August 24th this year marked a grave milestone in Apple, Inc. Steve Jobs, founder and CEO of the company stepped down and relegated his position to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook.
Jobs started Apple with Steve Wozniak in his garage in the late 1970s. He’s come a long way. Now he is the 42nd richest American worth billions of dollars.
Many people have criticized Jobs for his management style. Some say that he is an egomaniac, temperamental and difficult to please. Looking at his company, it is easy to overlook these character flaws and applaud him for his accomplishments.
What is it about Jobs that has made him so charismatic to the public? Aside from his perfectly orchestrated key note speeches and his internationally coveted products, his counter-cultural roots have aroused curiosity.
Steven Paul Jobs was born in the 1950s and was adopted because his biological parents were still studying and were not ready to take on the responsibility of raising a child. One of the things his biological parents asked of his adoptive parents was to make sure he went to college. Jobs went to Reed College but dropped out after one semester. He began dropping in on the subjects he was interested in, noting a calligraphy class that led to the installment of multiple typefaces in personal computers.
After that, he briefly worked for Atari, a video game manufacturer to save enough money so he could travel to India. When he came back from his trip, he had a shaved head and was converted to Buddhism. He also experimented with psychedelic drugs, particularly Acid which he claims as one of three important things he did in his life.
He also had a relationship with musician Joan Baez, a woman 14 years his senior. A close friend of Jobs at Reed College claims Jobs only dated Baez because she was Bob Dylan’s ex-lover.
With these facts about Jobs, it’s easier to understand the enigma enshrouding his persona. He has the ability to see far beyond everyone else in the business precisely because of his adventurous streak leading to an expanded mindset.
Named CEO of the decade by Fortune magazine in 2009, we can learn a lot from how he has lived. His main point is to continually experiment and innovate—to be one step ahead of everyone else. The key is to not look at the competition or the market demand—the key is to create something that’s never existed or never been conceptualized before.
