He Thinks Different

The tech world gulped on August 1 upon hearing that Steven P. Jobs had been
operated on for pancreatic cancer. The Apple Computer co-founder and chief
executive, who broke the news in an e-mail typed from his hospital bed, said his
prognosis was excellent. Still, everyone from artsy Mac lovers to buttoned-down
Wall Street pros had to contemplate a future without one of the leading
innovators of the Information Age.

Jobs's contribution? More than anyone else, he brought digital technology
to the masses. As a visionary, he saw that computers could be much more than
drab productivity tools. Instead, they could help unleash human creativity and
sheer enjoyment. A marketing genius, he conceived of elegant products that
captured consumers' imaginations. And as a relentless perfectionist, he came
up with creations that actually delivered on their promise-raising the bar for
rivals. "From the time he was a kid, Steve thought his products could
change the world," says Lee Clow, chairman of TBWA/Chiat/Day and Jobs'
longtime ad man.

So far, 49-year-old Jobs has done just that three times. Soon after he formed
Apple in 1976 with high school friend Steve Wozniak, the Apple II became the
first PC to hit it big. While the power of computing formerly had been available
only to techies, it was suddenly delivered to classrooms, dens, and offices. A
quarter-century later, he rocked the music business with Apple's iPod music
player and iTunes online store. This created a blueprint for the music biz in
the Net era.

Steve Jobs

In many ways, Jobs's career is the definitive Silicon Valley story. Growing
up with his adopted parents when the area was dotted with fruit orchards, he
caught the tech bug early. He got his first job at 12 after calling
Hewlett-Packard President Bill Hewlett and landing an internship. Using HP as
their model, he and "Woz" focused only on breakthrough products. Apple's
blockbuster initial public offering in 1980 made Jobs tech's first celebrity
CEO. Then came the Mac in 1984. The first to pack new-fangled ideas such as
icons, the mouse, and computer graphics into one easy-to-use machine, the Mac
cemented Jobs's standing as a prodigy.

His youthful perfectionism nearly killed his career. When the original Mac
fell short of expectations, he refused to alter its features and was booted from
Apple in 1985. At his next company, NeXT Inc., he created a $10,000 PC that was
packed with innovations, but too pricey for the market. More worrisome, Jobs
poured $50 million of his own money into the struggling Pixar.

His reversal of fortune began in 1995. Pixar's Toy Story became a
box-office smash. Then, just months after Apple bought NeXT for $400 million in
1996, Jobs took the helm of the foundering company. He quickly breathed life
back into it, with the lovable iMac. Then came the iPod in 2001, and iTunes in
2003-the first time anyone had convinced all the major record labels to sell
their songs online.

Few doubt Jobs' management chops anymore. And with his prognosis looking
good, he's back working part-time.

"That was one of the things that came out of this whole experience cancer>. I realized that I love my life. I love my family, and I
love Apple and Pixar. I am very lucky." Given his track record,
so are the world's consumers.

By Peter Burrows in San Mateo, Calif. in BusinessWeek. Copyright 2004 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc