Steve Jobs as one of the most influential business leaders of our time - Term Paper Example

Sadly for Steve, he never knew the love of his parents who later on decided to get married and then have another child, a daughter they named Mona. The unwanted baby was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs who by profession were an accountant and coast guard veteran respectively. They lived in the Mountain View area of Silicone Valley where as a boy, Steve was influenced by his fathers affinity for all things electronic. He would spend many a day and hours learning how to take electronic things apart and put them back together from his father.

It was this activity that kick-started Steve's lifelong love affair with all things electronic and technical. Always a man ahead of his time, a young Steven had problems adjusting to regular academic life. He was known as a prankster at school who needed to be coaxed into completing his tasks. Though unfocused and unwilling to sit down and be taught, the principal of his school and his teachers agreed that his boredom and restlessness came from the fact that his intellectual ability was not challenged at his current academic level.

The boy tested with a high school learning curve as early as the 4th grade but his parents refused to let the school accelerate him to the proper academic level as dictated by his intellectual quotient exams. By 1971, Steve found himself enrolled at Homestead High School where he would go on to meet Apple co-founder and future business partner Steve Wozniak. Wozniak was, at the time, attending the University of Michigan. Both men had an affinity for computers and other common interests, including an independent mind attitude about how things should be done in the world.

It was also this close affinity that would lead to their parting of their business ways later on in their lives. (“Steve Jobs”) Although Steve enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, his lack of direction in life led hi to drop out after only 6 months. He would then spend 18 months in creative classes where he would develop a keen interest in calligraphy, which became one of the most notable aspects of Apple Computers later on. In 1974, Steve tried his hand at working for a computer software company and found himself employed at Atari.

But even this exposure to the business side of computers left Steve aimless. He spent a period of time trying to find spiritual fulfillment in India along with his use of psychedelic drugs. This was the time when the aimless boy began to find himself and develop into an innovative thinker, far ahead of his time. By 1976 he had convinced Wozniack to team up with him so they could establish Apple Computers with its head office located in his parent's garage. Steve Job's vision at this time was to create a personal computer far different from the mainframes that offices were using this era.

His was going to be small enough to fit in a corner in the home and be easy enough for even a child to use. With Wozniack's help, the two men created the first personal computer for home use. Their first Apple computer was sold for $666.66 each. It was from that sale that the home office began to grow to eventually become the juggernaut computer software and hardware leader that it has now become. But the Apple computer as Steve Wozniack had put it together was far from perfect. Jobs knew that there was room for improvement.

He just could not put his finger on what that improvement needed to be.