Technology and computing are everywhere . Originally, these behemoths of cables and programming only showed their secrets to a privileged few while, as during the Middle Ages, the people were left out of that knowledge. But it was precisely some of those “men who whispered to computers” who opened the doors of computing to the rest of the world. Among them, one name stands out: Steve Jobs .
Born in 1955 in San Francisco and raised by his adoptive family in Cupertino, which would eventually become the sketch of Silicon Valley, Jobs demonstrated an agile and ambitious mind from a young age. Although he began his studies at Reed College in Oregon , he would drop out of college and start working at Atari in 1974 to get money and be able to travel to India. Upon his return, he reconnected with his friend Steve Wozniak, who worked at the Hewlett-Packard company and was making great strides in computer design . Jobs saw a business opportunity and they embarked on that ambitious project together.
Selling Steve Jobs’s Volkswagen van and Wozniak’s scientific calculator they raised the money to found Apple Computer Compnay , go to work in the garage, and create, in 1976, the Apple I personal computer . Wozniak’s innovative design and Jobs’ marketing skills earned them $ 200 million in three years . Apple computers had an interface and operation that allowed almost anyone to use them without having a great knowledge of computer science, but the first contact with the Macintosh did not have the expected results and Jobs resigned from the CEO position in 1985 .
During his exile, Jobs founded the computer company NeXT and bought, in 1986, a small animation studio called Pixar, which years later would produce ‘ Toy Story ‘ and eventually merge with Disney. In 1996 Apple would buy NeXT for $ 400 million and the prodigal son would return to the company he founded as interim CEO. Under his command, Apple lived a second golden age in which it popularized its brand and had enormous successes such as online sales, the iMac and iBook or its ITunes music platform. The iPod player and the iPhone (2007) changed the way the world used and enjoyed technology .
Pancreatic cancer killed Steve Jobs in October 2011, when he was 56 years old . His visionary character, ambition and effort made him a kind of guru admired by hundreds of thousands both for his way of being and for the important role he played in the world of technology.
