Success Stories

Steve Jobs

Do you own an Ipod or an Apple Macintosh? The man responsible for making the Apple brand all dominating in the music market is Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers. But it could so easily not have been that way.

He co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak and helped to popularise the concept of the home computer with the Apple II. The company grew rapidly and in 1984 launched the first Macintosh computer. Jobs was deeply passionate about Apple and took every opportunity to promote and sing the praises of its products. Behind the scenes there were claims that he had an erratic management style and was hard to work with.

1985 saw a massive internal power struggle within Apple. In 1983 Jobs had lured John Sculley, a former Pepsi executive to be Apple’s CEO. Two years later they wanted to drive the company in very different directions and eventually the very man Jobs had bought in to drive the company forward pushed him out of his job.

Steve Jobs was stripped of his duties by the board of directors and he resigned from Apple. Jobs set up another company NeXT, which was technologically advanced but lacked commercial viability.

However, in 1996 Apple purchased NeXT, bringing Jobs back to the very company he had founded. While at NeXT he had been developing systems with UNIX which at the time were seen as overly ambitious. In fact they turned out to be the perfect basis for a stable operating system. Apple acquired the software along with Jobs and their expansion began once more.

In 1997 Jobs became the interim CEO with an annual salary of just $1. In 2001 he became the official CEO of Apple. Interestingly his official salary is still $1 but it is hardly relevant when your reported tips include 30 million shares of restricted stock in 2000-2002 and a $90 million jet plane. Jobs is also the co-founder of Pixar, known for massively grossing box office hits such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo. 

“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.” 

Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005. 

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