Steve Jobs Education

Having brought a series of revolutionary technologies to our world, Steve Jobs was an innovative thinker and visionary who always found delight in the unconventional methods of learning new things. He co-founded Apple Computers with his friend Steve Wozniak and introduced the phenomena of the much-desired iPhones to the 21st century. He lived a simpler life, emphasised the significance of eating healthy and democratized the technological arena by curating accessible and compact machines for everyday consumers. Reminiscing the world’s beloved innovator, we aim to explore Steve Jobs education through this blog thus delving deeper into his academic journey and learning some important lessons that he imparted to the world.

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.“

“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish!” – The Apple Story

Having been abandoned by his biological parents at birth, Jobs was placed for adoption when a couple from San Francisco decided to raise him. When he was in high school, he called William Hewlett, the co-founder and president of Hewlett-Packard to boldly ask for parts for his school project. Impressed by his passion for electronics and gadgets, Hewlett gave him an internship offer for the summer. It was during his interning period that he became friends with Steve Wozniak. Later, in the year 1976, Jobs invented the first Apple computer with Wozniak while working from his garage. The foundation of Apple Computers was just the beginning of an era of path-breaking discoveries as Jobs went on to transform the technological world of mobile phones and computers.

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

Born on 24th February 1955 and adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs, the little Steve grew up in San Francisco with a younger sister, Patty. In the year 1961, the Jobs family shifted to Mountain View, California. Even as a little kid, Steve showed immense curiosity towards electronics and machines. Paul Jobs was a machinist and had a garage of his own where the father and son used to quench their thirst about experimenting and reconstructing the electronics.

“Let’s go invent tomorrow rather than worrying about what happened yesterday.”

At the age of 11, Steve joined Crittenden Middle School as a young kid where he was bullied and one day, he came home and asked his parents to get him into another school or he would never to go one again. His parents moved to Los Altos where he was admitted into Cupertino Junior High. It was during this time that he became a part of the Heckett-Packard Explorer Club where he came across his first computer. Steve joined Hampstead High School where he got the chance to attend some lectures at the office of Hewlett-Packard.

“The doers are the major thinkers. The people that really create the things that change this industry are both the thinker and doer in one person.”

As Jobs was completing his school project and needed some parts to finally assemble it, courageously he asked for them to the president of Hewlett-Packard. Amazed by his bold and brave step, William Hewlett provided him with the parts along with an internship offer at the company. After the high-school phase of Steve Jobs Education, another crucial milestone came into his life when he went to Poland to join the Reed College. Not finding any interest in his undergraduate studies, Jobs decided to drop out of college and take those classes which he found himself inclined towards. He attended calligraphy classes and spent nights at the dorms of his friends.

“The most precious thing that we all have with us is time.”

When he left college, he opted for the position of a video game designer at Atari. A few months later, Jobs travelled to India accompanied by his friend Dan Kottke. Mystified by the eastern philosophies, he wanted to quench his thirst for spiritual enlightenment. He spent some time in Delhi roaming around barefoot and donning a lungi. He came back to Atari a Buddhist becoming more focused and somewhere grasping his hold on the questions inside him. India was a transformative point in Steve Jobs education as these seven months helped him explore his ideas of spirituality. He reconnected with Steve Wozniak after heading back and together they went to pioneer the technological world with the invention of Apple Computers.

Steve Jobs Education: Career Lessons to Learn

Emphasising the significance of feeding one’s curiosity is the most important lesson one can learn from Steve Jobs. Here are some more key career lessons that we can take away from Steve Jobs education and his life journey: 

Focus on your Interests

Being a college dropout, Steve Jobs has always emphasised on how important it is to focus more on exploring your interests and then following the crowd. Study the course that you find yourself passionate about rather choosing a popular degree and then getting diverted from your dream career. Also, you must try to gain as much as practical exposure in the field you are studying to understand what it is like in the real world.

Follow Your Passion

Chasing your inner calling can actually take you to the paths that are yet unknown. Jobs always stressed on the importance of following one’s heart and to be in love with what you are doing in life. You must be passionate about the career you want to pursue because that’s how you will be able to put your heart into it and achieve success.

The Art of Simplicity

The zenlike ability of Steve Jobs came from his strive to simplify things by cutting off unnecessary stuff in life. Even Apple’s first brochure said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” reflecting upon his quest for simplicity. He came to admire this notion during his night shifts at Atari and he found their games were superbly uncomplicated. He believed that simplifying things lessens their complexity and implementing this mantra in your life, you can achieve even the biggest goals if you stay away from the clutter and follow the art of simplicity!

