The Genius Named Steve Jobs

I'm taking a Public Speaking class this semester and I have to give a biography speech next Wednesday. I chose to do my speech on Steve Jobs and thought I would share it with you all. 

With everything I have learned, I could talk and write about Steve Jobs for hours on end, but unfortunately my speech is limited to 5 minutes. I gave small glimpses into the highlights of Jobs' life but I would encourage you all to read his biography or even just google his name. I have gained a huge amount of respect for this man and am more proud than ever to own an Apple computer. 

Enjoy. 

Introduction 

Henry Ford, (the inventor of the first mass-produced vehicle), once said, “If I asked the people what they wanted, they would have told me ‘a faster horse.’” I’m not going to be telling you about Henry Ford today. I will actually be telling you about Steve Jobs, who had a much similar view on life.

After listening to my speech, you will better understand the man behind many of your phones and computers. No longer will you know him as the man who invented Apple. You will now know him as the genius named Steve Jobs.

I feel confident speaking to you because along with reading Steve Jobs’ biography, I have done extensive research on the Florida Gateway College databases.

I will be discussing 4 major highlights of Steve Job’s life: his childhood, his college life, his work with Apple, and his death.

Body

To say Steve Jobs had an interesting childhood would be an understatement.

In the self-titled biography written about Jobs’ life, Walter Isaacson says that Paul and Clara Jobs adopted Steve from birth after being born to a Catholic mother and Muslim father. Due to religious beliefs, his biological parents’ marriage was not approved and abortion was not an option.

Isaacson also mentions that during Elementary school, Jobs was a problem child. He was known for playing pranks on his teachers and being rebellious. During parent-teacher conferences, Jobs’ Dad would blame the teachers for not keeping him interested enough.           

From a young age, Jobs knew how to manipulate people to get what he wanted. In Middle School, Jobs was bullied a lot. He told his parents that if they didn’t let him change schools, he would just stop going. So, the Jobs family sold their house, packed up, and moved away so Steve could attend a different school. 

During his high school years, Steve smoked marijuana regularly and did LCD and hash. He adopted the hippie lifestyle, ate a strictly vegan diet, and followed Buddhism.

As many of us already know, Steve Jobs never finished college.

From birth, Steve’s parents had a college fund set aside for him. Jobs found the most expensive Liberal Arts school and enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He hated the required classes that he had to take.  He officially dropped out because he felt bad for wasting his parents’ money. The dean of students allowed Jobs to continue taking the classes he found interesting and live in the dorms with his friends.  Tuition free. 

In his Stanford Commencement Speech in 2005 (as reported on the Stanford website,) Jobs says, “The minute I dropped out (of college) I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting."

Although Jobs is the founder of Apple, his life and career with them was like a never-ending rollercoaster.          

           

As said in the Steve Jobs Newsmakers biography on Gale, the first Apple Computers were built and marketed in the mid-1970s.

Since the first Apple computers were such a success, the Mac was invented in 1980, but it didn’t boost the profits enough and Jobs was fired from Apple.

After being fired from Apple, Jobs created a new computer company called NeXT and made a deal with George Lucas to own 70% of Pixar Animation Studios.

While working for Pixar, Jobs released the movie, Toy Story.

After realizing that NeXT would never be as successful as Apple, Jobs sold it in 1996 and re-joined Apple, but kept Pixar his main focus.

In 1997, Jobs became the CEO of Apple once again, and from then on, invented the iMac, iBook, iMovie, iPod, and iTunes. For the first of these years, Jobs lived on a $1 a year salary and made most of his money from stocks.

In 2007, Jobs sold Pixar to Disney for 7 billion dollars.

In the August of 2011, Jobs officially resigned as CEO from Apple when he was no longer able to meet his duties and expectations.

Steve Jobs’ health always conflicted with his career.

                       

He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003 but it wasn’t made public until 2004.

Last year, Sandra Martin wrote in the Globe & Mail that in 2009, Jobs had a liver transplant that extended his life but didn’t cure his cancer. He also took a 6-month medical leave for a hormone imbalance that was more complex than he originally believed.

On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs health failed him, and he passed away.

Conclusion

Steve Jobs founded and created one of the most successful companies in the world. People often wonder how he did it.

In an interview with Inc. Magazine in April of 1989, Jobs said “You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.”

Apple was successful because Jobs knew what the people wanted before they wanted it. He knew that the only way to make money was to put out great products. Apple isn’t successful because they have thousands of products. Apple isn’t successful because it’s sold at Walmart, Best Buy, and Office Max. Apple isn’t successful because it puts out new stuff every week.

Apple is successful because Jobs built it to be a company that thrives. When most companies are downsizing because of the economy, Apple continues to upgrade, and people continue buying the products.

At the end of the biography he wrote for Jobs, Isaacson answers his own question. “Was Steve Jobs smart? No, not exceptionally. Instead, he was a genius.  Like a pathfinder, he could absorb information, sniff the winds, and sense what lay ahead.”

Steve Jobs had a rough life. He was abandoned at birth and always in trouble in school. He had drug problems in his teen years, dropped out of college, and went on to get fired from his very own company.

But none of this stopped Jobs from living an extremely successful life and leading one of the most successful companies known today.

In that same commencement speech for Stanford, Jobs said this:

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

I think he definitely lived out this quote.  When Jobs died last year, he was worth 6.7 billion dollars.

And his company Apple is now worth more money than the United States government. If Jobs can have done all this without a college degree, imagine what we can all do with one.