史蒂夫·喬布斯：改變世界的夢想家

他是一位富有遠見卓識的創業者，對電子業的未來發展具有超凡的洞察力；他是一位卓越的管理者，以堅定的信念和創新的精神引領企業締造了一個個不朽傳奇；他是一位執著的理想主義者，如虔誠的教徒般固執于對完美的追求；他是一位堅定的夢想家，為踐行改變世界的夢想傾盡熱情與心力。

史蒂夫·喬布斯，這個曾被自己創建的蘋果王國放逐11年之久卻從未言棄、憑借勇氣與創新終又東山再起的商界傳奇，究竟還會帶給世界多少震撼與驚喜？

在美國成功的商業人士中，富有遠見卓識者不計其數，他們有的滿足了迫切的社會需求，有的創造出了新的財富市場。在這些人當中，喬布斯堪稱“公司的保護神”，是一位有不足之處但瑕難掩瑜的公司創始人，曾讓世界為之震驚。在動蕩時期，他曾被驅逐出自己一手創辦的王國，而后又重返蘋果，救其于狂瀾之中，并將蘋果事業推向一個新的高度。過去34年來，他糾正了因貪多求大而誤入歧途的失誤，掃清了競爭路途上的障礙，克服了最近健康上的問題，最終改變了人們工作、溝通和娛樂的方式。在被蘋果放逐11年之后，他于1996年卷土重來，力挽蘋果于傾覆，推出了iPod和iPhone等迅速成名的產品，鞏固了他作為“消費性科技產品之圣人”的名頭。2009年11月，他被《財富》雜志評為“十年最佳CEO”，該雜志評價說，歷史將會銘記這位“永無止境地追求新機遇的人”，他探求“新的機遇，前進路上的任何障礙都無法阻止他前行”。

播下蘋果的種子

1970年，喬布斯與沃茲尼亞克相遇，當時喬布斯16歲，沃茲尼亞克21歲。他們都是在北加利福尼亞州的圣克拉拉谷（硅谷的前稱）長大，這里是工程師及其同行的“修煉場”，而洛克希德公司紅火的國防貿易更是為“修煉場”加大了火力。其時計算機的計算能力僅限于在既昂貴又龐大的機器上實現，而大多數企業都與這種機器無緣。

當時，沃茲尼亞克在惠普公司工作，喬布斯則在雅達利，他們一邊工作一邊籌劃自己開拓性的事業。他和沃茲尼亞克經常在“家釀計算機俱樂部”的非正式見面會上碰頭。在見面會上，當地的與會人員經常談論新技術層出不窮的IT界，對比和交流信息技術方面的想法與觀念。

1976年的愚人節那天，沃茲尼亞克、喬布斯以及喬布斯以前在雅達利的同事羅恩·韋恩一起簽署文件，創辦了蘋果電腦公司。但韋恩在12天后就退出了，因為他認為這種投資風險太大。只是由于沃茲尼亞克的聰明才智和喬布斯近乎固執的堅持，公司才有了發展的動力。喬布斯四處收集零部件，在他不厭其煩的督促和激勵下，“沃茲”完成了第一代和第二代蘋果電腦的設計——設計全由沃茲尼亞克一人搞定。由此，蘋果引發了1977年的個人電腦革命。

毀滅性的打擊

1983年，斯卡利加入蘋果，成為蘋果公司的總裁和首席執行官。1985年，喬布斯和斯卡利在公司發展方向的問題上產生分歧，關系緊張，這種緊張關系在喬布斯試圖發動一場“宮廷政變”將斯卡利驅逐出局時達到頂點。最終，喬布斯的“宮廷政變”以失敗告終，斯卡利剝奪了這位公司創始人所有的管理權。9月，喬布斯離開了蘋果。他賣掉了自己所有的蘋果股份。這一打擊讓喬布斯傷痕累累，但并未一蹶不振，他很快從這次備受關注的離職事件中恢復過來。

