jobs’ reinstated leadership was the iMac. The personal computer didn’t offer improved performance or functionality over any competing product, but it looked fantastic and a bit different from the norm. Consumers were hooked. More than 800,000 iMacs were sold within five months.

From there, Jobs went on to build an empire. Branding Apple as a company that only did several things and did them extraordinarily well, he rolled out ground-breaking products like the iPod in 2001 and the iPhone in 2007. Apple products revolutionized the world, creating a dynamic shift in technological demands and in the way we interact with people on a daily basis.

Jobs’ true genius was his marketing. He played the public like a fiddle. Before the release of any product, he’d drop subtle hints about its release to the press, providing just enough details to whet their appetite without revealing anything concrete. He’d also purposely and consistently leave a gap between a new product’s anticipated demand and its supply, creating a frantic rush toward its purchase. Finally, he charged a premium for every Apple device.Through his brilliant marketing and branding, Apple products became status symbols and the company acquired a cult-like following.

Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, but continued serving in his capacity as CEO until his resignation on Aug. 24, 2011. He died just a few months later, on Oct. 5.

Steve Jobs was a legend whose imprint on the world will be felt for years to come.