Steve Jobs Biography: A Book Review

The Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson is the #1 nonfiction book on the NY Times bestseller list. As an engineer, I held a special curiosity about Jobs, so I read the book recently and it held my interest throughout the 656 pages! Why so many pages? Steve Jobs was an unusual combination of traits and passions that made him a leader in a number of diverse industries. He also felt pressured by an early premonition that he would die young, so he drove himself and his development teams to produce at a high rate. This book is the result of interviews with a large number of friends, family, co-workers, and other tech giants (like Bill Gates) who all relate their experiences with Jobs -- the good, bad, and the ugly.

Jobs was an orphan who in turn abandoned his first child during her first ten years. He later named an important computer at Apple after her (Lisa) and then abandoned that project, too. He later looked up his birth mother and found his younger sister, but was never interested in meeting his father. He followed a Zen Buddhist philosophy of life and ate mostly vegan with some bizarre "cleansing" diets. He was such a perfectionist that he had difficulty choosing furniture for his homes, and his "bachelor pad" remained mostly unfurnished until after he was married. He was sensitive to others' feelings, but used this understanding to either build up and inspire them to do things they thought impossible or tear them down when he wasn't pleased or interested in them.

Although Jobs is best known as the co-founder and recent CEO of Apple, he owes most of his wealth to his investment in the Lucas-spinoff Pixar, which he sold to Disney and became Disney's largest stockholder, with 7 times the holdings of Roy Disney! This is somewhat fitting, since Steve was more of an artist than a real technical person. He learned enough of technology to know what was possible, but his strength at Apple was more in the role of a "personal shopper" who decided for all the potential customers what the user experience would be. He assembled teams of very creative people and gave them a clear vision of what they should create, based on their mutual passion for the product.

He had a clear focus on what products Apple should and should not be making, which brought them back from the brink of bankruptcy when he rejoined the company in 1997 as interim CEO, working for $1 a year. When he was forced out of Apple in 1985, he sold all but 1 share of Apple stock. He then invested in NeXT, which Apple bought in 1996, and later Pixar, which Disney bought in 2006. So, he managed both Pixar and Apple for almost a decade, which took a great toll on his family life and his health.

Steve has made his impact on a number of industries: music (iTunes), animated movies (Pixar), computers (Macs), cell phones (iPhone), tablets (iPad), and network storage (iCloud). He also re-invented what a company store and new product introductions could look like. He exuded a sense of style and integrity previously unknown in the technical arena. His lifelong desire was to make Apple a company that continued to create innovative, "insanely great" products long after he was gone. Although I have never purchased an Apple product, Apple's impact on consumer electronics is such that I know we will all be better off if he succeeded!