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Becoming Steve Jobs biography: ‘Much of it was chutzpah and self delusion’

Nails the man, but leaves you nostalgic

The personal touch

The irony, notes Schlender perceptively, is that in "tak[ing] the personal right out of computing", Gates "left an opening... for someone who preferred creating machines that delighted real people".

Technical hitch: rehearsals for MacWorld Tokyo 2001 – Jobs with Phil Schiller

Technical hitch: rehearsals for MacWorld Tokyo 2001 – Jobs with Phil Schiller. Image: Brent Schlender

Real people haven’t been Jobs’ strong point in many work-based portrayals. Schlender, who met him and his family over a span of many years, bluntly acknowledges the social failings, but also captures a relatable side. What first manifests itself as a slightly creepy interest in others’ personal lives emerges as what marketing guru and mentor Regis McKenna identifies as a yearning for "the family thing".

The same "spoiled brat" whose favourite management technique, multiple employees attest here, was "yelling and screaming" "used to come over and just sit at the kitchen table with me and my wife", recalls McKenna. Later he would organise family picnics with volleyball and burgers. In a photo taken at one of these with the author and his young daughter, Jobs is barefoot, as he often is throughout the book, not just in his globe-trotting, acid-tripping 1970s.

Steve Jobs at MacWorld Tokyo on 22nd February 2001 – he wears a suit for this audience

A suited Steve Jobs at MacWorld Tokyo on 22nd February 2001. Image: Brent Schlender

"I kept losing my train of thought, and started feeling a little giddy," Jobs tells Schlender, recalling the first time he saw his wife Laurene, at a Stanford talk he was delivering. Within a year, he’d proposed. Both having achieved success from modest middle-class beginnings, they brought up their kids as "normal" rather than rich, in a regular-sized home that Lasseter called the "Hansel and Gretel house". They expanded the plot only to extend their flower and vegetable garden. Another photo shows Steve, Laurene and their kids goofing around in swimsuits. It almost feels too much, like interrupting a private moment.

The same could have been true of the extensive coverage of Jobs’ illness, which includes new details, including Tim Cook’s offer – related in his own words – of donating part of his liver for a transplant, having had tests that suggested a rare match. But this is well handled, informative and poignant.

Katie Cotton, Head of communications at Apple for 18 years decided who got to talk to Steve. She probably made sure The Reg stopped getting invited to events too

Katie Cotton, Head of communications at Apple for 18 years retired in 2014. She decided who got to talk to Steve. She probably made sure The Reg stopped getting invited to events too. Image: Brent Schlender

On the day he’s due to close the $7.4bn sale of Pixar with Disney’s Bob Iger, Jobs takes Iger aside and admits his cancer is back. "They tell me I’ve got a fifty-fifty chance of living five years... My kids don’t know. Not even the Apple board knows... and you can’t tell anybody. I’m telling you because I’m giving you a chance to back out of the deal."

Becoming Steve Jobs, book cover

Telling the tale to Schlender, Iger recalls that this was in a post-Enron world of tightly scrutinised corporate responsibility, "and I’m now being asked to bury a secret. Basically, thanks." Yet he comes up with a legal rationalisation and goes ahead – largely because of his personal relationship with Jobs. Schlender, whose own serious illness brought the two men closer, is put on the spot himself when Jobs has to cancel a painstakingly arranged round table with Gates, Intel’s Andy Grove and Michael Dell, but doesn’t want to tell them he’s ill. "Just tell them I’m being an asshole," he advises. "That’s what they’ll be thinking anyway."

In reality, Gates has a more nuanced view of a sparring partner who, in their previous joint interview, made a point of denying reports that he didn’t consider him a friend. "So many of the people who want to be like Steve have the asshole side down," he tells Schlender. "What they’re missing is the genius part."

Steve Jobs with Andy Grove at Stanford University in 2007

Steve Jobs with Andy Grove at Stanford University in 2007. Grove, former CEO of Intel was a significant behind the scenes advisor to Jobs. However, back in 1997 when Jobs phoned for advice on becoming iCEO of Apple, Grove growled, "Steve, I don't give a shit about Apple." Image courtesy of Denise Amantea

But it’s the third element, the human, that Schlender and Tetzeli have managed to bottle, and it’s the focus on "becoming" that nails it. The "adolescent rock star" who thought he knew everything succeeded in the end not by imposing his will, but by "learning to manage himself". Setting up the recurring theme of Jobs’ inveterate self-mythologising, the book’s prologue concludes lyrically with him standing on the porch of the new NeXT headquarters, then adds a kicker:

"As I drove away, he was lingering there still, staring at his hundred-grand logo. He knew in his bones, as he would say, that he was about to do something great. In reality, of course, he had no idea what was ahead of him." ®

Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, Becoming Steve Jobs book coverAuthor Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli
Title Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader
Publisher Sceptre
Price £25 (Hardback)
More info Publication web site

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