Rest In Paradise Steve Jobs : 1955-2011.
According to Apple, the company's founder and former CEO Steve Jobs has passed away today October 5th, 2011 - he was only 56 years old. Known for his "passion and genius and brilliance", Steve Jobs will go down in history as one of the greatest American innovators of the 21st century. Today the world has lost yet another hero that was described as a visionary, a game-changer, and was called the "Edison" of our time.
Today we remember and honor all of his accomplishments and innovations for the American society and for the whole world that enriched and improved our lives and taught us the meaning of the word "convenient".
Early Life
Born Steven Paul Simpson in San Francisco, California on February 24th,1955 to Joanne Simpson, then a graduate student, and to Abdulfattah Jandali, a student from Syria. While Simpson and Jandali were unmarried at that time and eventually gave up Steve up for adoption, they did get married a few years later and give birth to his biological sister Mona Simpson. Steve was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs, a working class couple that gave Steve his early interest in electronics. Steve saw his first computer terminal at NASA's Ames Research Center when he was about 11 years old, and he actually landed a summer job at Hewlett-Packard before he completed High School.
After graduating from High School, Jobs enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Oregon, in 1972, but dropped out just after 6 months. In 1974, he went back to California to work for a popular gaming company called Atari and attended regular meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with Steve Wozniak, his old friend from High School.
The Birth of Apple Computer Inc.
In 1976, young innovators Steve Jobs (then 21 years old) and Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer Inc. out of Jobs' parents' garage. Some of their early creations included Apple I in 1976, Apple II in 1977, Lisa in 1983, and the Macintosh (Mac) in 1984. However, in 1985, conflicts with colleagues and even with the CEO, John Sculley, in addition to plummeting of Mac sales and of Apple’s stock, he resigned his post as chairman of the board and left the company altogether in a few months.
Jobs then bought Pixar from famous Director George Lucas for $10 Million, and oversaw its success for the following movies; “Toy Story,” “A Bug's Life,” & “Toy Story 2."
Toy Story, which came out in 1995, was the first computer animated feature in movie history. In 2006, he sold Pixar to Disney for $7.4 billion in stock, making him Disney's largest shareholder.
In 2000,despite Apple’s financial troubles, Steve Jobs took full control of the company and took it into a whole new direction.
Introducing the iPod, iPhone, iPad
In 2003 before the iPod was introduced to the public, people never thought that they would see a simple gadget in their lifetime that could carry over 1,000 songs to be available wherever you go. Sales would go up every time the iPod gets thinner and sleeker with every new generation that Apple releases. The iPod gave Apple the worldwide attention they needed, which increased even more in 2007.
In 2007, Steve Jobs and Apple introduced the first generation iPhone to his faithful followers, who camped out on the spot in line just to see the iPhone. This device made headlines as one of the most used gadgets of the decade, because of its internet capability along with the thousands of applications it has.
Three years later, in 2010, Jobs introduces the iPad - a lightweight touch screen tablet which had people piling up at Apple stores all across the world to get one.
Sickness and Resignation
Steve Jobs was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer in 2003, and received a liver transplant in 2009. Because of his health issues, he took two different sick leaves from then until he resigned his post as CEO in August 2011.
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 people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
- Steve Jobs 1955-2011
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