Steve Jobs was ruthless and loyal, charismatic and mercurial. He could bend the will of those around him with his legendary "reality distortion field," and cry after heated arguments that didn't go his way.
And did I mention the body odor?
There is little that Walter Isaacson doesn't delve into in the life of the notoriously private celebrity CEO in the recently released Steve Jobs (656 pages, Simon & Schuster, $35).
In constructing the thoroughly researched book Issacson interviewed Jobs' family, friends, coworkers, competitors, and combatants, as well as Jobs himself.
But more impressive than the book's attention to details and fact-finding is how difficult the only authorized biography of the Apple cofounder and former owner of famed animation studio Pixar is to put down.
Isaacson, who has written acclaimed biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, proves triumphant again with this passionate and even humbling portrait of an iconic American success story.
While Bill Gates may have won the war of numbers in terms of computer users and personal wealth, his arc is nowhere near as fascinating as his tech rival. Jobs' story is something only a seasoned screenwriter could dream up. He started from nothing to cofound Apple in his parents' garage in the mid-1970s, was kicked out of the company by 1985, lost much of his fortune by the early-90s, only to return triumphantly to Apple in 1997 and lead the greatest business comeback of our lifetime. And then, at the height of his success, he succumbed to cancer at the age of 56.
The cancer diagnosis in 2004 inspired Jobs to consider his legacy and overcome his trepidation to have someone tell it.
"Why did you do it?" Issacson asks Jobs only weeks before his death on Oct. 5.
"I wanted my kids to know me," he replies. "I wasn't always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did. Also, when I got sick, I realized other people would write about me if I died, and they wouldn't know anything. They'd get it all wrong. So I wanted to make sure someone heard what I had to say."
Jobs has plenty to say throughout the book. His quotes about Gates ("Bill is basically unimaginative and has never invested anything … . He just shamelessly ripped off other people's ideas.") and Google ("Google, you [expletive] ripped us off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off. Grand Theft. I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong.") have been headline grabbers since Steve Jobs was released a few weeks ago.
Such candor is to be expected from someone not known for holding back his feelings. Rather, it's the hidden from public view Jobs -- the adopted son whose abandonment issues helped drive him, the dedicated husband and father of four -- that gives the book the warmth to humanize a polarizing figure. Isaacson goes to great lengths to dissect a man who remained complicated, even to those he loved.
At one point in 2010, Jobs laments not being there for his oldest daughter, Lisa, from his first girlfriend whom he originally denied parenting. Isaacson describes their relationship through the years as "a roller coaster, with each of the low points elongated by their shared stubbornness.
"I probably didn't go over there enough," Jobs tells him in the fall of 2010, as the two are going through a box of old snapshots.
Jobs had not spoken to Lisa all that year, and Issacson suggests he call or email her.
"He looked at me blankly for a moment, then went back to riffling through other old photographs."
While Jobs will never be remembered as Father of the Year, it's his genius of knowing us as consumers and technology users that will endure in our memories.
When asked about Apple conducting market research about the original Macintosh before it shipped, Jobs replied, "No, because customers don't know what they want until we've shown them."
Through five decades, Jobs showed us many things, the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, and iPad to name a few. And in Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson does an admirable job of showing us the man who made it all possible.
Contact Kirk Baird at: kbaird@theblade.com or 419-724-6734.
First Published November 6, 2011, 4:15 a.m.
