Steven Paul Jobs' quotes
The way you get programmer productivity is not by increasing the lines of code per programmer per day. [...] It is by eliminating lines of code you have to write. The line of code that’s the fastest to write, that never breaks, that doesn't need maintenance, is the line you never had to write (Apple WWDC 1997)
So the people that can make the company more successful are sales & marketing people. And they end up running the companies. And the product people get driven out of decision making forums. And the companies forget what it means to make great products. It's sort of the product sensibility and the product genius that brought them to that monopolistic position gets rotted out by people running these companies who have no conception of a good product versus a bad product. They have no conception of the craftsmanship that's required to take a good idea and turn it into a good product. And they really have no feeling in their hearts usually about wanting to really help the customers.
A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
When you start with nothing, you can shoot for the moon because you have nothing to lose. But when you get something, it’s very easy to go into cover your *%$ mode.
To turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of disciplines.
Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.
I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this.
Do not try to do everything. Do one thing well.
If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution.
It takes a lot of hard work to make something simple.
By honoring the lives of those we admire, we make our own values known.
Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions.
Learn continually - there's always "one more thing" to learn!
Details matter, it's worth waiting to get it right.
Customers don't measure you on how hard you tried, they measure you on what you deliver.
Strategy is figuring out what not to do.
You can't look at the competition and say you're going to do it better. You have to look at the competition and say you're going to do it differently.
Whatever you do, you must never let the voice in your head control the brain in your heart.
The most important decisions you make are not the things you do, but the things you decide not to do.
Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. 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.
Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.
Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.
I think we're having fun. I think our customers really like our products. And we're always trying to do better.
You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you're not passionate enough from the start, you'll never stick it out.
In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.
Innovation is Saying “No” to 1,000 things. People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are.
Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity, instead of a threat.
Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it.
Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.
All of us need to be on guard against arrogance, which knocks at the door whenever you are successful (Tweet).
So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'
The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.
I was worth over $1,000,000 when I was 23, and over $10,000,000 when I was 24, and over $100,000,000 when I was 25, and it wasn’t that important because I never did it for the money.
Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night, saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.
We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn’t build the Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build. When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.
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. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
Look at the design of a lot of consumer products — they’re really complicated surfaces. We tried to make something much more holistic and simple. When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. Most people just don’t put in the time or energy to get there. We believe that customers are smart, and want objects which are well thought through.
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.
I'm the only person I know that's lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year… It's very character-building.
Every good product I've ever seen is because a group of people cared deeply about making something wonderful that they and their friends wanted. They wanted to use it themselves.
I don't think it's good that we're perceived as different I think it's important we're perceived as MUCH BETTER. If being different is essential to doing that, then we have to do that, but if we could be much better without being different, that'd be fine with me. I want to be much better! I don't care about being different, but we'll have to be different in some ways to be much better.
I'm sure a lot of you had this experience when you're changing. You're growing as a person and people tend to treat you like you were 18 months ago, and it's really frustrating sometimes when you're growing up and you're more capable. It's the same thing with a company and the press. The press is going to have a lag time. The best thing we can do about the press is embrace them and do the best thing we can to educate them about our strategy. But to keep our eye on the prize, that is turning out some great products. the press and the stock prize will take care of themselves.
The hardest thing when you think about focusing. You think focusing is about saying "Yes." No. Focusing is about saying "No." And when you say "No," you piss off people.
I'm as proud of what we don't do as I am of what we do.
Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.
I've always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything we do.
It comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much.
It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.
What drove me? I think most creative people want to express appreciation for being able to take advantage of the work that’s been done by others before us. I didn’t invent the language or mathematics I use. I make little of my own food, none of my own clothes. Everything I do depends on other members of our species and the shoulders that we stand on. And a lot of us want to contribute something back to our species and add something to the flow. It’s about trying to express something in the only way that most of us know how — because we cannot write Bob Dylan songs or Tom Stoppard plays. We try to use the talents we do have to express our deep feelings, to show our appreciation of all the contributions that came before us, and to add something to that flow.
Insanely Great!
