Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography
Walter Isaacson
£25
Little, Brown
“So you’ve uncovered the fact that I am an asshole. Why is that news?” This is Steve Jobs’ now infamous riposte to Fortune Magazine in response to an unfavourable article. Indeed, to anyone following the career of the Apple CEO, it wasn’t news. Following his death in 2011, Walter Isaacson’s searing biography does not exactly hold any jaw-dropping revelations, it simply lays bare the man. The most surprising thing about the book is, though written with the full cooperation of Jobs, Isaacson was not subject to any kind of control from a man who was, according to his own wife, adept at spin. In fact he made just one change: the cover design.
Jobs the man
The biography is comprised of unprecedented access to family, friends, and even enemies. This list of “characters” at the opening may appear gimmicky, yet the cast list grows so quickly it ends up being quite helpful. The method of conducting interviews with every key player in Jobs’ life makes the biographer’s presence almost evaporate. Though he holds a great deal of admiration for his subject, he does not allow the book to become simply a tome of hero-worship. Isaacson presents Jobs as a manager with a great ability to create reaction amongst his professional peers. Often positive, many times negative, what comes to the fore is the way people responded to his ideas, his persuasions, his probing questions and his steely gaze, a trait captured so effectively in the cover photography.
We are led through a working class childhood defined by his adoption, to an LSD-fuelled anarchic rebellion that provided the foundation for the fearless and anti mainstream creativity of the Silicon Valley dons. So far, so hackneyed. We then gain a little more enlightenment as we learn how Robert Friedland, in the days before he developed his mining empire, impacted on the young Steve as a leader. “[Friedland] was mercurial, sure of himself, a little dictatorial, Steve admired that.” It is then we come to a frank, if somewhat stark account of the birth of his first daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, and his subsequent rejection of her – the first skeleton to be “allowed” out of the closet. She was eight when they started to form a relationship, but they never really meshed as personalities. In a direct quote Jobs admits that he wishes he’d handled things differently, before Isaacson moves swiftly on to the chapter titled Xerox and Lisa, referring to the curiously named Apple Lisa computer. Lisa the daughter is not mentioned again.
Jobs the manager
I for one, am glad to have never worked for Jobs. But many people did, often recurrently and for long periods of time. He gave them hell; that much is clear, even claiming credit for their input along the way, but they were always dedicated to the cause. In a telling quote from Jobs, he states that there was the same level of purity and love for the company amongst his collaborators that he held – so much so that it made him cry. His single mindedness was, sadly, his ultimate failing as a manager of people. He knew the impact he had on people, and he knew exactly how his words and actions could intimidate and hurt others. Yet to his credit he knew how to get the very best from people – as one colleague states in the final chapter, Legacy: “He got them to do things they never dreamed possible”.
Ultimately we learn that Jobs was creative, but not a creator – he was simply brilliant at piecing great ideas together to make an outstanding product and iconic corporate identity. It is a fascinating story of an astute businessman whose fierce attention to detail changed the face of computer technology across the globe, even for those who consider themselves immune to the cult of Apple. And true to mould-breaking form, the closing paragraphs of the book are not from the biographer, but from Jobs himself. Who else could have possibly had the last word?
Presentation Genius of Steve Jobs
For more than 3 decades, Steve Jobs transformed product launches into an art form. So, although you might not have an iPad to unveil, you can still learn a lot from his legacy.
This new eBook reveals the strategies used by former Apple CEO Steve Jobs to deliver powerful presentations that informed, educated and entertained.
Download the eBook to learn:
- Why the first lesson of presenting is to go old school
- What’s behind the rule of 3 in presentations
- How to distill your product description to 140 characters or fewer
- And more…