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Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader Kindle Edition
Becoming Steve Jobs breaks down the conventional, one-dimensional view of Steve Jobs that he was half-genius, half-jerk from youth, an irascible and selfish leader who slighted friends and family alike. Becoming Steve Jobsanswers 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, 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, Schlender 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 Tetzeli humanize the man and explain, rather than simply describe, his behavior. Along the way, the book provides rich context about the technology revolution we've all lived through, and the ways in which Jobs changed our world.
A rich and revealing account, 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 an evolution in management style to create one of the most valuable and beloved companies on the planet.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherCrown Currency
- Publication dateMarch 24, 2015
- File size19167 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
—Ed Catmull, president, Disney Animation and Pixar
"Steve Jobs is the person who most inspires the new generation of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. In this deeply-researched book, you'll find the most truthful portrait of the real Steve Jobs."
— Marc Andreessen
"Smart, accurate, informative, insightful and at times, utterly heartbreaking.... Becoming Steve Jobs is going to be an essential reference for decades to come."
— John Gruber, Daring Fireball
About the Author
RICK TETZELI, executive editor of Fast Company, has covered technology for two decades. He is the former deputy editor of Fortune, and editor of Entertainment Weekly.
Product details
- ASIN : B00N6PCWY8
- Publisher : Crown Currency; Reprint edition (March 24, 2015)
- Publication date : March 24, 2015
- Language : English
- File size : 19167 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 482 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #468,024 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #148 in Business Technology Innovation
- #260 in Venture Capital (Books)
- #305 in Biographies of Business Professionals
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Rick Tetzeli, co-author of Becoming Steve Jobs, is executive editor of Fast Company. An award-winning journalist, he has covered technology and business for twenty years, and was one of the first business reporters to write about the Internet. After stints as the deputy editor of Fortune and the editor of Entertainment Weekly, Rick ran Assignment: Detroit, Time Inc.'s unprecedented year-long coverage of the city. He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife Mari, and their three children, Anya, Tal, and Jonah.
Brent Schlender, 61 years old, is a writer, editor, and author, best known for his award-winning magazine profiles of prominent entrepreneurs and business leaders of the Digital Revolution. In 2010, SVForum, the largest and oldest industry organization in Silicon Valley, awarded Schlender its Visionary Award for personifying the spirit innovation and entrepreneurship with his journalism. In March of 2015, Crown Business published "Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader," the culmination of a three-year collaboration between Schlender and writing partner Rick Tetzeli.
Schlender has been writing analytical business feature stories with a literary flair for more than 30 years, first for The Wall Street Journal starting in the late 1970s, and continuing after 1989 through a 20-year career as a bureau chief and editor-at-large for FORTUNE magazine. More recently, he has contributed to Fast Company magazine. Over the decades, he wrote dozens of in-depth feature stories about the exploits of many of Silicon Valley's most famous figures - Apple's Steve Jobs, Intel's Andy Grove and Craig Barrett, Oracle's Larry Ellison, Sun's Scott McNealy and Bill Joy, Google's Eric Schmidt, and Pixar's John Lasseter and Ed Catmull, to name just a few.
Schlender also is considered the journalistic authority on Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, who he first met in 1985. And in the meantime, he wrote extensively about Sony Corp., developing close relationships with many of the company's CEOs, starting with founder Akio Morita. During Peter Drucker's final years, Schlender wrote annual articles for FORTUNE based on extensive, in-depth interviews with the famous management guru. His stories have been characterized by his extended and intimate access to his subjects, and by the depth of his background reporting and knowledge of business and technology. But his writing also reflects his extensive worldly experience of working and living abroad, primarily in China, Japan, and Latin America.
A native of McPherson, Kansas, Schlender and his wife of 31 years, Lorna Jacoby, live in San Mateo, CA. He has other creative interests as well. In 1999-2000 he collaborated with film director Robert Altman and cartoonist Garry Trudeau to develop a dramatic television series called "Killer App" that explored the genius, greed, skullduggery and vanity of Silicon Valley. And for many years he played tenor saxophone in a Bay Area jazz and rhythm and blues ensemble. More recently, he has been exploring the possibilities for making digital, visual art.