I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy. It's rare that you see an artist in his 30s or 40s able to really contribute something amazing.I feel like somebody just punched me in the stomach and knocked all my wind out. I'm only 30 years old and I want to have a chance to continue creating things. I know I've got at least one more great computer in me. And Apple is not going to give me a chance to do that.Almost everything: all external expectations, all pride all fear of embarrassment or failure. These tings just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it, and that is how it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. 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’s going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. 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, and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don’t settle. 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. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path.
You've got to find what you love and that is as true for work as it is for lovers. 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 what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you've found it.Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?
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.
Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
You‘ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. Not the other way around.
We do not get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die. And we have all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.
If you want hire great people and have them stay working for you, you have to let them make a lot of decisions and you have to run by ideas, not hierarchy. The best ideas have to win, otherwise, good people don't stay.
Everyone should learn how to program a computer because it teaches you how to think.
If you want to make everyone happy, don’t be a leader. Sell ice cream.
One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are.
Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.
In weak companies politics win. In strong companies best ideas do.
If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you would most certainly be right. 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?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
The people who built Silicon Valley were engineers. They learned business, they learned a lot of different things, but they had a real belief that humans, if they worked hard with other creative, smart people, could solve most of humankind's problems. I believe that very much.
I want to put a ding in the universe
You know, my main reaction to this money thing is that i's not humorous, all the attention to it, because it's hardly the most insightful or valuable thing that's happened to me in the past ten years
When you start looking at a problem and it seems really simple with all these simple solutions, you don't really understand the complexity of the problem. And your solutions are way to oversimplified, and they don't work
People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.
The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.
This is not a one-man show. What’s reinvigorating this company is two things: One, there’s a lot of really talented people in this company who listened to the world tell them they were losers for a couple of years, and some of them were on the verge of starting to believe it themselves. But they’re not losers. What they didn’t have was a good set of coaches, a good plan. A good senior management team. But they have that now.
The problem with the Internet startup craze isn’t that too many people are starting companies; it’s that too many people aren’t sticking with it. That’s somewhat understandable, because there are many moments that are filled with despair and agony, when you have to fire people and cancel things and deal with very difficult situations. That’s when you find out who you are and what your values are.
Customers don’t form opinions on quality from marketing. They form opinions on quality from their own experience with the product.
The system is that there is no system. That doesn’t mean we don’t have process. Apple is a very disciplined company, and we have great processes. But that’s not what it’s about. Process makes you more efficient. But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem. It’s ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea. And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.
When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It’s the truth.
Jobs imagines his garbage regularly not being emptied in his office, and when he asks the janitor why, he gets an excuse: The locks have been changed, and the janitor doesn’t have a key. This is an acceptable excuse coming from someone who empties trash bins for a living. The janitor gets to explain why something went wrong. Senior people do not. “When you’re the janitor,” Jobs has repeatedly told incoming VPs, “reasons matter.” He continues: “Somewhere between the janitor and the CEO, reasons stop mattering.” That “Rubicon,” he has said, “is crossed when you become a VP.
Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, 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–because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.
Bill Gates‘d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.
Stay hungry, stay foolish
My model for business is the Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other's kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other, and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That's how I see business: Great things in business are never done by one person, they're done by a team of people.
My favorite things in life don't cost any money. It's really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.
I didn't return to Apple to make a fortune. I've been very lucky in my life and already have one. When I was 25, my net worth was $100 million or so. I decided then that I wasn't going to let it ruin my life. There's no way you could ever spend it all, and I don't view wealth as something that validates my intelligence.
If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.
When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again.
People with passion can change the world for the better.
Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have faith in people, that they're basically good and smart — and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them.
Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.
If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.
The only source of knowledge is experience.
We didn't build Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren't going to go out and do market research.
We just wanted to build the best thing we could build. When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You'll know it's there, so you're going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.
From: Steve Jobs, sjobs@apple.com
To: Steve Jobs, sjobs@apple.com
Date: Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 11:08PM
I grow little of the food I eat, and of the little I do grow
I did not breed or perfect the seeds.
