Remembering Steve Jobs on his 71st birthday

Fifteen years after his death, Steve Jobs is still constantly quoted, sometimes criticized, but always considered the creator of Apple’s ethos. On his 71st birthday, this is how he shaped Apple – and the entire world.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 and raised by his adoptive parents Paul and Clara Jobs. Although he later rejected the idea that he was influenced by the circumstances of his adoption, he was born directly into the Covenant conflict, and early signs of his later strengths and weaknesses were evident from his early years.

Postponement of adoption

His mother, Joanne Schieble, wanted him to be adopted by a college-educated couple, but that didn’t happen. She and her father, Abdulfattah “John” Jandali, left their home in Wisconsin specifically for Jobs to be born in San Francisco – where the adoption was arranged.

The arrangement was made by what Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson calls “the kind doctor,” but there was a problem. Jobs was a boy. The lawyer and his wife who arranged his adoption decided they wanted a girl instead, so they backed out of the deal.

That doctor found an alternative couple, but Jobs’ mother reportedly held out for weeks after giving birth, refusing to sign the necessary paperwork. She allegedly did so because Paul and Clara Jobs did not have college degrees, but there was another reason.

In reality, Schieble and Jandali did not want to give up their son. Her Wisconsin family objected to the idea of ​​their marriage, but her father was ill. She held on to the papers as long as possible, hoping that he would die and she could marry Jandali.

Her father died—and she married Jandali—but only after she finally signed the adoption papers. Schieble made it a condition of the adoption that Paul and Clara Jobs open a college fund for the boy.

In later life, Steve Jobs’ friends and colleagues would attribute some of his more complex behavior to the way he was adopted and that he felt abandoned because of it.

Andy Hertzfeld, co-developer of the Mac, is one of those who attributed this to Jobs’ occasional cruelty. “It goes back to abandonment at birth,” he told Isaacson. “The real underlying issue was the theme of abandonment in Steve’s life.”

Former girlfriend Chrisann Brennan gave the same reason Jobs initially denied he was the father of their child, Lisa Brennan-Jobs. “He who is forsaken is a forsaken,” she said.

Jobs himself vehemently denied this throughout his life, calling Paul and Clara Jobs “1000% my parents.

Family pressures

He still wasn’t above putting pressure on his adoptive parents, even if they weren’t easy on each other either. While saving for his college fund, they also moved to get him into a better school.

As a result, Steve Jobs grew up in a one-story ranch at 2066 Crist Drive in Los Altos, California, which placed him in the Cupertino school district. And he was only four miles from where he finally found Apple Park.

It was at Homestead High School where he would first meet Steve Wozniak and begin making other contacts in Silicon Valley.

But the college was perhaps the key. This time it was his choice where he wanted to go, and it was an expensive choice. Steve Jobs insisted on going to Reed College in Portland, Oregon, even though the fees were difficult for his family.

However, in what may have been an early example of his total commitment to one path, followed by a haircut and insistence on another idea, Jobs then dropped out of Reed College.

He later said it was partly because of the financial strain on his family that he didn’t feel comfortable forcing them to spend all his money. But it was also because he didn’t like the clock.

And in what is surely an early example of his ability to get people to do what he wanted, Jobs convinced Reed College to let him continue there. He had no required classes, yet he was allowed to live on campus and was actively encouraged to enroll in any class he was interested in.

Although Jobs said he didn’t like spending his family’s money, it’s not really clear that Reed College was entirely altruistic. Perhaps the college just figured that as long as Jobs’ family was paying, he could do whatever he wanted.

Nature and nurture

Whether or not his adoption caused feelings of abandonment, and whether or not his “reality distortion field” started at Reed College, one thing certainly started there.

This was because he could take any class he wanted, and Steve Jobs sat in on calligraphy and typography classes.

He was already reading, he said, “more outside of science and technology,” and through this internship he was steeped in both computers and the liberal arts.

You cannot assign a person’s life to how he was born and what he studied. However, you can trace the Macintosh and all of Apple back to the combination of nature and nurture that Steve Jobs was exposed to in his early years. And on his 68th birthday, for example, Tim Cook acknowledged this aspect of his friend in a tweet.

Reality Distortion Field

Jobs was able to talk most people into his way of thinking. This was true if he later completely reversed his position, or even if his arguments did not actually hold up.

This ability became known as his reality distortion field. However, he was not immune to a distorted view of reality, especially when it came to his own health.

According to Isaacson’s biographer, Jobs refused surgery because of the pancreatic cancer he had. He didn’t want his body “disrupted like that,” and it took nine months for his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, to convince him.

During those months, he tried alternative therapies, including spending $100,000 to have his DNA sequenced.

Jobs later said he regretted postponing the surgery, but when he finally did, he didn’t tell employees like that.

In 2004, when he was 49, Jobs revealed that he had undergone cancer surgery. He sent an email to Apple employees saying that the surgery had successfully removed the cancer and that he would not need any further treatment.

“PS,” he added, “I’m sending this from my hospital bed using my 17-inch PowerBook and Airport Express.”

Stanford Commencement Address

Jobs gave an extremely moving speech at Stanford University in 2005, and even as he reiterated that his surgery had gone well, he was thinking about death. Rather than talking about his illness, he said he thought he had been thinking about it since he was 17 and read a quote about living each day as if it were your last.

“I was impressed,” he said. “Since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, if today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”

“Whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row,” he continued, “I know I have to change something.”

Leaving Apple

Steve Jobs took a medical leave from Apple in 2004 and Tim Cook became acting CEO. But then in 2009, Jobs had to leave again.

There had been questions about his health for at least a few years before, mainly because of his emaciated appearance. in 2008 Bloomberg inadvertently published his obituary.

Later that year, he acknowledged this mistake and concern for his health at an iPod event in September. “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” he said.

In 2009, he continued to say he was fine, with a January 5 memo to staff saying his extreme weight loss was due to a “hormonal imbalance” that was being treated. However, nine days later he announced that he was taking another leave.

“I’m sure all of you saw my letter last week in which I shared something very personal with the Apple community,” Jobs wrote in another message to employees. “Unfortunately, curiosity about my personal health continues to distract not only me and my family, but everyone else at Apple.”

“Furthermore, over the past week, I have discovered that my health issues are more complex than I originally thought,” he continued.

Tim Cook once again took over during this absence, but Jobs made a public appearance. His latest was to present plans to the Cupertino City Council for what would become Apple Park.

That was on June 8, 2011, and on August 20 of the same year, Steve Jobs finally stepped down as CEO of Apple.

“Regarding my successor,” he wrote to Apple’s board of directors about his departure, “I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and appoint Tim Cook as Apple’s CEO.”

Steve Jobs died at approximately 3:00 PM Pacific Time on October 5, 2011 at his home in Palo Alto. The immediate cause of death was reported as respiratory arrest, but the underlying cause was “metastatic neuroendocrine tumor of the pancreas”.

Later that day, his wife Laurene Powell Jobs released a statement.

Steve passed away peacefully today surrounded by his family.

In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life he valued his family. We are grateful to the many people who shared their wishes and prayers during the last year of Steve’s illness; a website will be provided for those wishing to leave tributes and memories.

We are grateful for the support and kindness of those who share our feelings for Steve. We know many of you will be grieving with us, and we ask that you respect our privacy during our complaint.

In 2022, Powell Jobs, along with Tim Cook and Jony Ive, launched the Steve Jobs Archive to celebrate his life and impact on the world.