Customer reviews
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Customers find the narrative compelling and enjoyable to read. They also praise the writing quality as very well written and balanced. Readers describe the book as engaging and personal. They find the content interesting and insightful, with a nice touch of the personal. Customers describe the content as first-class business journalism on the evolution of the Apple. They say it's a well-researched and well-told story that confirms what those closest to Jobs say.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book interesting, insightful, and inspirational. They also appreciate the nice touch of the personal, humane side of Steve. Readers describe the book as first-class business journalism and a fascinating look at him and his company.
"...This is a fascinating look at him and his company, and after reading it I have the feeling that I may be just a bit closer to understanding what he..." Read more
"...executives and others who were close to Steve, this is a more accurate portrayal of Steve as a person than is to be found in the Walter Isaacson book..." Read more
"...Schlender’s and Tetzeli’s book is first-class business journalism on the evolution of the Information Technology field, with Steve Jobs and a few..." Read more
"...Rather, it confirms in a well-researched and well-told story what those closest to Jobs have said for years: that despite his weaknesses -- many of..." Read more
Customers find the narrative compelling, fascinating, and chronological. They also appreciate the moving ending.
"This is a fascinating biography that I enjoyed very much, but before getting into the details of the book itself I want to quickly go back in time..." Read more
"...The heartfelt, moving ending of this book is my favorite part...." Read more
"...go, Walt Isaacson’s book, in retrospect, serves as a great story with great accuracy about the man who was perceived as Steve Jobs. “..." Read more
"...Rather, it confirms in a well-researched and well-told story what those closest to Jobs have said for years: that despite his weaknesses -- many of..." Read more
Customers find the writing quality of the book very well written and personal. They appreciate the honest airing of both Steve's faults and strengths.
"...He is a great writer and a good biographer...." Read more
"Readable, insightful, memorable...." Read more
"...I give three out of five stars in that the book is reasonably well-written, although the narrative does waver and back-track on occasion...." Read more
"...was actually written by two different authors, it is impossible to discern which author wrote which part of the book, so we must group them together..." Read more
Customers find the book well-written, engaging, and personal.
"...I highly recommend this book as it is well written, it is engaging and it feels very personal...." Read more
"...great writer, and this book tells Jobs' story in a fascinating and engaging way." Read more
"Informative, fascinating, and entertaining, this book is everything the Isaacson book should have been but wasn’t." Read more
"...A little slow at times, but it always picked up. I enjoyed the stroll down memory lane, and have recommended it to others." Read more
Customers find the composition very balanced, clear, and unique. They also say the book provides a more balanced view of what made Steve Jobs tick.
"...This excellent book is a more balanced approach to understanding one of the most iconic figures in our time...." Read more
"Fair, as ups and downs of Steve Jobs' life have their fair share of mention in the book, in an appropriate fashion such that none will overshadow or..." Read more
"...It's as clear and balanced an account of the life of Steve Jobs that I have read thus far...." Read more
"...the business decisions and context of those, but this book provided a more balanced view of what made Steve Jobs tick, and how he evolved and..." Read more
Customers find the book very moving and touching.
"...It brought tears to my eyes repeatedly. It is a very moving and touching book, one that calls on you to be the greater version of your own self,..." Read more
"...The result is a fascinating and deeply moving account of the struggles and triumphs of Steve as he moves around this wonderful playground full of..." Read more
"...The book is informative, inspiring and moving." Read more
"...It is thoughtful and moving. I read it on my iPhone." Read more
Customers find the book engaging, personal, and touching. They also say it's entertaining.
"...this book as it is well written, it is engaging and it feels very personal. You won't be disappointed with what you will find in this book." Read more
"The narrative jumps around, but the feeling is genuine. It feels much more like a real reflection of Steve Jobs than what Walter Issacson provided...." Read more
"Very different tone from the Isaac' book.Much more human touch and texture...." Read more
"Bravo. Touching and unflinching. And entertaining.Much better than Isaacson's bio. Wish there was more...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book. Some find it good and weaves in both personal and professional moments, while others say it's a little slow at times.