I do not make any of my own clothing.
I speak a language I did not invent or refine.
I did not discover the mathematics I use.
I am protected by freedoms and laws I did not conceive
of or legislate, and do not enforce or adjudicate.
I am moved by music I did not create myself.
When I needed medical attention, I was helpless
to help myself survive.
I did not invent the transistor, the microprocessor,
object oriented programming, or most of the technology
I work with.
I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am
totally dependent on them for my life and well being.
Sent from my iPad
| Mes 5 never | Mes 5 jamais | Mis 5 nuncas |
|---|---|---|
| Never stop dreaming | Ne jamais arrêter de rêver | Nunca dejar de soñar |
| Never pretend | Ne jamais simuler | Nunca aparentar |
| Never give up | Ne jamais renoncer | Nunca darse por vencido |
| Never get anchored in the past | Ne jamais s'accrocher au passé | Nunca aferrarse al pasado |
| Never Stand Still | Ne jamais rester immobile | Nunca mantenerse inmóvil |
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 24 Feb 1955 | Steven Paul was born in San Francisco, the son of Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Schieble. He is quickly adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs |
| 1960 | The Jobs family moves from San Francisco to Mountain View, a suburban town in Santa Clara county, more famous under the name Silicon Valley |
| Summer 1968 | 13-year-old Steve Jobs calls up Bill Hewlett and gets a summer job at the HP factory |
| 1969 | Steve Jobs meets Steve Wozniak, 5 years older, through a mutual friend. Woz and Steve share a love of electronics, Bob Dylan, and pranks |
| 1972 | Steve and Woz build and illegally sell 'blue boxes' that allow to make phone calls for free |
| 1973 | Steve spends the fall semester at Reed College, Oregon, then drops out. He will stay on campus and attend the classes that interest him for a while, then move to a hippie commune |
| 1974 | Steve gets his first job at video game maker Atari, and later makes a trip to India to 'seek enlightenment' with his college friend Dan Kottke |
| Mar 1976 | Woz and Steve show the early Apple I board at the Homebrew Computer Club |
| 1 Apr 1976 | Apple Computer Inc. is incorporated by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne |
| Spring 1976 | Steve and Woz start assembling Apple I computers in the Jobses' garage, and sell them to computer hobbyists, including 50 for the Byte Shop |
| 28 Aug 1976 | Steve Jobs and Woz show off the Apple I at the Personal Computing Festival in Atlantic City, with help from Dan Kottke |
| Jan 1977 | Former Intel executive turned business angel Mike Markkula invests in Apple and hires former colleague Mike Scott as CEO. Woz is forced to leave HP to join Apple full time |
| 17 Apr 1977 | Apple makes a huge sensation at the West Coast Computer Faire with a prototype Apple II |
| 1978 | The Apple II becomes the first mass-market personal computer, with impressive sales around the US. Apple becomes a symbol of the personal computing revolution |
| 1978 | Steve's ex-girlfriend Chris-Ann Brennan gives birth to their daugher Lisa. Steve refuses to acknowledge he is the father |
| 1978 | At Apple, work starts on the Apple III and the Lisa, while Jef Raskin begins The Book of Macintosh |
| Dec 1979 | Steve Jobs is shown the first working graphical user interface at Xerox PARC |
| 1979 | Sales of Apple II skyrocket after pioneer spreadsheet software Visicalc is introduced |
| 1980 | Jef Raskin’s Macintosh project is green-lighted. Lisa evolves into a GUI-computer, in part because of Steve Jobs' demands |
| May 1980 | Apple launches the Apple III, which will prove a disastrous flop |
| 12 Dec 1980 | Apple goes public, increasing Steve Jobs' net worth from dozens of millions of dollars to over $200 million |
