IT Guru

Steve Jobs

My business model is The Beatles – they were four guys who respected each other's weaknesses; they balanced each other. Their collective achievement was greater than simply the sum of all the parts. The great thing about business is that it's not built by one person, it's accomplished by a team.

Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco. He was adopted by an Armenian family – Paul and Clara Jobs. Steve's biological parents were from Syria, who had immigrated to the USA and over time became highly respected individuals. Steve had a foster sister Patti as well as a biological sister Mona Simpson.

Jobs attended the local school in Cupertino, California. After school he often attended lectures organised by Hewlett-Packard, held in Palo Alto, where he later also worked during summers. After graduating in 1972, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Oregon, which he left after the first semester, although he continued attending certain lectures, such as calligraphy. He stayed in a friend's room and made ends meet by returning bottles, and at weekends would travel 11 miles to a Hare Krishna restaurant for a proper meal. As he later acknowledged: "If I hadn't stayed on for calligraphy courses at college, the Mac world would never have experienced such a variety of fonts".

In autumn 1974, Jobs returned to California and together with Wozniak (whom he had met at HP lectures) began attending a computer enthusiasts club. He got a job at Atari, which at the time was developing computer games, with the goal of saving up money to go on a pilgrimage to India.

His goal – a journey to India in search of spiritual enlightenment – Steve accomplished together with a friend from Reed College, who later also became the first Apple employee. During the trip Jobs experimented with psychedelic substances, which he later described as an LSD experience and acknowledged it as one of the two or three most important things he had done in his life. In his view, people who don't appreciate his countercultural roots are unable to fully understand his way of thinking.

On 18 March 1991, Jobs married Laurene Powell. During their life together a son and two daughters were born. Jobs also has a daughter from a previous relationship with Lisa Brennan. Incidentally, Steve was a Beatles fan and in one interview, when asked about his business model, acknowledged:

"My business model is The Beatles – they were four guys who respected each other's weaknesses; they balanced each other. Their collective achievement was greater than simply the sum of all the parts. The great thing about business is that it's not built by one person, it's accomplished by a team".

Apple

In 1976, Steve Jobs founded the Apple company, which marked the beginning of Apple's development, attracting well-known marketing people while firmly adhering to a somewhat unusual philosophy. In terms of management style, Steve was aggressive and demanding. As Fortune magazine writes – Jobs can be considered one of the leading egomaniacs in Silicon Valley. Comments about his temperament can be read in Michael Moritz's book "The Little Kingdom", who was one of the few authorised Jobs biographers.

Jobs is listed as author or co-author of 338 US patents, covering a wide spectrum of technologies ranging from actual computers and portable devices to user interfaces (including touch-sensitive ones), speakers, keyboards, power adapters, staircases, clasps, straps, etc.

The Pirates of Silicon Valley

An interesting film made in 1999 [1] - Pirates of Silicon Valley. The film portrays in a somewhat naive manner the development of Microsoft and Apple, when both personalities - Steve Jobs and Bill Gates - were still in the early days of their mega-companies. The mutual relationship between the two personalities is also shown; as time went on, in my opinion, each gained much from the other.