We’re always in a state of “becoming.”
I knew this from my own spiritual process, but it was good to get validation in the book on Steve Jobs that “becoming” is a real Buddhist philosophy that compares life to “an ever-changing river.” Nowhere is the process of “becoming” made even clearer than in this biography, “Becoming Steve Jobs,” by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli.
The book is a great read, recounting many Apple, NeXT and Pixar milestones in the Information Technology field. But the book’s best feature is its chronicling of the growth of the personality Steve Jobs from a boy into the man many of his close friends and family knew and loved.
I respect the painstaking effort Schlender took in the Prologue to explain his 25-year interaction with Jobs: “I was the reporter, he was the source and subject.” Yet, Jobs in many instances introduced Schlender as his “friend,” even visiting him several times on two occasions when Schlender himself was hospitalized.
Whether Schlender regarded Steve Jobs as a friend, or not, throughout their interaction of 25 years as reporter/subject, it took a certain, caring type of person, like Schlender, to write a book that saw "the" Steve Jobs behind the headlines. I'd read Walt Isaacson’s book, “Steve Jobs,” and had also seen the movie; I’d felt Isaacson gave a truly accurate portrayal. Yet, Schlender and Tetzeli, because of their interactions in Silicon Valley and their relationship, or non-relationship, with Steve and others close to him, manage to capture something Isaacson could not: they share the nuances and annoyances of a boy who became famous before he was fully a man, and they help us understand that this is the “nature” of our humanity, as we grow and develop on our own road to becoming.
As I read the chronicles of Jobs’ career successes, I became fully empathetic for the boy growing into manhood in the public eye. I became defensive and felt that we all should be so fully charged with ideas and passion that the world is not yet large enough to accommodate our urgency to be more and give more in all that we do.
Schlender’s and Tetzeli’s book is first-class business journalism on the evolution of the Information Technology field, with Steve Jobs and a few other well-known personalities leading the way. More importantly, though, “Becoming Steve jobs” is a guide and a manual for the Do’s and Don’ts of being a visionary and becoming a world leader without precedents.
As far as biographies go, Walt Isaacson’s book, in retrospect, serves as a great story with great accuracy about the man who was perceived as Steve Jobs. “Becoming Steve Jobs,” on the other hand, empowers us by giving us a blueprint for our own journey of “becoming.”
People in several different lines of business will find the book useful:
PR/Marketing pros and business people should find the book useful for its insights into the techniques Jobs used to get the attention of journalists like Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli.
Millennials should be inspired by a man who was motivated by passion and perfectionism. They can learn much from the insights provided throughout the book.
Those who believe they already have “become” still can learn a thing or two. For example, at the end at the book, Schlender shares regret about his last interaction with Jobs and how much he wishes he’d met with Steve when he’d asked.
The biggest lesson, I believe, we can learn about "becoming" is recounted in a story Mike Slade told the authors, not about Jobs, but about Bill Gates. At the reception after Jobs’ memorial service, Slade, a close Jobs’ associate at NeXT and Apple and now a partner with Seattle-based Second Avenue Partners, said:
“…I went to find him {Gates}. In the middle of the sculpture garden they had set up these really long couches in a rectangle where the family was. Laurene was there and the kids were there. And that’s where Bill was, over on a couch, talking to Evie {Jobs’ then 13-year-old daughter} about horses. He just sat there and had been talking to her for a half an hour. He didn’t talk to anybody else.”
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Growth, Love, and Beauty: the Self-Made Soul of Apple
Steve Jobs famously said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.” *Becoming Steve Jobs*, by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, does a wonderful job of connecting the dots of Steve Jobs’ passionate life.With new first-hand accounts and insights into Jobs’ personal and professional growth, *Becoming Steve Jobs* offers a glimpse into the tremendous work it took for an “inconsiderate“ and “rash” young visionary to develop himself into a caring and deliberate leader who so deeply valued -- and inspired in others -- one thing above all else: a love of and dedication to creating the beautiful in work, in life.GROWTH.In *Becoming Steve Jobs*, we see Jobs develop. At times, we encounter him at his worst: an emotionally erratic young man sitting in a parking lot, literally crying in shame after losing control of himself in a meeting; an arrogant 20-something who thinks “he could probably do anybody’s job better than they could” (Schlender & Tetzeli); a pained adult having to finally end production on his beloved NeXT computers. We see his beginnings, and his faults. But we also see the steps he takes to grow, to overcome weaknesses and learn from mistakes. For instance, we see him genuinely apologizing for inappropriate outbursts. We hear from colleagues such as John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer at Pixar, that he could inspire those around him “to do amazing things he knew he couldn’t do himself.” And of course we see his incredible comeback to Apple (after it purchases NeXT) and the fantastic computers he creates while there. Time and again, we see Steve Jobs neither as a lucky boy in the right place at the right time nor as a fully formed tech messiah with God-given talents. Instead, we see the growth of a self-made soul, a man who worked -- and worked and worked -- every step of the way to become a visionary leader.LOVE.From the words of those who knew Steve Jobs best, we learn that he was a man who profoundly loved his work:“Steve loved ideas and loved making stuff, and he treated the process of creativity with a rare and wonderful reverence.” --Jony Ive, Apple’s VP of Design and one of Jobs’ closest friends“He loved this company.” --Ed Catmull, President of Pixar“He loved it. He was like a kid.” --Lasseter on how Steve would excitingly show Pixar movies to all his neighbors“No one else I ever covered was so passionate about the creations of his business.” --Schlender & TetzeliAnd by so loving his work, Steve inspired those around him to do the same. As Apple’s current CEO Tim Cook says, “Steve cared. He cared deeply about things. Yes, he was passionate about things, and he wanted things to be perfect. And that was what was great about him. He wanted everyone to do their best work.”BEAUTY.Steve Jobs found beauty in “the marriage” of technology with humanities, and he accomplished that union in a world-changing way. It was his uniquely integrated technical and aesthetic vision that was at the core of the personal computer revolution, making possible the movement from million-dollar, bulky mainframes that could barely fit in an office, to inexpensive, beautiful smartphones that glide easily into our pockets. Jobs had an all-encompassing “love of beauty,” says his wife Laurene, and ultimately it was this love of the beautiful, his (self-proclaimed) joy in “making wonderful things” that drove him.Overall, *Becoming Steve Jobs* is an engaging biography of Jobs’ life that neither sugarcoats his shortcomings nor belittles his brilliance (as sycophants and cynics have no doubt attempted elsewhere). Rather, it confirms in a well-researched and well-told story what those closest to Jobs have said for years: that despite his weaknesses -- many of which he grew to overcome -- Steve was a great man, whose joyous success in the real world is, as Jony Ive so powerfully stated in a funeral tribute to his friend, “a victory for beauty, for purity, and, as [Steve] would say, for giving a damn.”
Top reviews from other countries
Eluard Moraes
More focused on business and leadership than Walter Isaacson's
Reviewed in Brazil on November 3, 2020