“我很幸運——在年輕時就找到了自己喜歡做的事情。”喬布斯在斯坦福大學畢業典禮上的演講中如此說道。“20歲時，我和沃茲在我父母的車庫里創辦了蘋果公司，我們工作很努力。十年之內，蘋果公司從一個僅有兩名員工和一間車庫辦公室的小公司發展為一個擁有20億美元資產和四千多名員工的大公司。在我離職前的一年，我們剛剛推出了蘋果創造的最優秀產品——麥金托什機，那年我剛滿30歲。然后緊接著，我被解雇了。”

“一個人怎么可能被自己一手創辦的公司解雇呢？想當年，蘋果公司越做越大，我們就聘用了一個我認為有能力和我一起經營公司的人，在大約一年左右的時間里，一切還算順利。可接著，我們在公司未來發展的問題上出現了分歧，結果鬧翻了。鬧翻之后，董事會站在了他那一邊。于是，在我30歲時，我被迫出局，而且是在眾人的高度關注之下出局。一直以來被我視為成年后整個生命中最重要的東西突然之間不在了，這對我來說是致命的打擊。”

喬布斯談道，由于這次眾人皆知的失敗，他曾想過逃離硅谷。但他逐漸意識到，他仍然深愛著自己所干的事業。他決定東山再起。

新的開始

“我當時并沒有意識到這一點，但事實證明，被蘋果解雇可能是我所遇到的最幸運的事。擺脫了成功帶來的沉重壓力，我感受到再次成為新人的輕松自在——不必對每件事都那么確信。這使我能夠放開手腳，進入到我生命中最富創造性的階段之一。”

喬布斯創辦了NeXT電腦公司，試圖向商業市場出售外形雅致、價格昂貴的黑色電腦，結果以失敗而告終。1993年，該公司轉而將其注意力集中在NextStep操作系統的銷售和研發上。而事實上，早在1986年，喬布斯就以不到一千萬美元的價格從喬治·盧卡斯手中收購了皮克斯電腦動畫工作室，由此一腳踏入娛樂世界的腹地，開始全身心地投入到這項新的工作中。

此后，喬布斯的事業突飛猛進，勢如破竹。1993年，斯卡利離開了危機四伏的蘋果，留下了一個爛攤子。1995年，迪斯尼推出了皮克斯工作室的第一部電影《玩具總動員》，獲得了驚人的成功，動畫質量也更上一層樓。1996年12月，蘋果以4.3億的價格收購了NeXT，這一收購背后的故事曲折復雜，喬布斯也因此重返他的“老巢”。1997年9月，喬布斯成為蘋果的iCEO（臨時CEO的戲稱），并于1998年1月使蘋果扭虧為盈。

王者歸來

喬布斯歸來之后所做的第一件事就是將公司所有的文件和舊機器一起打包，送到斯坦福大學存檔。

“（我們）將這些過去沉積的‘蜘蛛網清除干凈，然后說：‘我們不要總是沉湎于過去。”喬布斯在2007年大會上解釋說。“重要的是明天將會如何。因為你不能總是回首過去，然后大呼，‘噢，天哪，你知道，要是當初我沒被解雇就好了，我真希望當時自己沒有離開這里，但愿這樣或那樣就好了。這樣說毫無意義。我們應該放手去創造明天，而不是為昨天發生的一切懊悔。”

2001年，蘋果推出第一代iMac機的時候，它在個人電腦市場所占的份額已經萎縮到2%。2001年，蘋果公司推出了具有里程碑意義的iPod、iTunes產品以及OS X 10.0操作系統，標志著蘋果重新回歸其創新世界的領軍地位。蘋果又一次證實了那些宣稱“蘋果已死”的報道是多么夸大其詞、荒誕不經。隨著戰略的轉移，蘋果也建立了自己的第一家零售店，地點在弗吉尼亞州的麥克林。

