“An apple a day keeps the doctor away”, the age old adage may not prove worthy for Steve Jobs. Co-founder and CEO of Apple computer, known for astounding gadgets like i-Mac, i-Pod and i-Phone is taking medical leave because of his complex health problems.
On January 5, 2009 Steve disclosed that he would be out of action. In his letter to employees of Apple he says: “As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy.” However, Steve will continue as Apple’s CEO during his recovery. The stock price of Apple’s shares dropped by 7.07% and came down to $79.30 following the announcement.
Jobs not even attended the Macworld show on Jan. 6 this year. Macworld is a highly anticipated event by the Apple fans with the showcase of Mac products. Steve Jobs keynote speech in the event has always been a rage among the Apple lovers and most awaited among consumer electronics industry.
Steve Jobs’ life is not less than any bollywood masala movie plot. To borrow a cliche, he is a phoenix, who returned from the ashes.
He co-founded the company Apple in 1970. He gave the best personal computers to the world in the 1980-s. He was fired from his own company in mid of 1980-s. He spent 12 years in replenishing himself with same vigor and enthusiasm. He returned to Apple to save it from collapsing and turned it around into success story. The iMac changed the way we see PC’s, iPod transformed the music and iPhone created ripples in the telephone market.
He was born on Feb. 24, 1955 to an unwed graduate mother. Since, she was unwed; she decided to put him on adoption list. But it was with a condition that the parents should have attended college.
Since, Jobs’ foster mother, Clara never graduated from college and his foster father Paul never graduated from high school, his biological mother refused to give him. She only signed the adoption papers after getting assurance from the Steve’s foster parents that they would send him to the college.
This was the beginning of Steve Jobs’ life!
Seventeen years later he did attend the college. But when he went there, he found the classes very dull and boring. Soon, he dropped out from college. But unlike his parents, continued to attend those classes which he found interesting.
But it all came with a cost. He didn’t have a dorm room, so he slept on the floors of his friend’s room. He used to return the coke bottles for 5 cents to buy food. And walked seven miles on Sunday nights to get one good meal at Hari Krishana temple.
In a convocation ceremony at Stanford University he said to students, “it was all scary, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.”
Later on, with the help of his friend Steve Wozniak he co-founded the Apple computers. On April1, 1976 Apple was born in the garage of his parents. They gave the name “Apple” because they couldn’t find any other interesting name and moreover it was Jobs’ favourite food.
They worked hard and in ten years apple moved to $2 billion company with 4000 employees. They released their finest computer Macintosh in just 9 years. Everything was heading fine.
But one fine day he got fired!
To run an overgrowing company and to maintain the skyrocketing success of Apple, Jobs hired John Sculley, who was the CEO of Pepsico at that time. But soon their vision for the Apple’s future began to take different shapes. After a long tiff Jobs lost the battle and was thrown out of the company.
“At 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months,” said Jobs during commencement address of passing out students at Stanford. He further added, “I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.”
Steve was rejected but not defeated. He still loved what he did. During the next five years he started a company called “NeXT”. He wanted to manufacture computers which would cater only to higher education market. But despite all his efforts, NeXT was a failure. This made Steve depressed and disturbed. It was at his career’s nadir.
However, such calamities were not new for Jobs and he knew how to bounce back. He started yet another company called Pixar Animation Studios, Inc. in 1985. And he also fell in love with Laurene Powell, an MBA student. Pixar went on to make world’s first computer animated feature film called Toy Story. Today Pixar is one of the most successful animated studios in the world.
At the same time Apple came down from market leader position to a struggling company. In this turn around of events, Apple bought NeXT and Steve Jobs was back in Apple computers, the company he founded.
“I am pretty sure none of this would have happened if I had not been fired from Apple. Sometimes life will hit you on a head with a brick, but don’t lose faith,” said Steve Jobs.
In the convocation ceremony at Stanford he urged students to remain “hungry and foolish”. He added, “You got to find what you love. It is true for your work as it is true for your lovers. Your work is going to fill large part of your life. And the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is a great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking and don’t settle.”
Today Steve Jobs is again on a fighting spree. This time around it is with life. 53year old Steve is again challenged by hard times. But coming back with full force is Steve’s habit.
Everyone is expecting Jobs to get fine and return back to his work. Apple is now synonymous of Steve Jobs. Famous International magazine commented on his leave as, “But the real question for Apple is whether the person of Mr Jobs is the glue that holds the talent underneath him together. Apple’s magic is part design, part engineering, part logistics and part vision. Design is the domain of Jonathan Ive, a shy Briton; engineering is split into hardware and software; logistics is run by Mr Cook. And the vision thing belongs entirely to Mr Jobs. Without him, will all the other pieces, and the magic, come unglued?”
The question is, will Jobs make it this time?