"...'s book was far more interesting, information packed, and moved so much faster, without a wasted word...." Read more
"...That said, this is still a great book. While it starts slow (the first chapter is terrible), it really takes off once it gets into Steve Jobs'..." Read more
"...The pace is good and weaves in both personal and professional moments in Jobs' life evenly...." Read more
"It was really a very good book! A little slow at times, but it always picked up...." Read more
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Jobs had agreed to be interviewed by Isaacson over the course of the final two years of his life, and when Isaacson's biography of Jobs was published less than three weeks after his death, on October 24, 2011, it immediately became a bestseller. His book was taken as the most thorough and authoritative description of Jobs that had been written. It did have the cooperation of Jobs himself, and did become the benchmark biography of Jobs (until today). It pulled few punches in describing Jobs volatility throughout his life and in managing his businesses. The view of most was probably that the Isaacson book was tough but fair, because the stories of how difficult Jobs could be were well known and undisputed.
Now that a couple of years have gone by and people have had a chance to adjust to Jobs death and reflect, it turns out that there was a need for a more balanced look at his life, one that doesn't overlook his failings but also gives more credit to not only his great technological leadership but also his humanity and his great talents as a leader of men and women. Especially interesting are the stories of his growth as a person, and how he did learn to be more understanding and compassionate in dealing with people. We learn through reading this book that this was something he acknowledged and worked hard at improving. He knew he had faults and he tried to limit them (not always successfully). We are all aware of his accomplishments - he led and inspired (and demanded) the talented people at Apple to innovate and exceed their own expectations time after time, and although he was a stern taskmaster he also drove them to design and engineer products that were sensational to use and experience. They were transformative to industries. Jobs may not have been perfect, nobody is claiming that, but these things do not happen solely through bullying, there has to be more to it than that.
And there is more to it than that. This new biography of Jobs brings out those other aspects of Jobs life and personality. And no doubt it benefits from the time that has gone by since his death, which has given everyone involved a chance to get some distance from the events of his life and put them in perspective.
This book also has an even more significant difference, I feel: the authors, Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, are two gentlemen who have known the computer industry and Jobs for many years. Schlender in particular had a relationship with Jobs that spanned almost 25 years. He did not meet Jobs for the first time when they began working on the book (and this is one of the most important differences in comparing this book to the earlier biography, because Isaacson did not know Jobs prior to working on that book, and he did not have the strong background in the computer industry that both Schlender and Tetzeli possess. He was, and is, an accomplished and well respected biographer and business executive, and among other things has been the CEO of the Aspen Institute for a number of years). Bringing out this personal connection right at the beginning, the book starts with Schlender talking about his first meeting with Jobs, in April of 1986, when he was working for the Wall Street Journal and stationed in San Francisco and he drove down to Palo Alto to meet with Jobs at the NeXT headquarters.
A couple of years ago, when Schlender and Tetzeli approached Apple with their plan to write this book, they were not able to obtain the cooperation of the company or its executives. Then, after a year and a half of continued effort, the door was finally opened. They were able to meet with Apple people, as well as with Jobs widow, and the resulting fresh materials, together with the notes and documents they had already gathered, going back many years, gave them an unequalled resource of information to produce this new biography.
This book provides a more comprehensive look at Jobs full career, not just the Apple years (parts I and II). There is a great deal of material describing his time at both NeXT and Pixar that I was unfamiliar with. Those years when he was separated from Apple were very important in understanding and illustrating the evolution Jobs went through as a manager and as a person over the course of his life. The executives Ed Catmull, and John Lasseter at Pixar, and Bob Iger at Disney, for example, were very influential to Jobs and this was interesting to read about. (This is a time period of his life that was almost completely overlooked in the earlier Isaacson biography).
This 13-year period, beginning in September, 1985, when Jobs resigned from Apple after John Scully essentially stripped all of Jobs responsibilities from him, until late 1998 when he returned to Apple following Apple's acquisition of NeXT and the removal of Gil Amelio as CEO, is covered in detail in this book and was, to me, most interesting. It was during this period that Steve tried unsuccessfully to reproduce the magic of the Mac in the new NeXT computer, acquired a creative and well-functioning team at Pixar that resisted his micromanaging and taught him how to more skillfully lead a high performing creative group. It was also during this time that he met his future wife, Laurene Powell, married and began to raise a family. Pixar achieved it's first major success when the movie Toy Story was produced in 1995; that eventually led to his return to great wealth when Pixar was sold to Disney. All of these experiences combined over time to produce a more thoughtful and measured manager who, by the time he was asked to lead Apple again, was a far different person than the imperious and demanding 20-something who had co-founded Apple and then skyrocketed to fame and fortune when he was probably too young to handle it.