“喬布斯曾經做過一次演講，其中說過大概這樣的話：‘我們（蘋果）要生產的產品必須是我們自己想要使用的產品。”微軟公司的蓋茨2007年這樣說道。“他的確以令人難以置信的品味和優雅致力于實現這種追求，這對業界產生了巨大的影響。此外，他總是能夠算計出自己下一步該把寶押在什么地方，這種能力的確非凡。”

喬布斯重返商業世界之巔，但卻遭遇了人生的又一挑戰。2004年，他被確診患了胰腺癌。在治療和康復的過程中，他有了一個更強烈的愿望，用他的合伙創始人沃茲尼亞克的話來說，就是做一個“推動世界前進”的夢想家。

“跟著心靈走”

在2005年斯坦福大學畢業典禮的演講中，喬布斯詳細敘說了如下觀點：“要有勇氣跟著自己的心靈和感覺走。心靈和感覺非常清楚你到底想做一個什么樣的人。別的一切都不重要。”

2005年，蘋果推出了iPod Nano MP3播放器、iPod視頻播放器和iPod Shuffle超小型數碼播放器。2006年1月，喬布斯將多次獲獎的皮克斯工作團隊出售給迪斯尼公司，獲得價值74億美元的迪斯尼股票。2007年，蘋果推出了iPhone，緊接著，2008年，又建立了自己的應用軟件商店。這些產品的推出，使蘋果從一個爛攤子一躍成為世界上最大、最受人尊敬的公司之一。

“史蒂夫·喬布斯在我們的文化領域是一個獨樹一幟的人物，”NewDealDesign設計公司的創始人阿米特說，“是他把注重實用的數字技術和豐富的文化體驗結合起來，在這一點上，他比任何人都強。沒有他，技術世界多半只會把文化貶為修飾性的點綴，而不是具有實質意義的產品元素和服務創新。他深刻地影響了我們的文化、思維方式以及研發智能技術的方法，我認為他是上個世紀最具影響力的文化創造者之一。”

重劃邊界

企業家、作家蓋伊·川崎曾兩度在蘋果公司供職（1983～1987，1995～1997），是蘋果公司的“傳道者”和蘋果產品的超級擁護者。盡管現在已和蘋果公司毫無瓜葛，他仍然是一個蘋果迷，時刻關注蘋果產品。川崎堅持認為，正是因為喬布斯非凡的遠見卓識，才使得蘋果能夠重新界定工業——以及當代文化——的邊界。

“喬布斯是一個魅力十足的推銷員，他善于推銷自己的觀點，能夠把路人變成顧客，把顧客變成義務宣傳員。”溝通技能培訓師卡米恩·加羅這樣寫道。

“一次又一次，他把目光、精力，有時甚至是全部身心都投入到某項事業中，這樣的事業有時需要創造出新的產品，有時則需要另辟蹊徑。”哈佛商學院教授南希·F·克恩于2009年在《財富》雜志撰文時如是說。

在2007年那次和比爾·蓋茨同時亮相的會議上，喬布斯說：“在最初的日子里，我和比爾初次見面和共事的時候，我們倆通常是房間里最年輕的人。而現在，多數時候，我成了房間里年紀最大的人。也正是因為這一點，我才喜歡待在這里。”

三年后，喬布斯絲毫沒有變得更年輕，但我們有證據可以表明，在同時代人中，他是最偉大的創新者。很顯然，他還在籌劃著繼續讓世界為之轟動。

The American business success collective has volumes of examples of visionaries who have met pressing societal needs or created rich new markets. Among those pages， Jobs is a tutelary1， a rough about the edges2 company founder who has rattled3 the world， was banished from the kingdom he built during tumultuous4 times， and then returned to rescue and take Apple to loftier heights. During the past 34 years， he has overcome ambitious missteps， competitive obstacles and recent health issues to change the way people work， communicate and entertain themselves. Since rejoining Apple in 1996 after an 11-year exile， he has rescued it from near collapse， introduced meteoric5 products such as the iPod and iPhone， and cemented his role as the oracle of consumer tech gadgetry. In naming Jobs “CEO of the Decade” in November 2009， Fortune magazine said history will remember him as “an individual who relentlessly pursued new opportunities，” chasing “new possibilities without being deterred by whatever obstacles he encountered.”

