Steve Jobs and His Success - Essay Example

Throughout his lifetime Jobs innovated a great number of products and brought Apple from the brink of bankruptcy to become one of the world’s most profitable technology companies. The reasons for Job’s success are diverse, but his commitment to quality and image is perhaps the central thorough-put of his career.

Job’s success dates back to the early 1980s. During this period he teamed with collaborator Steve Wozniak and developed the Apple I computer (Isaacson). While Wozniak was the technical development of the project it was Jobs who recognized the computer’s potential and was able to successfully market it. It was also Jobs who recognized the seminal importance of the mouse to computers. He would incorporate this technology from Xerox years before the organization recognized how prescient their innovation had been. After a period Job would enter into a conflict of interest with the executives at Apple, Inc. and would leave to start a company referred to as NeXT (Isaacson). With NeXT, Jobs worked to design the most qualified computer possible. While this company would eventually prove to be a commercial failure, much of the technology Jobs developed here would later be implemented in the Macbook. After leaving NeXT, Jobs would return to Apple, Inc. and revolutionize the fields of music through the iPad, computer technology through the Macbook, the telephone through the iPhone, and even publishing through the iPad.   

While Jobs studied at Reed College during his formative years, he would take a variety of courses with seemingly no function. For instance, Jobs took a calligraphy course (Isaacson). He would later drop out of Reed College and travel to Asia where he would study in a Buddhist monastery (Isaacson). These experiences would have a profound influence on Steve Job’s thoughts and later life success. While Jobs was first a technological innovator, he also recognized the importance of products as having an important emotional quality. When one considers the Apple name and logo the nature of Job’s unique vision is demonstrated. Throughout Job’s life he would continue to imbue his products with this attention to design and image; both qualities he learned in part from his experience in design classes such as the calligraphy course he took. One considers that the Macintosh doesn’t have a traditional off switch because Job didn’t believe in a traditional beginning and end, as influenced by his Buddhist background (Isaacson).  

While Job’s success is ostensibly attributed to his ability to design highly functional products that people would buy en masse, he can also be seen as an almost cult leader.