Brent Schlender

Rick Tetzeli

Now in paperback, the #1 New York Times bestselling biography of how Steve Jobs became the most visionary CEO in history. With a new foreword by Marc Andreessen and new afterword by the authors, Becoming Steve Jobs is a narrative on Jobs' evolution as a manager and leader, as an astute CEO, as a father, and as a visionary with an unparalled sense of what consumers wanted--before they knew what they wanted themselves. But he didn't start out with those skills. When he first left Apple in 1985 and struck out to form his own company, NeXT, he knew little about running a company, holding to a budget, or developing successful products. It was during his years in the wilderness, unsuccessfully launching NeXT and helping to revitalize Pixar, that he learned the skills that would make him so successful upon his return to Apple in 1996.

The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart Into a Visionary Leader

Becoming Steve Jobs

Based on the highly popular 2012 cover story in Fast Company, an award-winning journalist and a veteran editor present a behind-the-scenes account of how Steve Jobs became the most famous and visionary CEO in history through interviews with people who knew Jobs best.

Eylon gil

think different started a process of bringing back pride to apple employee's. billboards and posters went up across the cupertino campus/ steve narrated version was featured in a video prompting the whole camping inside the company, and later after eapple won the emmy awards, the company gave a 50 page commemorative book to all it's employees, our audience was the employees as much as anyone else. inspiring them was challenging.

the truth is more subtle, over the previous decade steve had learned to act less impulsive . in the past he get overreached time and again. now he was willing to walk away slowly down a path

and if following his nose led him somewhere better than where he thought was headed, thats where he would go

to trust your own feelings rather than obeying rules or allowing yourself to be influenced by other people's opinions

: Take a chance and follow your nose - you may be right!  

he and levy spent weeks studding the ins and outs of film finances and accountings, to get a better sense how how studio really make their money as part of their homework they flew down to hollywood to quiz other exercuirtves at other studios about movie budgets and distribution deals.

they immediately learns that pixar was at least at that point a long shot for a successful IPO

some of the woman steve jobs has dated had seem to be needy overtime. laurence wasnt that way. she brought as much self sufficiency to the relationships he did. 

they both accepted the value of hard work so they were fine giving space to each other interests. 

why not micromanagement  and fighting back

At pixar he would lay the foundations of two of his strengths: his ability to fight back in times of distressed his ability to make the most out of of competition" i became the place where hear really learns albeit slowly and reluctantly and against his natural instincts that the best management technique is to forgo micromanagement and give good talented people the room they need to succeed. 

Steve and lewin and some other founders made several trip to universities to hear what professors and researchers really wanted and mostly their pains. 

we didnt have alot of money, all of us  6 would squeeze in a rental car. we even shared hotel rooms, we developed a real pioneer spirit. 

the not having money drove us better to the mindset of the startup hustle life

when he resigned, steve  had told the apple board that his new company would not attack any important apple markets. that was nonsense, his state target - the higher education  was in fact very important to apple, and he stolen awa levin. 

steve believed he now had everything he needed to succeed as a world class CEO 

While steve looked at his elders at apple for guidance he also sought it out elsewhere, he didn't yet have the skills to build a great company, but he admired those who had pulled it off. and he would go great lengths to meet them and learn from them. basically i got to know all these guys who were all company builders, and the particular scent of silicon valley at that time left a serious impression on me

knowing you are better than the outside world

Woz knew the mits machine wasnt all that much more advanced than the cream soda computer hed created four years earlier in 1971 when he has to use much less sophisticated components. 

anything is possible with a great partner

Woz who was 5 years older than steve taught steve the intrinsic value of great engineering, his accomplishments reinforced steve's sense that anything was possible when you had technological genius on your side. but it was steve's ability to manipulate woz  that rove the partnership.

But it demonstrated the feasibility of having a computer to yourself one that you could program 24 hours a day if you wanted t, without having to waiting line or punch any cards.

bill gates read the article and shortly thereafter famously dropped out of harvard to start a little company called micro-soft to design software programming languages for the altair 

steve however proposed that they try to make some money by selling compltlyasse,bled machines. so while eoz polished his circuit design. steve pulled together the necessary materials and priced the finished boxes. he and woz netted some 6K selling the illegal devices at 150$ a pop, mostly to college students. 

the two boys wander dormitory hallways knocking on doors and asking occupants if this was georges room, - a fictional character who supposedly was an expert phone phreak.

if the discussion prompted interest, they'd demonstrated that the blue box cloud do, and sometimes make a sale.

Based on the explosive cover story about Steve Jobs in Fast Company in May 2012, this is the real story of how Steve Jobs became the most famous and forward-looking CEO on Earth. Veteran journalist Brent Schlender and veteran editor Rick Tetzeli take us behind the scenes, to friends, industry insiders, and the people who knew Jobs best - but decided not to talk to Walter Isaacson. Schlender, who was friends with Jobs for 25 years, has over 100 hours of never-before-transcribed interview tapes with Jobs to draw on as well.

