Leadership - Steve Jobs

STEVE JOBS

Background

* Steven “Steve” Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco, California to two University of Wisconsin graduate students; Joanne Schieble and Abdulfattah "John" Jandali, who gave him up for adoption. (Editors, 2016)

* The young infant was later adopted and raised by Clara and Paul Jobs. (Isaacson, Steve Jobs, 2011)

* As a boy, Jobs and his father worked on electronics in the family garage. Paul showed his son how to take apart and reconstruct electronics, a hobby that instilled confidence, tenacity and mechanical prowess in young Jobs. (Isaacson, Steve Jobs, 2011)

* While Jobs was always an intelligent and innovative thinker, his youth was riddled with frustrations over formal schooling. (Editors, 2016)

* After high school, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Lacking direction, he dropped out of college after six months and spent the next 18 months dropping in on creative classes at the school.

Strengths

Focus

* Jobs had the uncanny ability to coalesce ideas and intellect of truly great people. His Zen training (Silberman, 2016) helped him weed out unnecessary distractions; which at times, inadvertently albeit, included his family, colleagues, legal problems and medical diagnoses. (Isaacson, Steve Jobs, 2011) (Isaacson, Harvard Business Review, 2016)

Passion & Perfection

* “A true craftsman uses a good piece of wood even for the back of a cabinet against the wall”. These were words that Jobs lived by. Jobs had great passion for product excellence.  He insisted on elegant design and simplicity. (Isaacson, Steve Jobs, 2011) (Zenger, 2016)

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish

* Jobs stayed hungry and foolish throughout his career by making sure that the business and engineering aspect of his personality was always complemented by a hippie nonconformist side from his days as an artistic, enlightenment-seeking rebel. (Isaacson, Harvard Business Review, 2016)

Charisma

* Jobs became a great leader also...