Apple Seeds

Jobs and Wozniak met in 1970； Wozniak was 21 and Jobs 16. Northern Californias Santa Clara Valley （pre-Silicon Valley）， where Jobs and Wozniak grew up， was a churning place for engineers and their ilk， fueled by Lockheed6s booming defense business. Computing power was confined to gigantic7， expensive machinery outside the realm of most businesses.

Wozniak worked for Hewlett-Packard and Jobs at Atari as they scrambled with their groundbreaking work. He and Wozniak met regularly at informal Homebrew Computer Club meetings where locals compared notes and ideas in the bubbling information technology pool.

On April Fools Day in 1976， Wozniak， Jobs and Jobs former Atari colleague Ron Wayne signed papers forming Apple Computer. Wayne resigned 12 days later because he decided the financial risk was too great. It was Wozniaks brilliance and Jobs dogged determination that were the engines. Jobs scavenged8 for parts and hounded “Woz” to finish the Apple I and then the Apple II， which Wozniak single-handedly designed. It ignited the personal-computer revolution in 1977.

A Devastating Fallout

In 1985， tensions between Sculley9 （who joined Apple as president and chief executive officer in 1983） and Jobs about the direction of the company culminated in Jobs trying to oust10 Sculley in a palace coup. It failed， and Sculley stripped the founder of all his operational responsibilities. By September， Jobs was gone. Jobs sold his Apple stock. Bloodied but not beaten， Jobs recovered from the very high-profile exit.

“I was lucky—I found what I loved to do early in life，” Jobs said during the Stanford commencement address. “Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard， and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4，000 employees. We had just released our finest creation—the Macintosh—a year earlier， and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired.

“How can you get fired from a company you started？ Well， as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me， and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out11. When we did， our board of directors sided with12 him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone， and it was devastating.”

Jobs talked about how he thought about fleeing the valley because of his very public failure， but he slowly realized he still loved what he did. He decided to start over.

A New Day

“I didnt see it then， but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again， less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”

Jobs started NeXT Computer Inc.， which failed in its attempt to sell elegant， expensive black computers to the business market， and by 1993， shifted its focus to the sale and development of its NextStep operating system. In 1986， however， Jobs stepped deeply into the entertainment world when he purchased the Pixar computer animation studios from George Lucas for less than $10 million， and then immersed himself in13 this new work.

Since then， Jobs work got faster and more furious. By 1993， Sculley resigned from a beleaguered14， battered Apple. Disney released Pixars first movie， Toy Story， in 1995， which was an astounding success and leap forward in animation quality. In December 1996， Apple bought NeXT for $430 million in a move full of intrigue， bringing Jobs back into the fold. By September， 1997， Jobs became iCEO （interim15）， and returned the company to profitability by January 1998.

The Comeback

One of the first things Jobs did upon his return was to pack up all the companys papers and old machines and send the materials to Stanford University for archiving.

“[We] cleared out the cobwebs and said，‘Lets stop looking backward here，” Jobs explained at the 2007 conference. “Its all about what happens tomorrow. Because you cant look back and say， ‘Well， gosh， you know， I wish I hadnt gotten fired， I wish I was there， I wish this， I wish that.It doesnt matter. Lets go invent tomorrow rather than worrying about what happened yesterday.”