And while some are now criticising this book as being more forgiving regarding Jobs, especially when compared to the Isaacson biography, I'll add one story that speaks volumes to me regarding this 'other side' of Jobs. When he returned to Apple in 1998, he faced a terribly difficult situation, the company had it's least inspiring product lineup ever, employee morale was seriously depressed, and there was a desperate need to chart a path to recover the magic that the company had held in its early days. In one of his very first leadership decisions at Apple, in learning that the stock options of the employees were all 'underwater' and valueless, he insisted that the board re-issue all those employee stock options so that they were priced at the stock value on July 7, the day that Amelio's firing was made public. He informed the employees of this in an 'all hands' memo that went out over his signature, a singular move that immediately revitalized the financial prospects for the companies employees. And he had no personal stake in that decision, because at that time he had no personal stock options of his own. The depth of his dedication to the employees of Apple could not have been more clearly shown than it was in that single action.
As I read this book, having read many other stories about Jobs and having a familiarity with his life and how it developed, it can be both sad and frustrating to read once again about his failures and mistakes. At NeXT, for example, recounting the many errors made - selecting expensive magnesium for the computer case, requiring it to be built as a cube with sharp edges rather than easier to manufacture rounded corners, building the state-of-the-art factory in Fremont that would never be used to its full capability - I found myself lamenting that he hadn't been able to learn those lessons of management and discipline earlier in his life. A great waste, in many respects. Still, it is a part of his story (and a number of the innovations from NeXT would go on to live well beyond those days). Great leaders always talk about how their failures were critical to their development. Likely he would not have grown into the man he eventually became if he hadn't made those mistakes, painful though they are to replay. He was just 30 when he began NeXT, 33 when the first NeXT computer was unveiled, in grand Jobs extravaganza style at the Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. He was world famous and yet still a very young and immature man. The attention to detail and importance of design that was so important to him from the very beginning, even when it was impossible to implement or led to products that were too expensive to succeed commercially, would blossom in later years as the iPhone and other devices were developed and led to Apple's greatest successes.
To me, the most moving story from the book was when Tim Cook realized that he and Jobs had the same blood type. That meant that Cook could potentially help Jobs fight his illness by donating a part of his own liver. But Jobs wouldn't even consider it, and the deep personal nature of that exchange, between those two men and at a time when Jobs realized that his remaining days were dwindling, was very poignant. The last part of the book is especially sad as we live through his final days, when he knew that his time was coming to an end.
There are many other interesting stories here, some of which can be found elsewhere in the other reviews or on the internet already, as the early reviews are out and most of them share favorite stories or new insights that were gained from reading the book. I'll just add that this is a very human portrayal of Jobs, it is one that I believe will appeal to people who like to read biographies of business leaders, people who are fans of Apple and are looking for more insight into how it works and the people behind the products, and it will also appeal to readers who are interested in what makes a brilliant leader tick, how does the mind work and what magic must take place in order for those visions to become manifest in products and in a company that, soon after Jobs death, became the largest in the world.
I also think that it is remarkable to see the support that Apple executives are now putting behind this book now that it has been released. Tim Cook, Apple's current CEO and Jobs hand-picked successor, Jony Ive, Apple's long standing head of design, and Eddy Cue, Apple's head of software and internet services, have all endorsed it. A cynic might view their praise of the book as support of something that may help to reshape Jobs image in a more flattering light, but I think that there is more to it than that. This book does not whitewash Jobs or overlook his faults.
My earlier comparisons to the Isaacson biography, which until today may have been the benchmark for a Jobs biography, may sound like too much of a criticism of that book, so I will add that anyone interested in Apple and the story of the company and of Steve Jobs is probably going to want to read both books. I purchased the Isaacson book as soon as it came out, and I'll probably go back and read it again now. There are portions of Jobs life and Apple history that are covered in the Isaacson book and not so much (or at all) in this new book. I think that one of the other reviewers makes the point that the two books should be viewed as complimentary, and I think that is the right way to look at it.
