Steve Jobs

By: Walter Isaacson

Narrated by: Dylan Baker

Length: 25 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Featuring a new epilogue read by the author.

From the author of the best-selling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, this is the exclusive biography of Steve Jobs.

Based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs conducted over two years - as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues - Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the 21st century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.

Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple's hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.

©2011 Walter Isaacson (P)2011 Simon & Schuster

Pursuit of Excellence

This book was revealing and show cased that you do not have to be perfect to create perfection. Ambition,Dedication and Succeding against the odds shows to bet on yourself, trust yourself, NO MATTTER WHAT!

If you like apple products, read this

There were parts of the book I really enjoyed but there were a lot of parts where I had to refocus because I’d feel my mind drifting off. The narrator is ok, but the tone of his voice just wasn’t my preference. Jobs was a once in a lifetime innovator. His company changed peoples world. It’s a big commitment to listen to this book but overall I enjoyed it.

Really stinking long but very much worth it!

If you can find a way to put up and bear with the length of the book, I think you'll find what you're looking for in this biography. The book delivers a very well thought-out analysis on the guy's life and how he came to create the world's largest tech company without knowing practically anything about programming or engineering. It's an amazing story to say the least.

The author presents Steve using a handful of characteristics and themes that pervaded throughout his life. These themes are a little repetitive, but they do a great job explaining his erratic behavior and his tendency towards brutal honesty. The structure of the book inspires a thorough inspection of one's own themes throughout life. Steve Jobs's nature had many downsides to it, but he knew exactly what his upsides were and perfected them. By the end of the book, there's hope that we can all perfect our own.

Fantastic!

The best biography I’ve read till date. An exceptional portrait of a true visionary…strengths, flaws and all. The narration was very good…and the retelling of Steve’s life by Walter Isaacson was engaging & honest. Loved it…

Glad I listened

Some parts of this book dragged out for me bc they got a little too technical.But overall, I am very glad to have listened to it. I appreciated the perspective that i now have on Steve Jobs. I believe this book is honest, it shows the warts and all of Steve, which allows the reader to have an understanding into who he was. I’m so grateful for his contribution to humanity and for who he was.

Seems fabricated

This book seems to reference a lot of conversations and behinds to feel fabricated after a while. The conversations are word for word and it doesn’t even seem possible to remember such details.

Another Isaacson Master Work

A story I lived as an early tech during the I-Mac era. First computer store above 9000 feet

Gripping

The book paints a story of a man who has walked among us during our lifetime but has the composition of someone who we have read about only in the past: One of the Great Ones.

Without this investigative biography, it’s not possible to have had such a definitive understanding of the person. Documentation of a Great One…. flaws and all. Strong work Mr Isaacson!

Wonderful Story of an Innovative Genius

Undoubtedly success leaves clues and this account of Steve Jobs life is filled with them. I believe the author gave a superb account of who Steve Jobs was and what he represented. There is so much one can glean from the life of Steve Jobs and it definitely one deserving of multiple reads as there is so much contained therein.

Thorough and Unbiased

I got what I was looking for. And unbiased and thorough biography of the great Steve Jobs. And an insight of the mind of a genius of this era and the perspective of the people who knew him most. I enjoyed this audiobook very much.