Cristian Garcia

I will never get bored with reading stories about the management in Apple. Jobs, being the main figure, has so many lessons when it comes to his way of managing this behemoth. Although the learnings are up to you. By connecting the dots and reading between the lines. This book is just another side of the story. A good one I must say. If you read Walter Isaacson's book, you might get bored with this one. But both volumes blend pretty good. And for a good cocktail, I would add Creativity Inc. by  Ed Catmull

Lee Herman

This is an excellent biography by a journalist and author who became personal friends with Steve Jobs and had close access to Steve when he was alive and most of the key figures in the history of Apple. Unvarnished and honest but largely sympathetic to his subject, Schlender has richly researched and interviewed Steve Jobs and his inner circle and other industry figures for many years, so he knew Steve Jobs and Apple over most of the period he covers. He writes well and the book is a pleasant read.

Sanat Gersappa

Based on the popular cover story about Steve Jobs in Fast Company in May 2012, this is the behind the scenes account of how Steve Jobs arguably became the most famous and visionary CEO in history. Journalist Brent Schlender and editor Rick Tetzeli have interviewed friends, industry insiders, and the people who knew Jobs best throughout his evolution as a CEO and leader. In addition Schlender, who knew Jobs personally for 25 years, has over 100 hours of interview tapes with Jobs to draw on, many hours of which have never before been transcribed.

James Paden

Fine book. Maybe I struggled with it because I read Walter Isaacson only a couple years ago, so most of the content wasn't new to me, but I greatly preferred Walter Isaacson's book. I was enthralled in that book, and I must have missed all the negativity people said Isaacson wrote - because this book seemed just as negative to me.

Luke Kanies

A book written with a clear agenda (securing Jobs's legacy as not-an-asshole), it was also a far more informative book than Isaacson's Jobs about how products were actually made, and how the company worked. It was especially useful to fill in the years around NeXT and Pixar.

Fat Geisha

The newest Steve Jobs biography wasn't authorized by Steve Jobs himself, but it does come with the blessing of many of Apple's top brass, and includes plenty of insights from its subject, as he had participated in interviews with coauthor Brent Schlender for years. Glenn and Susie, along with our special guests, Macworld's associate managing editor Leah Yamshon, and frequent contributor Jeff Carlson, discuss what this book taught them about working with Steve, and how he applied the lessons learned from his early failures to his later projects. If Walter Isaacson's official authorized Steve Jobs biography left you cold, Becoming Steve Jobs may be just what you're looking for. (Macworld)

Anna Pinto

Focuses a lot more on the business than Isaacson's book. But, as I imagined, it's too sappy at some points.

Vom angry young man zum Ausnahme-Unternehmer Halb Genie, halb Wahnsinniger, Guru, Choleriker und Kontrollfreak – das ist das vorherrschende Bild, das sich die Welt von Steve Jobs gemacht hat. Jobs selbst hat zu seinen Lebzeiten dieses Image gern gepflegt, und seine Biographen sind ihm bereitwillig gefolgt. Vier Jahre nach seinem Tod im Oktober 2011 ist es nun an der Zeit, ein klareres Bild des Apple-Gründers zu zeichnen, ein Bild, das frei ist von Klischees und Vorurteilen. Brent Schlender begleitete Steve Jobs über zwanzig Jahre lang, der engen Freundschaft der beiden verdanken wir tiefe Einblicke in das Leben des Unternehmers und in das Imperium von Apple. Auf Grundlage zahlreicher Gespräche mit Jobs selbst, mit engsten Vertrauten und Weggefährten wie Tim Cook oder auch Bill Gates ist ein ebenso differenziertes wie leidenschaftliches Porträt entstanden, das in seinem Kern der Frage nachgeht, wie aus einem ungestümen jungen Gründer die wichtigste Unternehmerpersönlichkeit unserer Zeit reifen konnte. Die Nähe Schlenders und das Knowhow Tetzelis – beide gehören zu den profiliertesten Technikjournalisten und zu den besten Kennern der Silicon-Valley-Szene – machen Becoming Steve Jobs zu einer mitreißenden Geschichte der Technologie-Ära und zu einer Biographie, die den Unternehmer nicht zur Ikone erhebt, sondern den Menschen hinter dem Mythos zum Vorschein bringt.

Vom Abenteurer zum Visionär

Michael Camilleri

This is not the definitive Steve Jobs biography but I'm not sure if we'll get one until a lot more time has passed. What it is is an interesting take on how Jobs transformed from a person who was kicked out of a company in ignominy to one that returned to lead it to glory.

Becoming Steve Jobs The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart Into a Visionary Leader

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