I just finished this very timely authorized biography. Timely because it was published on October 24th, 2011 and Steve Jobs died on October 5th, 2011. This was possible because Jobs himself had enlisted Walter Isaacson to write his biography several years earlier when he came to accept that the odds were against his beating his pancreatic cancer, which had first been diagnosed in 2003.
I love this image I found on Amazon because I do think this biography unlocks, to the greatest degree possible, our understanding of Steve Jobs. The author tells us in the closing chapters that when he asked Jobs why Jobs wanted him to write his biography, and agreed to do so without any editorial control, Jobs responded that if he didn’t, his children would only have the viewpoint of others by which to know his whole story. Job’s wife, Laurene Powell, also instructed Isaacson not to hold back anything, to write the stories as he found them.
For those of us who grew up in the age of Steve Jobs (and I think that includes everyone from baby boomers to millennials), this is an amazing biography. On the one end of that time continuum the baby boomers remember the Mac in 1984 and how amazing it was at the time. At the other end we all marvel at the iPod, the iPhone and iPad, as well as iTunes and the App Stores for all those devices. There are but a handful of executives who can claim to have built enduring companies – Jobs named only HP and Intel besides Apple. There are even fewer inventors who have changed multiple industries – computers, movie animation, music, phones, and publishing are the ones Steve overhauled/mauled while he was putting a dent in the universe.
I joined the Cult of Mac about a year ago when my extreme satisfaction with my 2nd iPhone led me to replace my desktop PC with an iMac (Just as Jobs knew it would). For me, Steve Jobs and Apple represent one of the finest examples of the best advice anyone can give to anyone starting or running a company – FOCUS.
I could not have tolerated his management style, but Isaacson tells us that hundreds of people who did rued the bad Steve but stood in awe of the good Steve and what he was able to get others to accomplish, inside and outside of Apple.
Kudos to Mr. Isaacson for this book. You can get a copy here.
I’d love to hear comments from all of you who have read it, particularly any of you who knew him, met him, or have been touched by him indirectly. I spent 10 years at Sun and during that time, Jobs, along with his close friend and board member, Larry Ellison of Oracle, were allies with Scott McNealy and Sun in the legendary battles with Wintel (Windows and Intel) over open vs closed or as Jobs liked to frame it, Integrated vs Fragmented.
Graphic Credit: Amazon & GMCuratolo
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent post, Ed. I am 3/4 of the way through this book and am finding it difficult to put it down. It is outstanding. Having spent much of my career in senior management in the graphic communications and printing arena, I lived the products and changes that Steve and Apple produced. I had the privilege of seeing Steve do his iconic product demonstrations/keynotes at major conferences three times, and will never forget them. From the launch of the Think Different ad to a glitch in a software demo (I got the see “the stare” at a team member who had the misfortune to be on stage with Steve at that moment), those 3 mornings are burned into my being. While I still use a PC, I LOVE my iPhone!
You have got to try an iMac instead of your desktop PC Janet. You’ll love it as well
Terrific read – all the way through!