How do you make a person who is self-centric, outright rude, radical, ruthless, unloving towards his family members, disloyal to his friends and peers, engages in corporate malpractices and is cocky to the core, loved by people all over the world?

Most of the times I write my review right after finishing the book. And during these moments I am under the influence provided by the finishing of the book. It’s a pretty weird phenomena one experiences where the ending of the book is such that even if you felt one way or the other during the major course of the book, the ending will make you come around to the appreciative side.

I went through a cycle of emotions during the course of reading it. But most of this book was entertaining. It was readable, enthralling, evocative and informative. I have been a big fan of the memoirs/biography genres and the ones I read evoked a similar feeling. It is only later on I realize what the author has tried to do. To me all of them look like PR stunts. And I might be too naïve or cynical in thinking that way but can’t really help it.

Steve Jobs created a wonderful brand and however way we feel about it technologically we have to agree that it sells and that too with a manner in which many other companies have tried to imitate but failed miserably. It has been innovative and revolutionary. Steve’s life had been mostly about Apple and other brands he worked at for a while. Today we can see how the ecosystem of Apple products(iPhones, iTunes, iCloud, Airpods, Apple Watch and the list goes on) has panned out and the company has followed the philosophy of its founder.  

Now coming to the question I posed at the beginning. Steve’s greatest achievement have been the products Apple founded and in turn the brand it became. This word “brand” is features multiple times when you are dealing with Jobs. It is natural only because Apple had one of the best marketing campaigns and ads, even now it is still going on. His ability to sell, market, and his showmanship is well known. But his work didn’t just stop when his heartbeat stopped. He knew he had a great story to tell. He knew he wouldn’t be able to do it himself not with all the medical complications and with the busy schedule of handling Apple at that time. It was a race against time. He chose Walter Isaacson as the voice to tell his story even though he had a sister who was a writer at that time. I am not familiar with Walter’s work but he made it clear that it was to be his work instead of Steve’s. I don’t know how much of that is true but the work of Walter felt a lot like the work of Steve’s, it had a gripping experience on the reader. Steve’s greatest ability was to influence public opinion even after committing major mistakes and being the kind of man that he was.

Reading about him after his death we revere those qualities but I can easily imagine how people must have felt about it then, while he hurled those abuses at them. He was ruthless and part of it is the reason why Apple is what it is today. He came whole in a package like most of us are with a bit of good and bad mixed variedly.

I couldn’t help but compare him to the character in Whiplash played by J.K Simmons as the teacher who would push people to the edge so much so that it drove people mad and they ended up either turning out their best performances or mentally broken. Steve was a perfectionist and which is why we associate Apple with it as well.

Also, I never watched the movie in which Kutcher is playing Jobs so can't really know the influence the movie would have on the reader now.

However it becomes crucial to mention the manner in which Walter has dealt with the many faults of Steve. Like he would explain all the faults, that he was ruthless and etc etc and then lead the sentence to a “but” you wouldn’t have such great products if he weren’t so. Which may be partially true, but also because Walter was also somewhat influenced by the “Reality Distortion Field” technique of Steve. He might have realized it or not but he became a huge fan of Steve’s life and his work and he couldn’t help it like the most of us couldn’t.

{4.5/5}

A great read overall.

Thanks for sticking by.

See you next time.

-Manvendra