My favorite story about Steve Jobs (1955-2011):
The year was 1983. Apple needed a new CEO. Jobs went all out to persuade John Sculley (president of Pepsi Cola) to become the CEO of Apple. Jobs turned his reality-distorting gaze on the hapless Sculley and said to him: "Do you want to sell sugar water to adolescents for the rest of your life, or do you want to change the world?" Sculley accepted the job.
In early 1984, the legendary Apple Macintosh was released. Less than two years later, Jobs was banished from Apple, only to be recalled twelve years later to save "an insanely great computer company that had gone insane" (in the words of Michael S. Malone).
I have never bought or used anything made by Apple, but I have met many of its bright-eyed devotees. Perhaps Jobs is saying to me: "Do you want to stay as you are for the rest of your life, or do you want to buy some shiny toys that are a bit more expensive than they should be?"
Some pics of the young Jobs (Jobs at school, Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Jobs and John Sculley).
