Becoming Steve Jobs
The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader
-
- $7.99
-
- $7.99
Publisher Description
There have been many books—on a large and small scale—about Steve Jobs, one of the most famous CEOs in history. But this book is different from all the others.
Becoming Steve Jobs takes on and breaks down the existing myth and stereotypes about Steve Jobs. The conventional, one-dimensional view of Jobs is that he was half-genius, half-jerk from youth, an irascible and selfish leader who slighted friends and family alike. Becoming Steve Jobs answers the central question about the life and career of the Apple cofounder and CEO: How did a young man so reckless and arrogant that he was exiled from the company he founded become the most effective visionary business leader of our time, ultimately transforming the daily life of billions of people?
Drawing on incredible and sometimes exclusive access, Schlender and Tetzeli tell a different story of a real human being who wrestled with his failings and learned to maximize his strengths over time. Their rich, compelling narrative is filled with stories never told before from the people who knew Jobs best, and who decided to open up to the authors, including his family, former inner circle executives, and top people at Apple, Pixar and Disney, most notably Tim Cook, Jony Ive, Eddy Cue, Ed Catmull, John Lasseter, Robert Iger and many others. In addition, Brent knew Jobs personally for 25 years and draws upon his many interviews with him, on and off the record, in writing the book. He and Rick humanize the man and explain, rather than simply describe, his behavior. Along the way, the book provides rich context about the technology revolution we all have lived through, and the ways in which Jobs changed our world.
Schlender and Tetzeli make clear that Jobs's astounding success at Apple was far more complicated than simply picking the right products: he became more patient, he learned to trust his inner circle, and discovered the importance of growing the company incrementally rather than only shooting for dazzling game-changing products.
A rich and revealing account that will change the way we view Jobs, Becoming Steve Jobs shows us how one of the most colorful and compelling figures of our times was able to combine his unchanging, relentless passion with a more mature management style to create one of the most valuable and beloved companies on the planet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The late Apple CEO changes from brilliant, erratic, insufferable jerk to steady, perspicacious, tolerable jerk in this shrewdly admiring biography. Journalist Schlender and Fast Company editor Tetzeli focus on the years after Jobs's 1985 ouster from Apple and then on his 1997 return to guide the company's resurgence with a string of hit iProducts. They depict a spiritual journey, with Jobs wandering in the wilderness at NeXT Computer, where his confused, tyrannical fiats almost sank the company, and then at Pixar, where he learned the art of not interfering with talented subordinates; he emerged a more patient man with a tempered strategic outlook and an ability to listen to underlings when they screamed back at him. Schlender and Tetzeli's account is unusually intimate thanks to voluminous interviews and Schlender's many personal encounters with Jobs over decades of covering him, and a reverential tone sometimes surfaces as when Jobs's lieutenant Tim Cook offered Jobs his own liver for a transplant in this corrective to Walter Isaacson's more jaundiced biography. But the authors are clear-eyed about Jobs's flaws and give lucid, detailed analyses of his maneuverings and product initiatives; theirs is one of the most nuanced and revealing assessments of Jobs's controversial career. Photos.
Customer Reviews
The Best on Jobs
This book shows all sides of Jobs' life
False to paint as complete a picture as Issacson’s Steve Jobs
The author makes no secret that they felt Walter Issacson failed to provide a complete or accurate portrait of Jobs. And their tone often makes it seem like Jobs’ widow and friends financed and supported the book specifically to repair his image. Unfortunately, while their are interesting anecdotes that weren’t in Issacson’s more excellent biography, the author’s voice steps in to interpret, apologize, and explain how we should view each presented episode from Jobs’ life, rather than allow the reader to form their own judgements. The end result is that Jobs comes off as LESS sympathetic than in the Issacson biography, and the book becomes a slog to read after a few chapters. It doesn’t read like a biography but rather an apology. I fear that both Jobs’ close friends and the author fail to understand why t he public finds him admirable and fascinating. His public image did not need to be defended. Nor can certain behaviours and actions be explained away, regardless of what logical loopholes and back bends the author presents.
It is an adequate companion book for those that want to continue getting glimpses of the man, and have already read Issacson’s better book.
truly insightful, not like his official autobio which was tabloid junk
Jobs made some bad decisions and many good ones. The bad ones caused great harm- one was hiring Sculley, a visionless backstabber; the other was selecting Walter Isaacson, the resentful “writer” who smeared Jobs because he couldn’t accept that a man much younger than himself had accomplished so much while he, someone at the end of his career, never accomplished anything noteworthy. ‘Becoming Steve Jobs’ is the book that everyone really wanted to read: The one that focuses on helping people to understand what made this man great; not what made him normal- if you want normal, just look anywhere and you will see it; you don’t have to buy a book to learn about normal. As much as Isaacson’s official biography was personally vindictive and condescending to the point of being clearly prejudiced- in short, worse than tabloid garbage which is sensationalist but at least not vindictive, Schlender & Tetzeli have created a tour de force in pulling together, in an objective and unbiased fashion, the strings from this complex man’s life, and weaving them together into a credible analysis of the growth and decision-making processes of this great man. They included personalized anecdotes that help the reader to learn the thought processes and experiences that helped shape Jobs, and how his singular personality allowed him to grow, and how his personal growth in turn allowed him create the globally transformative phenomenon (besides being most valuable company in the world) that is Apple, all, incredibly within a decade of it’s presumed inevitable demise. A must read.