# Steve Jobs

By [Anna](https://paragraph.com/@anna-29) · 2024-01-17

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**Steven Paul Jobs** (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology giant [Apple Inc.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.) Jobs was also the founder of [NeXT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT) and chairman and majority shareholder of [Pixar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar). He was a pioneer of the [personal computer revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer_revolution) of the 1970s and 1980s, along with his early business partner and fellow Apple co-founder [Steve Wozniak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wozniak).

Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955 and adopted shortly afterwards. He attended [Reed College](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_College) in 1972 before withdrawing that same year. In 1974, he traveled through India, [seeking enlightenment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie_trail) before later studying [Zen Buddhism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_in_the_West#Emerging_mainstream_western_Buddhism). He and Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976 to further develop and sell Wozniak's [Apple I](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_I) personal computer. Together, the duo gained fame and wealth a year later with production and sale of the [Apple II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II), one of the first highly successful mass-produced [microcomputers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcomputer). Jobs saw the commercial potential of the [Xerox Alto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto) in 1979, which was [mouse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_mouse)\-driven and had a [graphical user interface](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_user_interface) (GUI). This led to the development of the unsuccessful [Apple Lisa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lisa) in 1983, followed by [the breakthrough Macintosh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_128K) in 1984, the first mass-produced computer with a GUI. The Macintosh introduced the [desktop publishing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_publishing) industry in 1985 with the addition of the Apple [LaserWriter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaserWriter), the first [laser printer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_printer) to feature [vector graphics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics).

In 1985, Jobs departed Apple after a long power struggle with the company's board and its then-CEO, [John Sculley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sculley). That same year, Jobs took some Apple employees with him to found NeXT, a [computer platform](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_platform) development company that specialized in computers for higher-education and business markets, serving as its CEO. In 1986, he helped develop the [visual effects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_effects) industry by funding the computer graphics division of [Lucasfilm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucasfilm) that eventually spun off independently as Pixar, which produced the first 3D [computer-animated](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-animated) feature film [_Toy Story_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story) (1995) and became a leading [animation studio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation_studio), producing [over 27 films](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pixar_films) since.

In 1997, Jobs returned to Apple as CEO after the company's acquisition of NeXT. He was largely responsible for reviving Apple, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. He worked closely with British designer [Jony Ive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jony_Ive) to develop a line of products and services that had larger cultural ramifications, beginning with the "[Think different](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_different)" advertising campaign, and leading to the [iMac](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac), [iTunes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes), [Mac OS X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_10.0), [Apple Store](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Store), [iPod](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod), [iTunes Store](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_Store), [iPhone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone), [App Store](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/App_Store_\(iOS\)), and [iPad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad). In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with a [pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancreatic_neuroendocrine_tumor). He died of [respiratory arrest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory_arrest) related to the tumor in 2011, and in 2022, was posthumously awarded the [Presidential Medal of Freedom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom).

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*Originally published on [Anna](https://paragraph.com/@anna-29/steve-jobs)*