| Early 1981 | Jef Raskin is forced out of his Macintosh project as Steve Jobs takes over |
| 25 Feb 1981 | Black Wednesday: 50 Apple employees laid off by CEO Mike Scott without notice. The board asks him to leave shortly afterwards. Mike Markkula becomes interim CEO |
| 12 Aug 1981 | IBM launches the IBM PC, the biggest threat to Apple's future yet |
| Feb 1982 | A portrait of Steve Jobs ends up on the cover of Time Magazine, under the title 'Striking it Rich'. Steve trusts Time correspondent Michael Moritz to follow him on the Mac team for months, hoping to become Man of the Year |
| 3 Jan 1983 | Time instead makes The Computer 'machine of the year' and publishes a hatchet job on Steve Jobs, who becomes furious and suspicious of journalists for the rest of his life |
| Jan 1983 | Launch of the Lisa computer. The Lisa team later merges with the Mac team under Steve Jobs's leadership |
| 8 Apr 1983 | PepsiCo CEO John Sculley becomes Apple's CEO after having been wooed by Steve Jobs for several months |
| 24 Jan 1984 | Macintosh is launched in great fanfare at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting |
| 24 Feb 1985 | Steve Jobs celebrates his 30th birthday in great fanfare, with Ella Fitzgerald as guest singer for the night |
| May 1985 | Palace coup: Apple's board sides with John Sculley and strips Steve off all executive duties |
| Summer 1985 | Alan Kay first introduces the Pixar team to Steve Jobs |
| 17 Sep 1985 | Steve Jobs resigns from Apple and starts NeXT with five other refugees from Apple. Apple announces it will sue NeXT |
| 30 Jan 1986 | Jobs buys the computer division of George Lucas' ILM for $10 million and incorporates it as Pixar |
| Aug 1986 | Pixar unveils John Lasseter’s short film Luxo Jr. at SIGGRAPH. It is praised by the expert audience as one of the first computer-animated work of art |
| 1986 | Steve's mother Clara dies. A couple months later, Steve discovers his biological mother Joanne and his sister, novelist Mona Simpson. They will become close friends |
| Feb 1987 | Ross Perot invests $20 million in NeXT, based on a $125 million valuation. The startup has still to release a product |
| Sep 1988 | NeXT and IBM form a partnership to have NeXT’s system run on IBM machines |
| 12 Oct 1988 | Steve Jobs introduces the NeXT Cube in San Francisco to great critical acclaim, pitching it as a workstation for higher education |
| Winter 1988 | Pixar launches its new computer graphics workstation, the Pixar Image Computer II, and starts working on the RenderMan computer animation software |
| Dec 1988 | At SIGGRAPH, Pixar releases its new short Tin Toy. It will win 1988's Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film |
| Mar 1989 | NeXT partners with retailer Businessland to sell to corporate America in addition to higher ed |
| Apr 1989 | Steve Jobs is named 'Entrepreneur of the decade' by Inc. magazine |
| Jun 1989 | Canon invests $100 million in NeXT, now valued at $600 million |
| 30 Apr 1989 | Steve shuts down all of Pixar’s hardware operations |
| 13 Sep 1989 | Steve introduces the cheaper NeXT Station in San Francisco, to boost the modest sales of NeXT hardware |
| Mar 1991 | Steve Jobs fires almost half of Pixar’s staff and takes back all of the employees' stock in an effort to cut costs, as the company is still in the red 5 years after its launch |
| 18 Mar 1991 | Steve Jobs marries Laurene Powell in Yosemite under the blessing of Steve's old zen guru Kobin Chino. Laurene is already pregnant |
| May 1991 | Pixar signs a deal with Disney to make a computer-animated feature film |
| Fall 1991 | Laurene gives birth to Steve’s first son, Reed Paul Jobs |
| Late 1991 | Ross Perot leaves NeXT as his investment is still not paying off |
| Jan 1992 | NeXT licenses its operating system, NeXTSTEP, to run on x86 machines |
| 1992 | NeXT COO Peter Van Cuylenburg betrays Steve Jobs by trying to have the company bought by its giant competitor Sun. Sun CEO Scott McNealy warns Steve Jobs instead |
