Steve Jobs

           “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower” something American entrepreneur, inventor, chairman, cofounder, and CEO of Apple.Inc, Steve Jobs, once said. I am going to share with you his past, his interests in technology before apple, his contributions to apple, his death, and his legacy.

Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco. His biological parents put Steve up for adoption when he was a baby. Steve was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs who also later adopted a baby girl named Patti. Steve was a child that didn’t care about anything including school. Until grade 4, when his teacher would bribe him with candy and 5 dollar bills to encourage him to try harder in school. Like any other child would, Steve quickly began paying attention and trying harder. As a result, his grades were so good he skipped grade 5 and went straight to grade 6. Steve attended Crittenden Middle School. That school was in a poor area where there was lots of bullying. Steve Jobs was bullied so much that he decided he wasn’t going to school anymore. His parents were very mad so they picked up the family and moved to Los Altos. Steve then attended Homestead High where his life began to change. There is no doubt that Steve’s past had a strong influence on his future.

Steve’s interest in technology began way before apple was even an idea. When Steve was a teenager, in the summer, he got his dream job at Hewlett Packard computer company. After that, Steve took a popular electronics class at Homestead High where he met his best friend Stephan Wozniak also known as Woz. They became best friends because of their common interest in technology. Together, they both became very interested in blue boxes which were small boxes that would interfere with AT&T’s long distance equipment, allowing people to make free phone calls. Steve and Woz tried making them and were successful so they started selling them until they almost got by the police. In 1974, Steve got a job at the first video game company Atari. He looked up to the founder Nolan Bushnell who was a big inspiration to him. Steve’s passion for technology and knowing and understanding how things worked started at a young age way before Apple.

Apple started out as a small company made by two guys and it grew into something monumental. Steve and Woz were fascinated by the computer called Altair. They wanted to try and build their own and ended up building a very powerful computer and started selling them. When they were trying to come up with a name for their company. Steve said if they couldn’t come up with a name they could simply call it apple. And guess what? They couldn’t come up with anything better and that was when Apple was born. Apples first order was from a computer club member who ordered 50 computers. Steve and Woz ,made $25,000 off the first order of Apple I but only got to keep 33% of it. They then built the Apple II which was faster, and the first computer that was user friendly. Apples sales drastically increased between 1978-1980. After the Apple II came out, Steve went out looking for investors. He met an entrepreneur named Mike Markkula. He believed in the company and said to them “We’re going to be a fortune 500 company in two years. This is the start of an industry.” Mike made a plan to invest $250,000 of his own money to make 1000 computers. At this point Woz was working at HP and because of this, legally, all of Apples ideas belonged to HP. Steve asked him to quit but he refused and they got into a huge fight. One of many. Finally, Woz agreed to quit because he knew it was best for the future of Apple. The Apple II sold over 300 machines which was more then the Apple I did. Many people said the Apple II was the start of a new computer revolution in the 1980’s. Even though there were other models of computers, Apple still rose to the top. Steve wanted to make his mark in Apple considering Woz was the one to build the Apple II. Steve built the Macintosh computer and was very happy about it. At first, the Mac didn’t sell very well but then it started selling only a bit. For a while, Apples sales dropped, During this, Steve had a child named Lisa, got married, and had another child named Reed. If we skip a little into the future, when Apple came out with iTunes, it was huge for everyone because it was the first website where you could legally download music. ITunes revolutionized how people get their music today. After many different versions of iMacs came out, Steve Jobs released the iPhone in 2007. This was also huge for Apple. To this day, you can buy many Apple products such as iMacs, iPhones, iPods, Apple TV’s, Ipads, and Apples newest creation the iPad mini. As you can see, Apple is a huge part of technology now.

As some of you already know, on October 5th, at 3pm 2011, we lost a genius. Steve Jobs. He passed away at 56 years old from pancreatic cancer, a tumor, and respiratory arrest. Steve was first diagnosed with cancer in 2003. Steve refused to take treatment such as chemo therapy. He thought he could cure himself by drinking special juice. Steve said “I didn’t want my body to be opened… I didn’t want to be violated in that way.” His friends and family encouraged him to have surgery, but he refused. Finally, when his cancer got really bad, he regretted not having surgery but it was too late. That’s when we lost not only a man, but a genius.

Lastly, I am going to talk to you about his legacy. Steve Jobs does something some people like to call living after you die. Steve Jobs made a huge mark on the world and will always be remembered for it. 2 years after his death, people are still posting comments on Apples website expressing their thanks for all he has created. If Steve hadn’t been a creative genius like he was, technology would be 5 years behind what it is today. You can only imagine what kinds of technology would be around if Steve was still with us.

As you can see, Steve Jobs was very important to society and helped advance technology. Steve Jobs once said “Your time is limited so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma- which is living with the results of other peoples thinking. Don’t let the noise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. Steve Jobs followed his heart and made one of the biggest companies out today. That is inspirational and shows that you have to believe in what you do and live the life you have always envisioned for yourself.