Authorized biography of Steve Jobs has come out in the market. The author of this book is Walter Isaacson who conducted about 40 interviews with Apple co-founder. Here are some excerpts from the book:
“If I had a spiritual partner at Apple, it’s Jony,” Jobs is quoted as saying. “Jony and I think up most of the products together and then pull others in and say, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?”‘ –Jobs about Apple’s senior vice-president of industrial design Jonathan “Jony” Ive
“I really didn’t want them to open up my body, so I tried to see if a few other things would work,” he told me years later with a hint of regret. –Isaacson, quoting Jobs, writes in the book about Jobs delaying the treatment for cancer in favour of alternative methods from a vegan diet to acupuncture and even visited a psychic before deciding to have surgery in July 2004.
“Bill is basically unimaginative and has never invented anything, which is why I think he’s more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology. He just shamelessly ripped off other people’s ideas,” –Job about Bill Gates
Biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.
“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong …. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this,” Jobs said after HTC released an Android phone in early 2010. “I don’t want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won’t want it. I’ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.”
“You’re headed for a one-term presidency,” Jobs told U.S. President Barack Obama when they met in 2010.
“Hewlett and Packard built a great company, and they thought they had left it in good hands. But now it’s being dismembered and destroyed, I hope I’ve left a stronger legacy so that will never happen at Apple.” –Jobs about HP
“I wanted my kids to know me, I wasn’t always there for them and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.” –Jobs said in his final interview with Isaacson
“We all have a short period of time on this earth,” Jobs said. “We probably only have the opportunity to do a few things really great and do them well. None of us has any idea how long we’re gong to be here nor do I, but my feeling is I’ve got to accomplish a lot of these things while I’m young.”
Steve Jobs mostly work turtleneck and jeans trousers. In his book, Walter Isaacson reveals the reason behind Jobs’ choice of clothes:
On a trip to Japan in the early 1980s, Jobs asked Sony’s chairman Akio Morita why everyone in the company’s factories wore uniforms. He told Jobs that after the war, no one had any clothes, and companies like Sony had to give their workers something to wear each day. Over the years, the uniforms developed their own signatures styles, especially at companies such as Sony, and it became a way of bonding workers to the company. “I decided that I wanted that type of bonding for Apple,” Jobs recalled.
Sony, with its appreciation for style, had gotten the famous designer Issey Miyake to create its uniform. It was a jacket made of rip-stop nylon with sleeves that could unzip to make it a vest. So Jobs called Issey Miyake and asked him to design a vest for Apple, Jobs recalled, “I came back with some samples and told everyone it would great if we would all wear these vests. Oh man, did I get booed off the stage. Everybody hated the idea.”
In the process, however, he became friends with Miyake and would visit him regularly. He also came to like the idea of having a uniform for himself, both because of its daily convenience (the rationale he claimed) and its ability to convey a signature style. “So I asked Issey to make me some of his black turtlenecks that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them.” Jobs noticed my surprise when he told this story, so he showed them stacked up in the closet. “That’s what I wear,” he said. “I have enough to last for the rest of my life.”
Sadly, Steve Jobs had a short life. But when this genius died, the entire world mourned for him. He created some magnificent products under the banner of his company, Apple.
Walter Isaacson’s book is a must read. You can buy it from Amazon.com. Be inspired by the words of Steve Jobs, the technology genius.
Do let us know if you’ve read this book. Share with us your after thoughts.
Some more interesting reasons to love Steve, who really knew what he wanted with the answers of WHY, too.