| 11 Feb 1993 | NeXT fires 300 employees as it discontinues all its hardware operations and becomes NeXT Software Inc. This is the nadir of Steve's career |
| Mar 1993 | Steve's father, Paul Jobs, dies |
| Nov 1993 | Jeffrey Katzenberg puts a halt to the development of Toy Story because of creative disagreements |
| Nov 1994 | Pixar resumes work on Toy Story |
| Feb 1995 | Steve starts focusing less on NeXT and more on Pixar before Toy Story is released. He becomes President & CEO of Pixar Animation Studios |
| 29 Nov 1995 | One week after Toy Story is out, Pixar goes public. Steve Jobs's worth rises to $1.5 billion, more than it ever was during his first tenure at Apple |
| Late 1995 | Laurene gives birth to Erin Siena Jobs, her second child with Steve |
| Early 1996 | Steve Jobs negotiaties a breakthrough deal between Pixar and Disney with its CEO Michael Eisner. The deal includes landmark rights for a studio, such as equal billing |
| 1996 | Steve's biological sister Mona Simpson publishes her third novel, A Regular Guy, whose main character Tom Owens is largely based on her brother |
| Dec 1996 | Apple, which was desperately looking for a modern operating system to buy, eventually buys NeXT for $400 million. Steve Jobs is named \"informal adviser\" to Apple CEO Gil Amelio |
| Jul 1997 | Gil Amelio is ousted by the Apple Board of directors after a disastrous quarter. Steve Jobs is named interim CEO in his place and installs his NeXT executive team at the top of Apple |
| 6 Aug 1997 | Steve Jobs introduces Apple's new board of directors and a truce with Microsoft at Macworld Boston |
| Fall 1997 | Apple starts its 'Think Different' campaign to restore its damaged brand image. The new slogan will quickly enter popular culture and define the company for the next five years |
| 8 Jan 1998 | At Macworld San Francisco, Steve Jobs announces that Apple is profitable again, thanks to sales of the new Power Macintosh computers |
| 6 May 1998 | Steve Jobs introduces Apple's revolutionary iMac at the Flint Center auditorium in Cupertino, 14 years after he had introduced the Macintosh at that same place |
| May 1998 | Eve Jobs, Laurene and Steve's youngest daughter, is born |
| 5 Jan 1999 | Steve Jobs introduces the new Power Mac G3 and the color iMacs at Macworld San Francisco |
| April 1999 | Pirates of Silicon Valley, a TV movie starring Noah Wyle as young Steve Jobs, airs |
| 21 Jul 1999 | The original iBook is unveiled at Macworld New York with the tagline iMac to go. Steve Jobs invites Noah Wyle on stage to impersonate him again |
| 5 Oct 1999 | Introduction of the iMac DVs and of iMovie, the first of Apple's first Digital Hub app |
| 5 Jan 2000 | At Macworld San Francisco, Steve Jobs drops the 'interim' in his title and officially becomes Apple’s CEO. He also demoes Mac OS X's revolutionary Aqua interface to a bewildered audience |
| 19 Jul 2000 | The Power Mac G4 Cube is unveiled at Macworld NY. It will be discontinued one year later because of disappointing sales |
| 9 Jan 2001 | Steve Jobs unveils Apple’s Digital Hub Strategy at Macworld: the Mac is to become the center of consumers' emerging digital lifestyles |
| 24 Mar 2001 | After four years of hard work, Mac OS X 10.0, the new incarnation of NeXTSTEP, ships |
| 19 May 2001 | Apple opens its first Retail Stores in Tysons Corner, Virginia and Glendale, California |
| 23 Oct 2001 | After an 8-month crash development program, Steve Jobs unveils iPod at a small media event on the company's campus. He has no idea how it will tranform Apple |
| 7 Jan 2002 | Steve unveils the iMac G4 and the fourth iApp, iPhoto, at Macworld San Francisco |
| Mid 2002 | Apple starts its popular 'Switch' campaign with ads picturing PC users that switched to the Mac |
| 17 Jul 2002 | Steve Jobs introduces the first Windows-compatible iPods at Macworld NY |
