Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography
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Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography
3 thoughts on “Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography”
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Steve is the star in a rushed, balanced biography,
As an avid tech news fan, and Steve admirer, I couldn’t wait for the release and quickly finished the book in two days. Steve, not Isaacson, is the shining star and his life makes for a fascinating story regardless of who is telling it. Steve’s accomplishments, boldness, twists and turns, wisdom, intelligence, abrasiveness and intuition all contribute to intriguing reading. However, how good a job did Isaacson do?
Isaacson’s job was “fair” for a couple of reasons. On the plus side, Isaacson appeared mainly objective in describing Steve, which is an important and difficult task, giving the controversial nature of someone like Steve. Isaacson, reveals both Steve’s brilliant and ugly sides (I was a bit skeptical Steve would insist on a biography only painting him in a positive light). It was great to see his human side and get an understanding of Steve’s polarized personality.
However, it was a little frustrating how much Isaacson re-told of which was already out there. I knew much of what he wrote about Steve – elements of his business strategy, dealings and philosophies and the Apple products he helped create and market. Most of the book’s contents I was aware of through watching his keynotes, AllThingsD interviews, Stanford address and reading the articles about him on Wired, Time and other tech news sites. In fact, Isaacson often used such sources which I found slightly disappointing – like getting second hand info. On the bright side, I have not noticed any contradiction in these sources with Isaacson’s version of Steve – it’s accurate.
Having said this, Isaacson does give a fair amount of novel insight into Steve’s family life, relationships and younger years which is not readily available through other sources. There is also a fair amount of detail about his Pixar years which I’m sure many are unaware of. Otherwise, light is shed on his relationship with colleagues and much about his personality, health and lifestyle are revealed. I think those unfamiliar with Steve and Apple might find this biography particularly enlightening about this talented, eccentric individual.
Finally, I do have a sense of Isaacson rushing this biography. The early and mid years were well covered, however later years were lacking on fresh insight and thoroughness. Chunks of story seemed glossed over or un-researched such as his relationship with Cook, Mark Papermaster’s ousting, the reaction to Steve’s passing, the future of Apple and perhaps more about his final days.
Something worth mentioning, is that the book did reinforce lessons I had learnt from Steve, the ones which stand out I will summarise:
* Life is short, make the most of it.
* We stand on the shoulders of giants, and it’s our job to extend their work further.
* Focus on a few things you do well.
* Conflict can be very helpful in driving things forward.
* Love what you do and don’t do it for money. Money is helpful in that it is there to improve the product/service.
* Keep re-inventing yourself.
Overall I find the biography easy to read, fairly thorough, provides some novel insight and balanced commentary and contains some profound words from Steve too. Reading a book about a man with this amount of intuition, energy, perfectionism, persuasiveness and determination can only enrich your life.
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|Interesting insights into the Steve Jobs success story,
For anyone interested in business and design this is a must read; what is so interesting about it is the extent to which the ultimate success and triumph of the man was built on a succession of what can only be described as failures; getting booted out of Apple; the NeXT adventure which can only be described as random and the chance success of Pixar; a revelation inasfar as it was based as the man himself admitted on luck and instinct against the conventional business tools he had acquired as a leader at Apple. This last deal really made the man and his subsequent unparalleled triumphs with Apple were based on the philosophy that he was true to in his business career; namely the preeminence of good design in creating products of unimaginable beauty and simplicity. Given this life story and the eccentricities of the man (esp. his quite awful behaviour at times) it would be hard to produce a book that was anything but interesting. At times it does go too deep and descend into areas that are unnecessary and irrelevant as is the wont of biographies of major US business success stories and leaders who are viewed as demi-Gods; but it certainly brings out the chain of events that made the man the success he was, exposes his strengths and weaknesses and brings more life to a story that a story that has become a part of our culture. You cannot ask for more than that.
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|Brilliant beyond words!,
I asked for this book for Christmas but knew very little about Steve Jobs other than he started Apple. I saw the book in Asda and when I saw how thick it was I thought, “oh crap!”
Needless to say it was bought for me from Amazon at an incredible price, and once I started the book I just couldn’t put it down. A short way into the book I began to dislike Jobs because of his quirky tantrums and the incredibly rude way in which he dealt with people who worked with him. But, amazingly, I started to warm towards him depite his unusual personality traits and by the end was true Steve Jobs fan in all aspects.
He was such an amazing visionary who knew how to get the best out of people. Having been fired by his own board at Apple, he made the most amazing comeback 10 years later, taking Apple from virtual bankruptcy to being the world’s most valuable company. That takes some doing, and I am in absolute awe at how he did it!
It’s a long book but the chapters are relatively short, which makes it easier to read in chunks. I finished it in a week and a half, and looked forward to getting my Steve Jobs fix every evening. The author isn’t one of these people who writes biographies based on conjecture and poor research, he was asked personally by Jobs to write the book 9 years ago but only got round to doing it in the last 2 years. Jobs had no influence over what was written and it is based on countless interviews with Jobs and others over that period. The narrative style makes it an easy but dynamic read. I felt incredibly inspired and uplifted after reading it, reinforcing my belief that ‘anything is possible.’ GREAT BOOK. YOU WON’T BE DISAPPOINTED!
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