Book Review: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
ISBN 1451648537 (ISBN13: 9781451648539)
Reviewer: Agha Shahriyar Khan

"People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do”.

Review:

The book “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson is not only about the life of Apple’s co-founder but it also about the history of personal computing, expansion of Silicon Valley, intricacies of American cooperate culture and entrepreneurship. This book, in order to review, can be divided into three parts: Steve’s personality, his personal life and his professional genius and astounding achievements.

Steve Jobs had a peculiar character. He was non-conformist, or one can say an enlightened rebel who had deep interest in arts but had a passion for technology. This odd combination made him possible to make products which had artistic beauty as well as technological craziness. Unlike traditional leaders, he had undisciplined life style and ill-temperament which went ballistic most times. Amoral attitude also one of his personality traits. Lie, deceit, stealing ideas, and denying people of their achievement were not a big deal for Jobs. When criticized for all this, he endorsed his attitude with pride by quoting Picasso, “good artists copy, great artists steal”, and adding “I (Steve) always been shameless about stealing great ideas”.

At the same time, however, he had sheer will power to sail against the winds and indomitable strength to never give up. He had the capacity to distort reality to push others to achieve impossible. The author underlines Steve’s reality distortion field by saying, “In his presence, the reality is malleable. He can convince anyone of practically anything and bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand”. Another important aspect of Jobs’ personality was his world view. He saw the world in binary terms: you were either a hero or bozo, product is either great or shit. There was no gray area in his world.

Steve’s personal life, like his personality, had various shades. He had been abandoned twice: one by his biological parents and then by one of his adopted families. He regretted about it throughout his live because he had no control over it. Consequently, his regret pushed him to make products on which not only he had full control (end-to end integration) but also no one could dare to abandon his products. Ironically, the episode on which he regretted, repeated by him when he abandoned his child named Lisa Brennan Jobs. However, despite all this, he was lucky enough to have friends and family at the most difficult times of his life. Apart from this, the author also discusses Steve’s health issues and his war with Cancer in detail.

Now a conventional wisdom holds that a person with such crazy personality and imperfect life cannot become a legend. Steve Jobs, however, proved one can. He revolutionized six industries with his insanely great products: Personal computing through iMac, Animated movies through Pixar, Music through iPod and iTunes stores, Smartphones through iPhones, and digital publishing and tablets through iPad. Besides, he founded the two best companies of modern era: Apple and Pixar. He surely reserved his place as a legend in a world of technology and entrepreneurship.

The author, Walter Isaacson, also discusses how Steve achieved such great feasts. One, he had a big dream of making a dent in universe. Two, he considered himself special: on par with Einstein and Gandhi. Three, he had a clear objective: to make great products and build long lasting companies. Four, he had a capacity to focus like a laser beam. He once said, “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do”. Five, he did not fond of traditional rules and strategies. He, therefore, opposed open system, as built by IBM and Microsoft, and pioneered a close system which allowed him to stop others from distorting his product just like an artist who could not allow others to mutate his art. Six, he loved what he did. “If you don’t love something, you’re not going to go extra mile, challenging the status quo as much,” Steve once said. Hence, the Apple’s add of 1997 proved correct on Steve Jobs that “People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do”.

This Book’s strong points outweigh its defects. For instance, the language, fluidity of ideas and story line, humor, un-biased analysis and categorization of books in short chapters make it a page turner. However, the extensive use of technological terminologies and concepts make some readers difficult to fathom the idea or story. Nevertheless, this book is must read for anyone who wants to do something insanely great in his life and achieve the impossible.

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“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”