| 28 Apr 2003 | Apple opens the revolutionary online iTunes Music Store in the US, after negotiating landmark deals with all major music labels |
| 30 May 2003 | Opening day of Finding Nemo, Pixar’s first Best Animated Feature Academy Award winner |
| Spring 2003 | Following increasing tension with Michael Eisner, Steve Jobs announces that Pixar is seeking a new distributor to replace Disney after its contract expires |
| 23 Jun 2003 | Steve Jobs unveils the Power Mac G5, the world’s fastest computer, at WWDC |
| 16 Oct 2003 | \"The day hell froze over\": Steve Jobs introduces iTunes for Windows and further demonstrates Apple's growing lead over its competitors in the digital music business |
| Fall 2003 | Steve Jobs is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but stubbornly refuses any modern medical treatment for months. He tries alternative diets instead |
| 6 Jan 2004 | Steve unveils the iPod mini and the iLife suite at Macworld. The iPod mini will soon become the world's best-selling MP3 player and truly establish Apple as a consumer electronics powerhouse |
| Aug 2004 | Steve Jobs finally has his pancreatic tumor removed by surgery |
| 11 Jan 2005 | At Macworld San Francisco, Steve Jobs unveils Apple's productivity suite iWork, the new Mac mini, and the iPod shuffle, the cheapest iPod ever at $49 |
| 29 Apr 2005 | Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is released. A stable, fast release, it is immensely popular and marks the end of the four-year transition from the old Mac OS to UNIX-based Mac OS X |
| 6 Jun 2005 | At WWDC 2005, Steve Jobs announces that Apple is going to switch away from Motorola's and IBM's PowerPC architectures, and use Intel processors in its future Macs instead. This move will further help the growing adoption of the Mac |
| 12 Jun 2005 | Steve Jobs makes a memorable commencement speech at Stanford University. History will remember its closing remarks, Steve's advice to the young students: 'Stay hungry, stay foolish', a quote from the last page of the Whole Earth Catalogue from his youth |
| 7 Sep 2005 | Steve introduces the Motorola ROCKR, an iTunes-compatible cell phone, and the iPod nano |
| 12 Oct 2005 | Steve Jobs invites Disney’s new CEO Bob Iger on stage at an Apple Music Event where he also introduces the new iPod videos and the iTunes movie store |
| 10 Jan 2006 | Steve Jobs unveils the first two Intel Macs at Macworld, the iMac and the new MacBook Pro |
| 24 Jan 2006 | The Walt Disney Company acquires Pixar for $7.4 billion. Pixar's largest shareholder Steve Jobs joins the Disney board while Ed Catmull becomes president of the Walt Disney Animation Studios, and John Lasseter its chief creative officer |
| 28 Feb 2006 | Apple releases its first living-room product, the iPod hi-fi, discontinued a year and a half later |
| 18 Apr 2006 | Steve Jobs announces Apple’s intention to erect a second campus in Cupertino |
| Mid 2006 | Apple starts its famous 'Mac vs PC' campaign, a series of TV commercials featuring Justin Long as Mac and John Hodgman as PC. The campaign will last for three years and mark popular culture |
| 7 Aug 2006 | Apple completes the transition of its entire product line to the Intel platform with the new Mac Pro |
| 9 Jan 2007 | In his most memorable keynote presentation ever, at Macworld 2007, Steve Jobs introduces iPhone and its revolutionary touch-screen interface. He also introduces Apple TV and announces the company's name change from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc. to better reflect its new nature |
| Apr 2007 | The SEC files charges against Apple’s Nancy Heinen and Fred Anderson for options backdating |
| 29 Jun 2007 | iPhone is released in the US, the same day as Pixar’s 8th feature film, Ratatouille |
| 5 Dec 2007 | Steve Jobs is inducted in the California Hall of Fame by Gov. Schwartzenegger |
