Chip on his shoulder
Expelled from school for being a chronic
troublemaker, Steve always had kind of a chip on
his shoulder. "At some deep level, there was an
insecurity that he had to go out and prove
himself. I think being an orphan drove Steve
in ways that most of us can never understand."
- Dan Kottke, friend
Getting street smart
In High School, while most students were hanging out, Jobs often
attended after-school lectures at Hewlett-Packard. He later worked as
a summer employee there and met Steve Wozniak.
College dropout
He enrolled in Reed College in Portland, but dropped out after one
semester. He joined the Homebrew Computer Club with Wozniak. He
took a job as a technician at Atari, a manufacturer of early video games.
He was saving up money for a spiritual retreat to India.
Streetsmart in India
Jobs backpacked around India in search of philosophical enlightenment
with his friend Dan Kottke, (who later became the first Apple
employee). He came back wearing traditional Indian garb with his head
shaved, apparently enlightened.
$100 bucks a chip
At the age of 19, he returned to Atari to work on the
“Breakout” game. His boss offered $100 for every chip
he could eliminate from the design. Jobs had little
interest in circuit board design so he enlisted his friend
Woz. Much to the amazement of Atari, he reduced
the number of chips by 50, a design so tight that it was
impossible to reproduce on an assembly line.
Beating the System
After hearing about a toy-whistle from a cereal box that made the exact
tone used by AT&T, Jobs and Woz went into business to build “blue
boxes” that allowed free long distance calls.
Who needs a personal computer?
At the onset of the computer age, experts estimated that the world
might someday need several hundred computers total.
Woz’ hobby
When 21-year-old Jobs saw a computer that Woz designed for his own
personal use, he convinced him to go into business. They planned to sell
printed circuit boards, but ended up creating a batch of assembled
computers. They sold their first Apple computer for $666. Four years
later, Apple became a public corporation and Jobs was a millionaire.
Apple’s Pepsi generation
As the company expanded, Jobs hired John Sculley
from Pepsi to run the day-to-day operations. A few
years later, during an industry slump, there was an
internal power struggle and Sculley and the Board of
Directors relieved Jobs of his duties.
Job’s NeXT move
Jobs then started NeXT Computer, which he described as an
“interpersonal” computer, which he believed was the next step after
“personal” computing. He wanted to enable people to collaborate, with
features like an early version of email. They garnered a strong following
among the scientific and academic fields, but due to its high cost, the
product was never able to break into the mainstream. (The original
World Wide Web system was actually created on a NeXT
workstation).
Back to Apple
Meanwhile, Apple nearly went into bankruptcy. The Board brought Jobs
back as CEO. Under Jobs visionary leadership, Apple experienced a
renaissance with the iMac and other new products. In recent years,
Jobs branched out with the introduction of the iPod and iTunes digital
music, which have contributed to a revolution in the music industry, and
now more recently, the iPhone.
Expelled from school for being a chronic
troublemaker, Steve always had kind of a chip on
his shoulder. "At some deep level, there was an
insecurity that he had to go out and prove
himself. I think being an orphan drove Steve
in ways that most of us can never understand."
- Dan Kottke, friend
Getting street smart
In High School, while most students were hanging out, Jobs often
attended after-school lectures at Hewlett-Packard. He later worked as
a summer employee there and met Steve Wozniak.
College dropout
He enrolled in Reed College in Portland, but dropped out after one
semester. He joined the Homebrew Computer Club with Wozniak. He
took a job as a technician at Atari, a manufacturer of early video games.
He was saving up money for a spiritual retreat to India.
Streetsmart in India
Jobs backpacked around India in search of philosophical enlightenment
with his friend Dan Kottke, (who later became the first Apple
employee). He came back wearing traditional Indian garb with his head
shaved, apparently enlightened.
$100 bucks a chip
At the age of 19, he returned to Atari to work on the
“Breakout” game. His boss offered $100 for every chip
he could eliminate from the design. Jobs had little
interest in circuit board design so he enlisted his friend
Woz. Much to the amazement of Atari, he reduced
the number of chips by 50, a design so tight that it was
impossible to reproduce on an assembly line.
Beating the System
After hearing about a toy-whistle from a cereal box that made the exact
tone used by AT&T, Jobs and Woz went into business to build “blue
boxes” that allowed free long distance calls.
Who needs a personal computer?
At the onset of the computer age, experts estimated that the world
might someday need several hundred computers total.
Woz’ hobby
When 21-year-old Jobs saw a computer that Woz designed for his own
personal use, he convinced him to go into business. They planned to sell
printed circuit boards, but ended up creating a batch of assembled
computers. They sold their first Apple computer for $666. Four years
later, Apple became a public corporation and Jobs was a millionaire.
Apple’s Pepsi generation
As the company expanded, Jobs hired John Sculley
from Pepsi to run the day-to-day operations. A few
years later, during an industry slump, there was an
internal power struggle and Sculley and the Board of
Directors relieved Jobs of his duties.
Job’s NeXT move
Jobs then started NeXT Computer, which he described as an
“interpersonal” computer, which he believed was the next step after
“personal” computing. He wanted to enable people to collaborate, with
features like an early version of email. They garnered a strong following
among the scientific and academic fields, but due to its high cost, the
product was never able to break into the mainstream. (The original
World Wide Web system was actually created on a NeXT
workstation).
Back to Apple
Meanwhile, Apple nearly went into bankruptcy. The Board brought Jobs
back as CEO. Under Jobs visionary leadership, Apple experienced a
renaissance with the iMac and other new products. In recent years,
Jobs branched out with the introduction of the iPod and iTunes digital
music, which have contributed to a revolution in the music industry, and
now more recently, the iPhone.
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