STEVE JOBS - The Power of Vision

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When people say "never give up on your dream" we often times wonder if they themselves can hold on to theirs. Its actually easier to simple say I want to follow my heart than actually following it. When you hear things like "you can change the world" again you may wonder how? How can one man possibly change the world, how can one man make a difference? 

I have news for you, one man can change the world, Steve Jobs did, and he did by never giving up on his dreams. Born in San Francisco, California, on February 24, 1955, to two University of Wisconsin graduate students who gave him up for adoption because they were not ready for a baby. As an infant, Steven was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs and named Steven Paul Jobs. Clara worked as an accountant and Paul was a Coast Guard veteran and machinist. The family lived in Mountain View within California's Silicon Valley. As a boy, Jobs and his father would work on electronics in the family garage. Paul would show his son how to take apart and reconstruct electronics, a hobby which instilled confidence, tenacity and mechanical prowess in young Jobs. 

While Jobs was always an intelligent and innovative thinker, his youth was riddled with frustrations over formal schooling. A prankster in elementary school, Jobs's fourth-grade teacher needed to bribe him to study. Jobs tested so well, however, that administrators wanted to skip him ahead to high school—a proposal that his parents declined. Not long after Jobs did enroll at Homestead High School (1971), he was introduced to his future partner, Steve Wozniak, through a friend of Wozniak's. Wozniak was attending the University of Michigan at the time, having similar interest the two grew very close.

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After high school, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Lacking direction, he dropped out of college after six months and spent the next 18 months dropping in on creative classes.

It was Wozniak who first gave birth to the vision but Jobs simply saw the possibilities better and pushed them both through. At the time computers were already in existence but was the size of an office, their vision was to build a computer system for personal use. They started to push through but it was not easy as their dream was one thought impossible at the time. 

In 1976, when Jobs was just 21, he and Wozniak started Apple Computers. The duo started in the Jobs family garage,and funded their entrepreneurial venture after Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak sold his beloved scientific calculator. Jobs and Wozniak are credited with revolutionizing the computer industry by democratizing the technology and making the machines smaller, cheaper, intuitive and accessible to everyday consumers. Wozniak conceived a series of user-friendly personal computers, and—with Jobs in charge of marketing—Apple initially marketed the computers for $666.66 each, and the Apple I earned the corporation around $774,000. Three years after the release of Apple's second model, the Apple II, the company's sales increased by 700 percent, to $139 million. In 1980, Apple Computer became a publicly traded company, with a market value of $1.2 billion on its very first day of trading. 

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Jobs ideas and way of thinking changed the world forever. The man is responsible for even my been able to type this from my personal computer but this was not the end. Jobs had greater visions, he saw bigger possibilities and he was determined to follow through with his every dream, this though was not without challenges and failures, several products from Apple suffered significant design flaws resulting in recalls and consumer disappointment. IBM suddenly surpassed Apple sales, and Apple had to compete with an IBM/PC dominated business world. In 1984, Apple released the Macintosh, marketing the computer as a piece of a counter culture lifestyle: romantic, youthful, creative. But despite positive sales and performance superior to IBM's PCs, the Macintosh was still not IBM compatible. The board felt that Jobs was hurting the company and he was forced out. 

In 1985, Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO but a man with a vision always knows where he is headed. Locked out of his own company Jobs begin a new hardware and software company called NeXT, Inc. The following year Jobs purchased an animation company from George Lucas, which later became Pixar Animation Studios. Believing in Pixar's potential, Jobs initially invested $50 million of his own money into the company. Pixar Studios went on to produce wildly popular animation films such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Pixar's films have netted $4 billion. The studio merged with Walt Disney in 2006, making Steve Jobs Disney's largest shareholder. 

Apple eventually bought the company in 1997 for $429 million. That same year, Jobs returned to his post as Apple's CEO.

Much like Steve Jobs instigated Apple's success in the 1970s, he is credited with revitalizing the company in the 1990s. With a new management team, altered stock options and a self-imposed annual salary of $1 a year, Jobs put Apple back on track. His ingenious products such as the iMac, effective branding campaigns, and stylish designs caught the attention of consumers once again.

In 2003, Jobs discovered that he had a neuroendocrine tumor, a rare but operable form of pancreatic cancer.  Instead of immediately opting for surgery, Jobs chose to alter his pescovegetarian diet while weighing Eastern treatment options. For nine months, Jobs postponed surgery, making Apple's board of directors nervous. Executives feared that shareholders would pull their stocks if word got out that their CEO was ill. But in the end, Jobs's confidentiality took precedence over shareholder disclosure. In 2004, he had a successful surgery to remove the pancreatic tumor. True to form, in subsequent years, 

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Non of these pulled Jobs down, his ability to think, to lead and inspire kept growing. Jobs specialty was not necessarily to invent but to re-create. this he was a king at doing.  Apple introduced such revolutionary products as the Macbook Air, iPod and iPhone, all of which have dictated the evolution of modern technology. Almost immediately after Apple releases a new product, competitors scramble to produce comparable technologies

In 2008, iTunes became the second biggest music retailer in America-second only to Wal-Mart. Half of Apple's current revenue comes from iTunes and iPod sales, with 200 million iPods sold and six billion songs downloaded. For these reasons, Apple has been ranked No. 1 on Fortune magazine's list of "America's Most Admired Companies," as well as No. 1 among Fortune 500 companies for returns to shareholders.

In respect to his personal life, Steve Jobs remained a private man who rarely discloses information about his family. What is known is Jobs fathered a daughter with girlfriend Chrisann Brennan when he was 23. Jobs denied paternity of his daughter Lisa in court documents, claiming he was sterile. Jobs did not initiate a relationship with his daughter until she was 7 but, when she was a teenager, she came to live with her father.

In the early 1990s, Jobs met Laurene Powell at Stanford business school, where Powell was an MBA student. They married on March 18, 1991, and lived together in Palo Alto, California, with their three children.

On October 5, 2011, Apple Inc. announced that its co-founder had passed away. After battling pancreatic cancer for nearly a decade, Steve Jobs died in Palo Alto. He was 56 years old. 

This is a unique example of one man changing the world, one man teaching us focus, one man teaching us how to live our dreams. The world can never forget Steve Jobs, every time you buy an Apple product, every time you use you touch screen phones or enjoy the swag it brings. every time you listen to music with your phones or download a music. With every Ipad we use, we honor his work. 

 

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• NAME: Steve Jobs
• OCCUPATION: Entrepreneur, Inventor
• BIRTH DATE: February 24, 1955
• DEATH DATE: October 05, 2011
• EDUCATION: Reed College, Homestead High School
• PLACE OF BIRTH: San Francisco, California
• PLACE OF DEATH: Palo Alto, California
• AKA: Steve Jobs
• AKA: Steven Jobs
• Full Name: Steven Paul Jobs

Best Known For

Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Computers with Steve Wozniak. Under Job's guidance, the company pioneered a series of revolutionary technologies, including the iPhone and iPad.