| 15 Jan 2008 | At Macworld 2008, Steve Jobs introduces MacBook Air, with the tagline 'the world's thinnest notebook'. Three years later, it will come to redefine all of Apple's notebook product line |
| 6 Mar 2008 | Apple announces it will open the iPhone platform to outside developers with the App Store. VC fund KPCB starts iFund to invest in the new mobile app economy that they (rightly) believe will sprout from it |
| 9 May 2008 | The press starts speculating about Steve Jobs's health as he appears very thin to unveil the iPhone 3G with an entry price of $199 on stage at WWDC |
| Aug 2008 | The SEC clears Steve Jobs of any responsibilities in the options backdating scandal |
| Late 2008 | Apple starts its popular 'There's an app for that' campaign to illustrate the growing popularity of the App Store and the thousands of iPhone apps it offers |
| 5 Jan 2009 | Steve Jobs announces he will not speak at Macworld 2009 because of his health, and takes a six-month medical leave of absence |
| Apr 2009 | Steve receives a liver transplant at the Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. He was weeks away from dying when he got the surgery |
| 3 Aug 2009 | Google CEO Eric Schmidt leaves Apple's board because of conflicting interests due to Android |
| 28 Aug 2009 | Apple releases Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, stripped off any code from the original Mac OS |
| 9 Sep 2009 | Back at Apple, Steve Jobs makes the first public appearance after his transplant to introduce new iPods at the 'It's Only Rock'N'Roll' event |
| 27 Jan 2010 | After months of wild rumors, Steve Jobs unveils iPad, 'the biggest thing Apple's ever done'. The tablet runs the same operating system as iPhone |
| 16 July 2010 | One month after the release of the new iPhone 4, Steve Jobs holds a press conference to address the smartphone's supposed reception issues, the so-called 'Antennagate' |
| 17 Jan 2011 | Jobs surprises the world by announcing his new medical leave of absence, without any end date |
| 2 Mar 2011 | Despite his medical leave, Steve Jobs takes the stage to unveil the new iPad 2 |
| 6 Jun 2011 | At his last keynote at WWDC 2011, a freil Steve Jobs unveils Apple's cloud offering, iCloud, the foundation for the next decade of Apple products |
| 7 Jun 2011 | Steve Jobs appears at the Cupertino City Council to unveil Apple's plans for its new 'Spaceship' campus. This is his last public appearance |
| 24 Aug 2011 | Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple, with the words 'I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.' Tim Cook becomes Apple CEO |
| 5 Oct 2011 | Steve Jobs dies at home, surrounded by his family |
| 24 Oct 2011 | After two years of work, and forty interviews with Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson publishes his authorized biography of the Apple and Pixar co-founder, simply named Steve Jobs |
Steve Jobs’ 1973 job application
major: English literature
skills: (computer, calculator, design, tech)
Apple went public on this day in 1980. The IPO was considered too risky for investors in Massachusetts.
Apple's $AAPL stock performance each full year since going public:
1981: -35.1% 🔴
1982: +34.9% 🟢
1983: -18.4% 🔴
1984: +19.5% 🟢
1985: -24.5% 🔴
1986: +84.1% 🟢
1987: +108% 🟢
1988: -3.4% 🔴
1989: -11.6% 🔴
1990: +23.5% 🟢
1991: +32.4% 🟢
1992: +6.9% 🟢
1993: -50.5% 🔴
1994: +35.2% 🟢
1995: -17.3% 🔴
1996: -34.5% 🔴
1997: -37.1% 🔴
1998: +211.7% 🟢
1999: +151.1% 🟢
2000: -71.1% 🔴
2001: +47.2% 🟢
2002: -34.6% 🔴
2003: +49.1% 🟢
2004: +201.3% 🟢
2005: +123.3% 🟢
2006: +18% 🟢
2007: +133.5% 🟢
2008: -56.9% 🔴
2009: +146.9% 🟢
2010: +53.1% 🟢
2011: +25.6% 🟢
2012: +32.6% 🟢
2013: +8.1% 🟢
2014: +40.6% 🟢
2015: -3% 🔴
2016: +12.5% 🟢
2017: +48.5 🟢
2018: -5.4% 🔴
2019: +89% 🟢
2020: +82.3% 🟢
2021: +34.7% 🟢
2022: -26.4% 🔴
2023*: +27% 🟢
Thanks for reading!
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