It’s been two years since the world lost an innovator and a true visionary, Steve Jobs. While most of us remember him as the person behind the tech giant ‘Apple’, he did much more than just creating Apple.

Though he’s not with us now, his presence can be felt in the entire tech world. Some might disagree, but almost every piece of modern technology today somehow relates to his innovations. We will look into that as well, but for now, let’s take a trip down memory lane to chronologically see how the man’s life went by, how his vision led to the evolution of Apple, some revolutionary tech products and innovations, and also the mistakes he made in this journey.

It would be appropriate to call him one of the pioneers of the ‘PC revolution’, the reason we all have access to computers today. The major areas of technology drastically affected by Steve Jobs range from personal computers to the music industry and mobile devices. But he did a lot more than what we see. He was interested in electronics ever since his father taught him how to tinker with electronic items such as televisions and radios. His interest kept increasing till he met Steve Wozniak, a fellow electronics junkie and both of them later embarked on a mutual mission of inventing a personal computer.

Apple and Jobs

Most of us are aware of Steve Jobs’ clever yet ingenious approaches toward business and technology, even in the final years of his reign at Apple. The style was the same as what he did when he was a youngster. Jobs made a deal with Atari, and delivered well. As a result, he was paid a total of 5,000 US dollars, but he told Wozniak that the payment was 700 US dollars, and gave him his share of 350 dollars. Well, that’s how Jobs was! He knew business naturally, and these are one of the important concepts in business. Both of them continued to work for some time and sold devices called ‘Blue Boxes’, which were meant to hack the telephone system to make long distance calls at a low cost. This is when Jobs realised the potential of electronics as a business. It wasn’t much later when ‘Apple Computer Company’ was born in Jobs’ garage. And yes, it’s worth mentioning that Jobs pursued his passion while he dropped out of college. He knew what he was going for, and that’s what kept him going for a long time. Time flew and Apple emerged as a successful company with products like the Apple I and Apple II computers. Perhaps the game changer in the world of personal computing was the first Macintosh, which was unveiled in 1984. The Macintosh was clearly a result of his hard work and determination over the years, making it perfect from the inside as well as outside.

Steve Jobs’ life had several challenges. He was an entrepreneur who made several bold, strategic decisions. Some of these defined the vision for Apple, while some were downright mistakes. One of the mistakes that he publicly admitted was getting John Sculley to join Apple as the CEO. At first, everything seemed fine, but then things didn’t go so right, the ultimate decision was made in favour of Sculley and Jobs had to step out of Apple. Though Steve Jobs admitted it as the original mistake’s consequence, the following years brought new experiences and literally a stream of successes to his life, including the creation of a new company (NeXT Inc.), which was later acquired by Apple in 1997. After that, he returned to Apple as the interim CEO (and was later known as the iCEO). Jobs came back to the rescue when Apple was in serious losses. Pretty soon, the Cupertino-based company released the iMac, the successor to the Macintosh, with a new name and an appealing redesign. This made Apple stand out once again. But it’s more about Steve Jobs’ enthusiasm and vision that brought the company back to life.

That didn’t stop there. Jobs looked ahead of time, and perceived the appropriate strategy for the company. He decided to grab an important segment of the tech market – the music industry. Apple introduced a portable music player called ‘iPod’. This was one of the greatest innovations by Jobs, as it went on to become one of the most successful products in history. According to Jobs himself, it revolutionised the entire music industry. We can undoubtedly say that he deserves the credit for bringing a digital revolution in the music market, since there was little or no existence of digital music back in the day when the iPod came out. It changed the way people interacted with music, with iTunes providing music at just a few clicks away.

Steve’s smart moves brought Apple back to life. It was more about his ‘Reality Distortion Field’ that made him the best and undisputed tech marketer of all time. He was a perfectionist and trendsetter, and he invoked the same traits in his company. Apple manufactured the iPhone and iPad; these revolutionary products gave a new direction to the company, opened more ventures and gathered a huge market. Even now that he’s gone, his vision lives on in the form of the products that he introduced. It’s not just about Apple, the entire tech industry was moved by every product that has been revealed by Apple. For instance, the iPhone was a pioneer in touchscreen smartphones of its kind, and the influence of that can be seen all over the market now. Apple became the world’s most valuable company in May 2010, and obviously, they owe it to Steve Jobs, who saved the sinking ship.

As a person

Like every human being, Steve wasn’t perfect himself. If one reads the official Steve Jobs biography (it’s a definite recommendation from my side), it reveals some unique facts about the man. He was a little messy, arrogant and stubborn at times, insisting on what he believed to be right. He had a nature of not accepting things that didn’t appeal to him; hence he persisted till they were fixed, no matter if others were fine with it. Even on the hospital bed, he hated the oxygen mask that was put on his face, because it was poorly designed. He believed in the quote ‘good artists copy, great artists steal’, but only applied it to himself. In case of Microsoft (Windows) and Google (Android), his rage was one of a kind. “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product” were his words. These were some of the aspects of his personality that made people question his vision. But he didn’t really bother. He had his own ideas.

The complexity of his nature is clear from the fact that he didn't go for treatment of his pancreatic cancer for nine months and tried various alternatives to cure the disease. Eventually he went for treatment, but the damage showed up even after his recovery. There were questions about his health, but he didn’t address them clearly. His health issues started rising again, and he had to take extended medical leave. As a result, he resigned as the CEO in August 2011 and died on October 5, 2011 . He believed in trying out different and alternative things. He even tried LSD in his early days and according to him, it was one of the most important things he did in life.

One would be amazed to know that Steve Jobs took a salary of $1 per year, being the CEO of the most valuable tech brand in the world. It’s the rest of the fortune that was in his name; he had 5.5 million shares of Apple, and that’s what made him the 110th richest person in the world (according to Forbes). There was a reason he made Apple ‘think different’. Of course, the man wasn’t perfect, but what he did with the company was truly magical. He succeeded in doing what he said, and that’s ”leaving a dent in the universe”. And what he quoted in one of his most famous speeches has a deep lesson for everyone who wants to follow his thinking and style: “stay hungry, stay foolish”.