Steve Jobs

Speaker: Chuck Rolando (Standard American accent)

Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computer, Inc., can see into the future. Today he has a vision of a world dominated by the iPod, Apple’s mp3 music player, and iTunes, Apple’s on-line music store. Jobs’ real name is Steven Paul. He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, California in February 1955. The family then moved to Los Altos, California, where Steven attended Homestead High School. His electronics teacher at Homestead High, John McCollum, remembers: “He always had a different way of looking at things.”

Getting Started

After school, Jobs got a summer job at the Hewlett-Packard electronics firm in Palo Alto, California. There he met Stephen Wozniak, an engineering whiz kid with a passion for electronic gadgets. In 1976 Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer. Job’s first vision was of a small, cheap computer for home use: at that time computers were enormous, complicated and cost thousands of dollars. They sold their first 25 units to a local dealer and modern computing began.

The Magic Mouse

But Jobs’ major break came in 1979 when he learned about the graphical interface, the system of icons and navigation bars that users click on with a mouse. Jobs used this in Apple’s new Macintosh computers and the rest is history. Yet Jobs wasn’t always so lucky in his choices. In 1982 he decided the company needed a professional top manager, so he recruited John Sculley from Pepsi Cola. He asked him: "Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life, or do you want to change the world?” Sculley came to Apple and took over the company, but he subsequently forced Jobs to the sidelines.

What Next?

Jobs left and in 1989 he created NeXT, a new company that developed workstations for use in the office. In this period he also founded Pixar, another innovative company making computer-animated cartoons, and had incredible success with the film Toy Story.  Apple bought NeXT in 1996 and asked Jobs to return. Once more he had control of the company and introduced the iMac. This was the first “beautiful” computer, as Apple now concentrated on design and their brand name. Jobs’ official annual salary is $1.00 but, thanks to his share options, it is really worth about $74 million a year.