Find the Silver Lining in Your Dark Days

Jobs always saw the instance of getting fired from Apple as a positive thing because he realised the pressure of being successful got swapped with the opportunity of being a beginner. Every failure comes with its own lessons and finding something good in your bad time can actually help you deviate your mind from focusing too much on what’s gone wrong.

Dream Big

Another key lesson to learn from Steve Jobs education is the power of dreaming big. His mantra of “stay hungry” tells us that by aspiring for bigger dreams you can make your own mark on the world!

Lesser-Known Facts about Steve Jobs

Living a simple life even after he founded a revolutionary tech company, there are many things about Steve Jobs’ life that not everyone knows. Here we bring you the lesser-known facts about Steve Jobs education, his family life and his professional quest.

1. As Steve Jobs was adopted by his family, his real biological parents were Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Schieble.
   
2. Steve Jobs struggled as a college dropout and took only a few classes he was interested in. During this time, he also slept on the floor in the dorm rooms of his friends and used to walk over 7 miles to get free meals at Hare Krishna Temple.
   
3. Jobs actually skipped two grades in middle school and after that, his parents decided to shift him to a more challenging school in California.
   
4. Jobs’ ultimate inspiration was his father, Paul Jobs, who was a mechanic and craftsman and used to rebuild cars on weekends. Steve used to join his father on his weekend work when he was just 5 years old and was even given his own workbench.
   
5. While working at Atari, Steve Jobs also found a job at an Apple orchard.
   
6. When Jobs was sick, Apple CEO Tim Cook was ready to offer him his liver for the transplant but Jobs didn’t take it up saying, “I’d never let you do that.”
   
7. He also met his real biological sister, Mona Simpson, later in his life.
   
8. Jobs found it hard to fire people from his company when he had kids because he said that they looked his 5-year old kids and he couldn’t let them down.
   
9. Steve Jobs was not well-liked due to his recklessness for personal hygiene and was even asked to work in the night shift.
   
10. Jobs never actually learned how to code.
    
11. He was also a dyslexic kid just like many geniuses such as Einstein, Henry Ford and Alexander Graham Bell.

What did Steve Jobs say about Education?

You must have seen Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford University where he told students about three stories from his own life going through different years that he found challenging or those that he learned immensely from. For him, schooling and formal education can be detrimental to the innate creativity of children and youngsters. He even said once that it was better if kids were sent to sail across the world rather than spend such a long time in middle school. He always emphasized on following one’s passions in life without worrying about how far the formal education can take. Let’s take a look at some of the key takeaways from his commencement speech at Stanford:

Connecting the Dots

“I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.”

Looking back at his decision to drop out of Reed College, Jobs said that it was one of the best decisions he ever made even if he had no idea what he will be doing with his life. He trusted himself enough to make this decision because he knew that college education was costly and he wasn’t really interested in anything he was being taught. That’s when he started taking classes of his interest and learned calligraphy which later helped him design the typography for Macintosh. So, connecting the dots later in life, he realised that dropping out of college was the right move for him.

Love and Loss

“The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything.”

Getting fired from his own company was a very public failure that Jobs faced at 30. He had a falling out with his team and felt that he let down his generation of entrepreneurs. But, Jobs further said that getting out of a huge successful position like this, he also felt lighter and like a beginner again. This led to one of the most creative phases in his life as he built Pixar and NeXT which later became a part of Apple Inc.

Living Every Day as If It’s Your Last

“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Another concluding lesson that Jobs imparted to the students is that we must live every day in our life as if it’s our last because one day it might. This is how you can face failure, big expectations, pride and fear of embarrassment, by simply knowing that you need to give your best no matter what happens or who says what. Everyone’s time is limited here in the world so it is important to pursue things that you love and are passionate about!

Books on Steve Jobs

• Steve Jobs
• I, Steve – Steve Jobs In His Own Words
• Steve Jobs: The man who thought different
• How to Think Like Steve Jobs
• Who was Steve Jobs?
• The Steve Jobs Way
• Steve Jobs: 50 Life and Business Lessons from Steve Jobs
• The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs
• iCon: Steve Jobs
• The Bite in the Apple: A Memoir of My Life with Steve Jobs

Thus, Steve Jobs Education in itself is a journey filled with ups and downs as he held on to his passion for electronics breaking away from the conventional route that everyone takes. At study abroad, we also believe in the power of education and learning and how the right guidance can equip an individual with the ideal knowledge and experience to sail further towards their goals. If you have been struggling with your career choices, sign up for a free 30-minute counselling session with our knowledgeable and learned counsellors and we’ll guide you at every step of your academic and professional journey thus ensuring that you make informed decisions in your quest towards your dream career!