When Apple launched its first iMac in 2001， its personal-computer market share had dwindled to 2 percent. In 2001， Apple introduced the landscape-changing iPod， iTunes and its OS X 10.0 operating system， signifying its return as a champion innovator. Apple， once again， proved that reports of its demise were greatly exaggerated. In a strategy shift， Apple also opened its first retail store in Maclean， Va.

“Jobs gave a speech once， where he talked about， in a certain sense， ‘We [Apple] build the products that we want to use ourselves，” Microsofts Gates said in 2007. “Hes really pursued that with incredible taste and elegance that has had a huge impact on the industry. And his ability to always come around and figure out where that next bet should be has been phenomenal.”

Jobs returned to the top of the business world， but life held another challenge for him. His diagnosis， treatment and recovery from pancreatic16 cancer in 2004 reinforced his will to be， in co-founder Wozniaks words， a “move-the-world-forward” visionary.

“Follow Your Heart”

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” Jobs recounted in the Stanford address in 2005.

In 2005， Apple introduced the iPod Nano， the Video iPod and the iPod Shuffle. In January 2006， Jobs sold the award-winning Pixar group to the Walt Disney Co. for about $7.4 billion in Disney stock. In 2007， Apple launched the iPhone， followed by its Apps store in 2008. Those products vaulted17 Apple from turmoil into one of the worlds largest and most respected companies.

“Steve Jobs is a singular persona in our culture，” says NewDealDesigns founder Amit. “He， more than anyone else， made utilitarian18 digital technology merge into a rich cultural experience. Without him， most of the tech world would have relegated culture to a decorative role， rather than a substantive element of product and service innovation. His impact is so profound on our culture， our way of thinking and our approach to smart technology， that I would consider him one of the most influential cultural creators of the past century.”

Redrawing Boundaries

Entrepreneur and author Guy Kawasaki had two stints19 with Apple （1983～1987， 1995～1997） as a company “evangelist20）” or product super-advocate. Though no longer connected to the company， he remains a product loyalist and observer. Kawasaki maintains it is Jobs extraordinary vision that allows Apple to keep redrawing industry—and modern cultures—boundaries.

“Jobs is a magnetic21 pitchman who sells his ideas with a flair22 that turns prospects23 into customers and customers into evangelists，” writes Carmine Gallo， who is a communication skills coach.

“Over and over again he has turned his eye and his energy—and at times， it has seemed， his entire being—to what might be gained by creating a new offering or taking an unorthodox strategic path，” Harvard Business School professor and author Nancy F. Koehn wrote in Fortune in 2009.

“When Bill and I first met each other and worked together in the early days， generally， we were both the youngest guys in the room，” he said during that 2007 joint appearance with Gates. “And now， Im the oldest guy in the room most of the time. And thats why I love being here.”

Three years later， Jobs hasnt gotten any younger， but arguably the biggest innovator of his generation clearly plans to keep stirring the pot.

單詞卡片··

1. tutelary n. 守護神

2. rough about the edges：尚未完善，有缺點但有潛力

3. rattle vt. 使顫動出聲

4. tumultuous a. 喧囂的，騷亂的

5. meteoric a. 迅速成功（名）的

6. Lockheed：洛克希德公司，美國飛機與導彈制造公司

7. gigantic a. 巨大的，龐大的

8. scavenge vi. 從廢物中提取

9. Sculley：指美國商界名人約翰·斯卡利。

10. oust vt. 驅逐

11. fall out：鬧翻，離隊

12. side with：與（某人）站在同一邊，和（某人）抱同樣的見解

13. immerse…in：使沉浸在，使專心于

14. beleaguer vt. 圍困，困擾

15. interim a. 臨時的

16. pancreatic a. 胰腺的

17. vault vt. 使一躍而成名，使一躍而至

18. utilitarian a. 功利主義的，實用主義的

19. stint [stInt] n. 任期

20. evangelist n. 福音傳道者

21. magnetic a. 有磁性的，有吸引力的

22. flair n. 天資，才能；特殊的才干

23. prospect n. 可能的顧客