iCon Steve Jobs

"Flowering and Withering"

Steve Jobs has always had charisma. In his early career as head of Apple Computer, Inc., some said that was all he had. But by the time he took the MacWorld Expo stage in January 2000 to announce that he was returning as Apple’s permanent CEO, he was a changed man. Fifteen years of failure had humbled and humanized him. Even long-estranged Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was moved to tears by the sight of the man Jobs had become.

Born in 1955, Jobs grew up in California, a willful, free-spirited young loner with a penchant for trouble. In his high school years, he already was fascinated with electronics. In 1969, he met Wozniak, known as "Woz," who was five years older and already an electronics whiz. Jobs attended college but soon dropped out. He embraced the hippie lifestyle, drugs, Zen and Eastern philosophy. After months spent traveling India in rags, he returned to California and started a thriving business with Woz. They built and sold "blue boxes" that let users make long distance calls for free. In 1976, Jobs, then 21, and Wozniak officially started a new business to build computers for hobbyists. Jobs chose the name Apple Computer.