Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs with the iPhone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Steve_Jobs_Heads (Unknown))

The definition of a hero is "a person who is admired for courageous or noble qualities." Personally, I do not think that this definition is correct. A true hero does not need to be courageous or noble.  A hero needs to be inspiring.  Our heroes inspire us to never give up.  "The ordinary man involves in the action, the hero acts. An immense difference." This quote directly describes my hero, Steve Jobs, the co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc.  Steve Jobs was visionary.  He did not involve in the action; he acted on his own. He broke through the barriers of technology and never gave up when creating new technology to make our life easier. Steve Jobs was a truly incredible and inspirational man.

Steve Jobs looking all business-like (http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4ea6fdc86 (Unknown))

Steve was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, to Joanne Schieble and John Jandali. He was put up for adoption and was adopted by Paul Reinhold Jobs and Clara Jobs. Paul Jobs was a mechanic and carpenter and taught Steve rudimentary electronics and how to work with his hands. Steve went to Homestead High School in Cupertino, California, and enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but Steve dropped out of college in just six months. In 1976, Steve and partner Steve Wozniak founded the Apple Computer Company.  Steve was a perfectionist who wanted his products to be at the forefront of technology. Although he technically only earned one dollar a year, he held about five million shares in Apple and about 138 million shares in Disney.  All of these shares made him the 42^nd wealthiest American with a net wealth of about 8.3 billion dollars.

Apple products in the Apple logo (http://neoformix.com/2010/AppleLogoProducts.png (Unknown))

The first product that Steve created with Apple was the Macintosh computer. Released in 1983, the Macintosh was quite simple and was marketed as a computer that ordinary people could understand. It was tall, narrow, and symmetrical with the Apple logo on the front of the screen.  The next product that he manufactured with Apple was the iMac. The iMac, encased in blue plastic, was described as cartoon like and was different than all of the personal computers that came before it.  Even though the iMac has changed in size, shape, format, and color, it is still the same ground-breaking computer that it was back when it was created, in 1998.  Back then, the iMac sold for about 1,300 dollars. The first iPod was released by Apple in 2001. With its small size, the iPod was a major breakthrough in technology. One hundred thousand iPods at $400 each sold by the end of 2001. 

However, Steve's life was not perfect. He had many health issues, including pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed in 2003 and was not expected to live long. He later regretted that he refused to have surgery on the pancreatic tumor. He ignored the doctors' suggestions and took his own path. This led to his early death. In 2009, Steve underwent a liver transplant and was expected to live.  A year and a half after his liver transplant, Steve did the unthinkable. He resigned as CEO of Apple due to health issues.  August 24, 2011, was the fateful day when Tim Cook became the new CEO of Apple Inc.  However, Steve continued to work for Apple until the day of his death.  He was so invested in his company that he would not let a disease bring him down. He was the true pioneer of computing.

Steve Jobs was very private about his life. In fact, in a survey taken in 2010, only 41% of Americans identified him as the head of Apple.  He was married to Laurene Powell and had three children, Reed Paul, Erin Sienna, and Eve.  Steve and Laurene had been married 20 years at the time of his death. Steve also had a daughter, Lisa, with his high school girlfriend. Later in life, Steve met up with his biological sister, named Mona Simpson who turned out to be a well-known author. Steve was also a fussy shopper. He thought shopping was like picking out a phone and deliberated over every item that he bought. Steve drove a silver Mercedes. What is unique about this is that the Mercedes did not have a license plate; instead it had a barcode! Though this is technically illegal, he never got in trouble for driving a license plate-less car. He also never had a problem parking his car because he would often take disabled parking spots! 

So, we come to the conclusion that Steve Jobs was an incredible man. He was visionary and gave us new technology that made our lives so much easier. He was truly a hero and has inspired us to do better in our everyday lives. He was patient when his inventions didn't work and kept trying until he got it right. He persevered through all the bad and centered on the good. Most importantly, Steve never gave up. He never gave up making technology for us to enjoy. He never gave up making our lives easier. He never gave up creating new inventions. Steve Jobs was truly a genius and will be remembered by future generations as an incredibly visionary man.  He was a hero to us all.