Based on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs
conducted over two years - as well as interviews
with more than a hundred family members, friends,
adversaries, competitors and colleagues -this book
chronicles the rollercoaster life and searingly intense
personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion
for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six
industries: personal computers, animated movies, music,
phoncs, tablct computing and digital publishing.
At a time when societies around the world are trying to
build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate
icon of inventiveness and applied imagination He knew
that the best way to create value in the twenty-first
century was to connect creativity with technology, so
he built a company where leaps of the imagination wvere
combined with remarkable feats of engineering.
Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for
no control over what was written, nor even the right
to read it before it was published. He Put nothing off
limits and instead encouraged the people he knew to
speak honestly. "T've done a lot of things I'm not proud
of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23
and the way I handled that," he said. But I don't have
any skeletons in my closet that can't be allowed out."
Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally, about the
people he worked with and competed against. Likewise,
his friends, foes and colleagues provide an unvarnished
view of the passions, demons, perfectionism, desires,
artistry, devilry and obsession for control that shaped
his approach to business and the innovative products
that resulted.
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Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair.
But his personality and products were interrelated, just
as Apple's hardware and software tended to be, His
extraordinary tale, told through this masterly biography,
is filled with lessons about innovation, character, values
and leadership.