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ShareFew real-life success stories are as dramatic as that of Steve Jobs. Thrown out of his own company, two near-death medical experiences, reacquiring Apple, followed by a dream-like business turnaround by creating the world's most creative application-driven company, it is little wonder that he has been declared the CEO of the Decade by Fortune magazine.
In his commencement address at Stanford University, Jobs admitted to being a school dropout. He grew up in an adopted family and believes that he dropped out of school because his biological mother, who was an unwed college student, never completed her studies. He believes that past events shape our present and future. He was put up for adoption by his mother who had no means to support him.
This CEO of the Decade slept on the floor of his friends' rooms since he had no dorm room of his own, would collect and return empty Coca-Cola bottles to get five cents that could buy him some food, and would walk seven miles every Sunday to a Hare Krishna temple that served food for the poor and homeless, so that he could eat a full meal at least once a week.
At Reed College, he was unable to take regular courses since he was a school dropout and therefore ended up studying calligraphy. He believes that these calligraphy classes helped him while he was designing the Macintosh computer, which created a niche market because of its supremacy in designing and graphics tools. The Mac is a graphic designer's dream machine.
When he was fired from Apple, he created a company called Pixar, which heralded the era of animation filming in Hollywood. Pixar produced the world's first computer-animated film, Toy Story, which was a runaway hit. Like all his creations, Jobs is futuristic in his vision and creates trends that are later followed all over the world. Pixar opened up possibilities for computer animation, which gave audiences films such as The Lion King, Ice Age, Shrek, etc. Pixar's Finding Nemo, a top grosser, helped the company merge with Walt Disney Productions.
A cancer patient with a rare malignant tumour in his pancreas, Jobs underwent a series of surgeries. A couple of years later, he underwent more surgery for a liver transplant. The Apple stock prices, sensitive to its founder's health, crashed following speculation and rumour of a heart attack.
Defying these challenges, and despite the odds against his health, Jobs' reacquiring and reviving of Apple is the most unmatched turnaround stories that the contemporary business scenario has witnessed. Today, with 275 retail stores across nine countries, with the iPod enjoying a 73 per cent market share in the mp3 segment, the undisputed leadership position of the iPhone when it comes to innovation in the phone segment, Jobs blazes the path with his groundbreaking products.
A worldwide celebrity, his name conjures up images of a fighter, a hero and an intelligent business giant. No man has held the creativity and innovation forte as strongly as he. His strong understand of the market pulse and his ability to translate that understanding into technological products talk of his mastery. Everything he has touched, he has turned to gold: films, telecommunications, music and computing. While the world awaits his next brilliant product, Jobs himself has become an icon whose life is made up of situations that business schools will write case studies on.
(The writer is an entrepreneur and educationist. Views are personal.)
