It took Jobs years of dedication and hard work to help transform the digital world and create what Apple is now.
Below is a timeline of Steve's life:
1955 - Born Feb. 24 in San Francisco to Joanne Simpson and Abdulfattah Jandali. Adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs.
1955 - Moves to Mountain View California.
1969 - Offered a summer job at Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) by William Hewlett.
1971 - Meets Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple Computer Inc).
1972 - Graduates from Homestead High School in Los Altos. Registers at Reed College, Portland, Oregon, and drops out after one semester.
1974 - Joins Atari Inc. (video game maker) as a technician.
1976 - Jobs and Wozniak build the Apple I, their first marketable table-top computer.
1976 - Founds Apple Computer Company with Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Wayne sells his stake two weeks later.
1977 - Apple is incorporated as Apple Computer Inc. and the new company buys out the original partnership.
1977 - Apple launches Apple II.
1978 - Has first child, Lisa, with Chrisann Brennan.
1980 - Apple III is launched.
1980 - Apple goes public.
1981 - Involves himself in Macintosh development.
1983 - Announces Apple "Lisa" (the first mouse-controlled computer). Fails in the marketplace.
1984 - Apple launches Macintosh and is aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII.
1985 - Wins National Technology Medal from U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
1985 - Resigns and takes five Apple employees with him.
1986 - Buys Pixar and is later renamed Pixar Animation Studios.
1989 - Launches NeXT Computer (known as The Cube). Fails in the marketplace.
1991 - Marries Laurene Powell and has three children with her.
1997 - Becomes interim CEO and chairman of Apple Computer Inc.
1998 - Apple releases the all-in-one iMac desktop, which sells millions of units, financially reviving the company and boosting its share price by 400 percent.
2000 - Jobs' title changes to CEO (removing "interim").
2001 - Apple launches next-generation operating system, the Unix-based OS X. iTunes software is released and iPod is launched.
2003 - Announces the iTunes Music Store
2004 - Terminates Pixar's alliance with The Walt Disney Co. for production and distribution of Pixar's animated films.
2004 - Is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and undergoes surgery. Recovers and returns to work the same year.
2007 - Announces the iPhone.
2009 - Says that his dramatic weight loss was caused by a hormone imbalance. COO Tim Cook is to handle Apple's day-to-day operations during his recovery period. Returns to work at the end of June.
2010 - Apple announces the iPad table computer.
2010 - Appears on stage in San Francisco to announce Apple's second-generation Apple TV set-top box, which streams movies from the Internet or mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad directly to TV sets.
2011 - Takes a medical leave of absence.
2011 - Appears at the company's WorldWide Develoeprs Conference in SF to introduce the iCloud and iOS 5. A few months later, announces he is steeping aside as CEO and Cook taking over the role.
2011 - Jobs dies at Age 56.
10 Steve Jobs quotes that will inspire you to make your dreams a reality:
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.
Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.
My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.
Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.
I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.
That’s been one of my mantras—focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.
Things don’t have to change the world to be important.
You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.
I encourage you to read Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs to get a closer look at Job's life journey with Apple.
