Steve Job Dies at 56 – Living On Are His Creative Ideas Words Projects and Products
For those who love Apple and Macintosh computers, iTunes, iPhones, iPods, iPads, Pixar-Disney cartoon-animation movies, NeXT, Steve Jobs is the creator, originator, inventor and the genius who did so much so well.
Steve Jobs, Former CEO Apple Computer, Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Matt Yohe
Steve Jobs Ten Things to Know About His Life
- He was born Feb. 24, 1955 in San Francisco. His mother was an unwed graduate student and his father never graduated from highschool. His birth mom placed him for adoption with college graduates, but at the birth a lawyer and his wife, who both wanted a girl, turned down the adoption of a boy. Next in the adoption line was a couple who were not college graduates. They were simple working people and he was adopted immediately by Paul and Clara Jobs who promised the birth mom at the signing of the final adoption papers to provide Steve with a college education.
- Steve Paul Jobs graduated from a Cupertino, California highschool and was admitted to Reed College in Portand, Oregon. He began some classes at Reed College, lost interest and only dropped in on a few classes that interested him, especially one in calligraphy that served him well at Apple. Jobs worked at Hewlett-Packard as a summer student with Steve Wozniak who would team up later to develop the Macintosh computer as they worked together in a simple garage.
- Steve served as CEO at Apple until 1985 and at the age of 30, he departed in disagreement with the very company he founded. Almost immediatey, Jobs picked up Pixar Animation studios in 1985 as a spin-off company from Lucasfilms. Jobs became the Chairman and CEO of Pixar and also during this time he started and developed NeXT.
- Pixar and Disney Co. began a series of superior cartoon computer animations that included "Toy Story" and unfolded into imaginative, excellent and award-winning other cartoon computer animations including "A Bug's Life", "The Incredibles" and more unique and extraordinary creations.
- Also in the same year as the Pixar acquisition (1985), Steve Jobs began the development of NeXT which was a computer platform development company for education and business.
- In 1996, a mere 11 years after Steve Jobs initiated NeXT, Apple bought the company from Jobs and in 1997 brought him back into Apple as CEO.
- In 2006 Disney Company purchased Pixar and exchanged Disney shares to Steve Jobs for value received.
- Steve Jobs had over 300 U.S. patents and patent applications which are part of the testament to his creative genius.
- Steve Jobs was precise, focused, imaginative, creative, innovative and in many ways fearless. He stated in his Stanford graduation address in 2005 to the thousands that "death is one of life's best inventions" because it motivates and drives us to use each day well (see link in sources below). This expressed graduation thought was Jobs' memory of the 2004 diagnosis of his unique form of pancreatic cancer which was treated by surgery. A few years later he also underwent surgery for a liver transplant.
- As a manager, CEO, President Steve jobs was a motivator and organizer who found and hired intelligent and creative people who could make and keep his companies at the cutting edge of technology and innovation and produce products that were easy to use and easy to like. That is a talent that served him and the world so well.
This is a creative segment put to a mantra "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" of the Steve Jobs Stanford University commencement speech. The 2005 speech lasted about 15 minutes and is shown and linked below. Here are important, simple and deep Steve Jobs quotes from the Stanford mantra and speech to help you think and live well, now and always:
- "Stay hungry, Stay foolish and I have always wished that for myself and I wish that for you too." That "Stay hungry, Stay foolish phrase was captured in the 1970s from Stewart Brand's edition, back page of the "Whole Earth Catalogue" which showed a country road leading off into the distance. Steve Jobs admired Stewart Brand's catalogue as a pre-personal computer project that was imaginative, comprehensive and involved immense energy and work.
- "It was impossible to connect all the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards... You have to somehow trust that the dots will connect in the future. You have to trust in something... believing the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart"
- "If you live each day as if it were your last, some day you will be certainly right... 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 is No too many days in a row, change something... all pride, all fear of embarrassment, these things all fall away in the face death... your time is limited don't waste it living someone else's life."
- "Keep looking, don't settle... Don't lose faith."
- "Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick... don't lose faith."
- "You know what kept me going? I loved what I did... You've got to find what you love...As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And as with all great relationships, it gets better and better as the years roll on... so, keep looking, don't settle."
Steve Wozniak on Fox News October 2011 acknowledged the greatness and wonder of Jobs and said the death of Jobs was a big personal loss and hurt for his friend and co-founder of the personal computer.
Sources
2010 Mossberg Interview of Steve Jobs Part 5
2010 Mossberg Interview of Steve Jobs Part 6
2010 Mossberg Interview of Steve Jobs Part 7
2010 Mossberg Interview and Audience Questions of Steve Jobs Part 8
Steve Jobs Stanford University Commencement Address 2005
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