At the D8 Conference, hosted by The Wall Street Journal in June 2010, Steve Jobs described how Apple’s organisational structure operated like a startup despite being one of the largest companies in the world. This interview marked one of his last major public appearances before his demise. By then, he had transformed a start-up into one of the world’s most valuable companies, illustrating his visionary leadership—brilliantly chronicled in Walter Isaacson’s biography ‘Steve Jobs’ as a lesson in entrepreneurship, leadership, and innovation. Every aspiring entrepreneur should read this book, as it offers deeper insights than the ubiquitous start-up conferences that have become increasingly common these days.

It’s also invaluable to seasoned professionals looking to scale their business, reignite passion, and drive innovation. Tech enthusiasts will find the history of Silicon Valley and the remarkable evolution of computers truly fascinating. Similarly, economists and think tanks will appreciate this book for its real-world insights into economies of scale, the power of momentum in shaping economies, and how policy decisions can spark transformation, as evidenced by the transformation of Santa Clara Valley into Silicon Valley.

I was intrigued by Steve Jobs when he coined the phrase ‘Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish (SHSF)’ but no one could fully convince me of what he truly meant. SHSF stuck with me for a long time as an enigmatic & mysterious phrase until I read his biography. SHSF is an outcome of the period Jobs lived, the nexus of counterculture, alternative values, cyberpunks, and technology. SHSF is also a manifestation of Job’s character & personality. He was a complex and difficult person. He was a perfectionist, petulant, demanding, aspirational, manipulative, and insensitive, to the point he was difficult to deal with.

He had a towering vision and with his reality distortion field, he could convince people of anything, and in his presence, reality became malleable. He had the sense that he was special, a chosen one and the author alludes to Nietzsche’s quote from ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’ to explain this, “The spirit now wills his own will, & he who had been lost to the world now conquers the world”. After I read this book, I must admit I disliked Steve Job as a person, a testament to how honest work Walter Isaacson has done. Yet, Jobs’ life offers invaluable lessons for all of us. It is enriching, inspiring and motivational.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple by investing $1300—money that Wozniak raised by selling his HP-65 Calculator and Jobs by selling his Volkswagens bus. Apple’s journey began in the garage of Jobs’ family home in Los Altos, where his parents, Paul and Clara Jobs, worked alongside them to build the first Apple I computer.

By the time Mike Scott joined as Apple’s president, the company had secured a line of credit, moved out of Jobs’ garage, rented an office, and finally started to feel like a real business. The story of how Apple, born in a humble garage, evolved into the world’s most valuable company is inspiring and humbling. Around 1984, Jobs and Apple hired John Sculley, then president of Pepsi-Cola, to lead Apple. Soon, their relationship deteriorated, and when the showdown between the two ensued, the board of Apple and senior employees sided with Scully, forcing Jobs out of the company he had founded. This pivotal chapter in the book is metaphorically titled ‘Icarus’, referencing the Greek mythological character who flies too close to the Sun and tragically dies as a result. The expression Icarus is used as shorthand for someone who is too ambitious and suffers devastating consequences, reflecting the story of Job’s high & low. Isaacson’s use of metaphors is subtle yet impactful, much like Apple’s Bauhaus-inspired aesthetic and its signature sans-serif typography—minimalist yet powerful.

Likewise, the chapter on Jobs’ dramatic return to Apple where he seized control by ousting CEO Gil Amelio and the board—is titled ‘What rough beast, its hour come round at last,’ a line from WB Yeats’ poem ‘The Second Coming’. The phrase suggests the arrival of a powerful and inevitable force—an apt metaphor for Jobs’ resurgence. Another chapter, ‘Prometheus Unbound’, borrows its title from Shelley’s lyrical drama, which reimagines the myth of Prometheus—the Titan who defied Zeus by stealing fire from the gods and giving it to humanity. Perhaps Isaacson alludes to Jobs as a modern-day Prometheus, a visionary whose relentless drive to bring ‘fire’ (innovation) reshaped the world. Though the book delves into technical advancements and digital nuances, it is not short of literary devices.

While many will remember the book for portraying Steve Jobs as either a genius or a jerk and for chronicling his global impact, what stands out to me is Isaacson’s writing style. It reflects Jobs’ philosophy of perfection, sophistication, and minimalism. The language is clear yet graceful, demonstrating Isaacson’s mastery of storytelling. For instance, when Bob Dylan agrees to appear in an iPod ad, Isaacson likens it to ‘flipping the script’, much like Tom Sawyer getting his friends to whitewash a fence. Similarly, Bono’s partnership proposal is captured with ‘Any other CEO would have joined the mosh pit’, and Jobs’ showdown with IBM is described as ‘taking it to the hilt’, echoing Bob Dylan’s words: ‘If you’re not busy being born, you’re busy dying.’

The narratives on the launch of once-in-a-lifetime products like iPod, iPhone & iPad and the immense efforts behind them, are truly a revelation. The emergence and evolution of Mac & Windows operating systems, the contest between closed and open-looped systems, the legendary rivalry between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and the war between Apple phone and Android phone makes for a gripping read.

By the time you finish reading this book, you will appreciate how personal laptops and mobile devices have evolved over the last two to three decades, which heralded a fundamental shift in the digital world. What we have today in our digital world would not have been possible without Steve Jobs’s reality distortion field, Bill Gates’s pragmatic wisdom, Tim Cook’s operational mastery, Steve Wozniacki’s technical brilliance, and the relentless drive of countless other innovators who have shaped the tech landscape.

The ending of the book leaves you with profound sadness. Even an emotionally agnostic person like me couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of sympathy reading about his struggles with health, his passion for his work, and his extraordinary, death-defying returns. Once back at work, his relentless dedication was nothing short of inspiring. Most people would have either broken down or retired, but Jobs shows us what true perseverance looks like. He died at the age of 56, and his last words were ‘Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow’. Writing a biography of a complex personality like Steve Jobs must have been a demanding task. It required geometric precision, a poetic touch, and just the right amount of white space—all blended seamlessly into a masterpiece well worth taking home.

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Steve Jobs

Author: Walter Isaacson

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Year: 2011