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"Bob Dylan and Picasso have always taken risks".
"Being creative means uniquely recombining things that already exist".
"I want to leave a mark in the Universe".
S.J.
The world is divided between PC enthusiasts and Mac worshippers. Two styles, two ways of being, two worlds incompatible and vastly different from each other.
Deus ex machina of the "Mac World" who first decreed the idea of "a computer in every home" is Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs took computers out of the niche of products intended for calculation and corporate diagramming and normalized the use of computers for home and leisure, which may sound laughable today but was not even plausible as an idea at the end of the 70s.
Steve, at 20 years and a little more (it was 1976), together with Steve Wozniak, the true genius of DIY computers, founded Apple Computer Inc. in his parents' garage and assembled the first Macs with the help of other youngsters barely in their twenties.
In 1980, Apple went public, and the two boys immediately became millionaires. By 1983, Apple was among the first 500 TOP American companies, ranking at 411th.
Steve stated: "At the age of 23, I was worth more than 1 million dollars, at 24 more than 10 million, and at 25 over 100. But I didn't care because I never worked for money".
By 1985, Apple was already an empire, and Jobs, with a shrewd move by the board of directors, was ousted from the company and compensated with other substantial millions.
For many, the story could have ended here: a life of luxury without more worries.
But instead, this character did not want to surrender.
In the same year, he acquired from George Lucas a "small computer-animation company" called PIXAR and propelled it within less than 5 years to the fame we all recognize today (in 2006, Walt Disney purchased Pixar for the modest sum of 7.6 billion dollars!).
After that, not satisfied and secretly harboring revenge, in 1996 Jobs returned to lead Apple (which in the meantime had plummeted in stock market valuations!) and straightened it in less than 10 years, making it what we all know today.
People say all sorts of things about Jobs: that he's a tyrant, obsessed with design, a manic perfectionist, a matchless snake oil salesman, a workaholic madman, someone who surrounds himself with a few trusted individuals and treats others with disdain, an excellent communicator, one who has overturned every entrepreneurial scheme.
In this book by Leander Kahney (published by Sperling & Kupfer, 254 pages at 16.5 €), the essence of the Jobs character is encapsulated, his life choices, and the truly record-breaking professional journey of this man who never missed a beat: from the Macintosh to Pixar, from the iPod to the iPhone, revolutionizing (for better or worse) the habits and customs of our society.
An engaging book, although at times too idolizing, it clearly outlines the flair and genius of a man who shamelessly declared "People don’t know what they want: I do, just show them".
PS: ...for those who haven’t realized, I use a Mac :-)
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