By the time of his death, Steve Jobs had become an icon of the business world, having achieved a stature that only a few American business executives have ever reached (Jack Welch at GE being perhaps the most recent, prior to Jobs). This is a fascinating look at him and his company, and after reading it I have the feeling that I may be just a bit closer to understanding what he was like. I wouldn't try to claim that this book is definitive - Jobs was complex enough and accomplished so much during his life that no single biography is going to provide everything that could be written about him. I do have the feeling that it may be the closest yet.
I knew this from my own spiritual process, but it was good to get validation in the book on Steve Jobs that “becoming” is a real Buddhist philosophy that compares life to “an ever-changing river.” Nowhere is the process of “becoming” made even clearer than in this biography, “Becoming Steve Jobs,” by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli.
The book is a great read, recounting many Apple, NeXT and Pixar milestones in the Information Technology field. But the book’s best feature is its chronicling of the growth of the personality Steve Jobs from a boy into the man many of his close friends and family knew and loved.
I respect the painstaking effort Schlender took in the Prologue to explain his 25-year interaction with Jobs: “I was the reporter, he was the source and subject.” Yet, Jobs in many instances introduced Schlender as his “friend,” even visiting him several times on two occasions when Schlender himself was hospitalized.
Whether Schlender regarded Steve Jobs as a friend, or not, throughout their interaction of 25 years as reporter/subject, it took a certain, caring type of person, like Schlender, to write a book that saw "the" Steve Jobs behind the headlines. I'd read Walt Isaacson’s book, “Steve Jobs,” and had also seen the movie; I’d felt Isaacson gave a truly accurate portrayal. Yet, Schlender and Tetzeli, because of their interactions in Silicon Valley and their relationship, or non-relationship, with Steve and others close to him, manage to capture something Isaacson could not: they share the nuances and annoyances of a boy who became famous before he was fully a man, and they help us understand that this is the “nature” of our humanity, as we grow and develop on our own road to becoming.
As I read the chronicles of Jobs’ career successes, I became fully empathetic for the boy growing into manhood in the public eye. I became defensive and felt that we all should be so fully charged with ideas and passion that the world is not yet large enough to accommodate our urgency to be more and give more in all that we do.
Schlender’s and Tetzeli’s book is first-class business journalism on the evolution of the Information Technology field, with Steve Jobs and a few other well-known personalities leading the way. More importantly, though, “Becoming Steve jobs” is a guide and a manual for the Do’s and Don’ts of being a visionary and becoming a world leader without precedents.
As far as biographies go, Walt Isaacson’s book, in retrospect, serves as a great story with great accuracy about the man who was perceived as Steve Jobs. “Becoming Steve Jobs,” on the other hand, empowers us by giving us a blueprint for our own journey of “becoming.”
People in several different lines of business will find the book useful:
PR/Marketing pros and business people should find the book useful for its insights into the techniques Jobs used to get the attention of journalists like Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli.
Millennials should be inspired by a man who was motivated by passion and perfectionism. They can learn much from the insights provided throughout the book.
Those who believe they already have “become” still can learn a thing or two. For example, at the end at the book, Schlender shares regret about his last interaction with Jobs and how much he wishes he’d met with Steve when he’d asked.
The biggest lesson, I believe, we can learn about "becoming" is recounted in a story Mike Slade told the authors, not about Jobs, but about Bill Gates. At the reception after Jobs’ memorial service, Slade, a close Jobs’ associate at NeXT and Apple and now a partner with Seattle-based Second Avenue Partners, said:
“…I went to find him {Gates}. In the middle of the sculpture garden they had set up these really long couches in a rectangle where the family was. Laurene was there and the kids were there. And that’s where Bill was, over on a couch, talking to Evie {Jobs’ then 13-year-old daughter} about horses. He just sat there and had been talking to her for a half an hour. He didn’t talk to anybody else.”
Top reviews from other countries
Highly recommended.
It gives me satisfaction that I feel I know Steve more than I did before and it saddens me to the tears that he is no longer with us in person.