{"id":18055,"date":"2011-08-25T13:22:10","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T03:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=18055"},"modified":"2016-03-01T09:51:01","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T23:51:01","slug":"steve-jobs-resigns-but-will-rise-again-in-a-new-authorised-biography-by-walter-isaacson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2011\/08\/25\/steve-jobs-resigns-but-will-rise-again-in-a-new-authorised-biography-by-walter-isaacson\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Jobs resigns but will rise again in a new authorised biography by Walter Isaacson"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/steve-jobs\/prod9781408703748.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-18057\" title=\"123592314\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/123592314.jpg?w=196\" alt=\"\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><span style=\"color:#000000;\">I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expec\u00adta\u00adtions as Apple\u2019s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnately, that day has come. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chair\u00adman of the Board, direc\u00adtor and Apple employee. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">As far as my suc\u00adces\u00adsor goes, I strongly rec\u00adom\u00admend that we exe\u00adcute our suc\u00adces\u00adsion plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">I believe Apple\u2019s bright\u00adest and most inno\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive days are ahead of it. And I look for\u00adward to watch\u00ading and con\u00adtribut\u00ading to its suc\u00adcess in a new role. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work along\u00adside you. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Steve<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<hr size=\"1\" \/>\n<h2 style=\"text-align:center;\"><em><strong>Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography <\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>By Walter Isaacson<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Global publication date: 22 November, 2011<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/steve-jobs\/prod9781408703748.html\" target=\"_blank\">Pre-order your copy here<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\"><strong>Summary Sheet <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>1 Is the book is good as we have all been hoping? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is the best bit of news. The book is extraordinarily good. It\u2019s easily as good as we\u2019d all hoped it would be. No, in fact that\u2019s wrong: it\u2019s way better than we\u2019d all hoped.<\/p>\n<p>Imagine how good you thought it might be. Then double that \u2013 at least.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/steve-jobs\/prod9781408703748.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-18073\" title=\"Computer\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/computer.jpg?w=200\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"139\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>2 Does it contain details about his private life?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The narrative of his personal life builds throughout the book beginning with one distinct chapter, then another, then another, until gradually his personal and professional lives become intertwined. There is material on his parents, on how he came to be adopted (and quite a bit, throughout the book, on his attitude to his adoption), his influences during his childhood, his emerging attitude to life, his girlfriends, his wife and his children. There is new material in amongst all of this and many, many gripping stories. Ordinarily, we don\u2019t get to hear much about Steve Jobs\u2019s private life \u2013 but there is a lot here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3 Does it mention his illness and his attitude to it? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes. This is dealt with in considerable depth. I don\u2019t want to say too much here but there is a great deal of intimate detail in the book.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4 Does the book give a balanced view of Steve Jobs? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes, very much so. It has been written with exclusive access to Steve Jobs and to those he has lived and worked with over the years. However, it is by no means a whitewash. This is the only biography of Steve Jobs there ever has been or ever will be that has been written with the benefit of Jobs\u2019s full co-operation. But it is not authorized, which means that it is very honest, with the truth always in its sights.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/steve-jobs\/prod9781408703748.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-18074\" title=\"Jobs\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/jobs.jpg?w=200\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"183\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The intricacies of Steve\u2019s character are revealed through the events of his life story. This means that his less praiseworthy attributes are in evidence throughout \u2013 as much as his qualities. It\u2019s the combination of the two that is most fascinating, and the book subtly explores where the many parts of Steve Jobs come from and why they came to create such a successful and remarkable man.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5 Do we feel like we really know him by the end? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the most extraordinary aspects of the book is just how effectively Walter Isaacson makes Steve Jobs come alive on the page. His visionary attributes, his stubbornness, his temper, his purist instinct, his obsession with design, his focus on detail, his charm, his inspiration to others \u2013 these are all very apparent and grow as the book gets a greater and greater hold over the reader. By the time you turn the last page, you will want nothing more than to have somehow had the opportunity to have a conversation with him, to have heard him pronounce first hand on some intricacy of design or the overview of a business deal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>6 Does it contain new insights into how Apple works and how it has made such huge accomplishments and breakthroughs? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is a biography, but it is also the most inspiring, most insightful business book one could imagine. Apple is such a unique organization that has excelled in almost every area through force of will, through hard work, through vision, through perfectionism and through the most canny market awareness and deal-making and breaking. Jobs\u2019s role in all of this is a huge part of this book. Anyone who has an aspiration or drive in whatever their career may be \u2013 in marketing, in management, in design, in technology \u2013 will want to read this book. Like some of the greatest business autobiographies &#8211; by Jack Welch or Richard Branson, for example \u2013 this book will be indispensable to anyone who cares about his or her career and who wants to do great things at work.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/steve-jobs\/prod9781408703748.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-18075\" title=\"old computer\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/old-computer.jpg?w=200\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"131\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>7 Does it contain material about Apple\u2019s relationships with its competitors? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Apple vs Google; Apple vs Microsoft; Pixar and Disney; Apple and Disney; Apple and the big record companies (Sony, EMI etc); Apple vs Apple (as in The Beatles). It\u2019s all here.<\/p>\n<p>At the heart of this story are two fundamental questions: a) where does creativity come from in a digital world? and b) how do you reconcile the ownership of new technology\/music\/books\/journalism with ever-increasing access to content? These are questions of both philosophical outlook and business. Should there be open access to everything or ever-increasing control? The relations between Apple and the companies listed above show how the answers to these questions have played out over recent decades and will develop in the future. Steve Jobs has always been at the centre of this.<\/p>\n<p><strong>8 How readable is the book?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Easy answer. It\u2019s a page turner. Genuinely and absolutely. If you\u2019ve ever thought upmarket biography is not for you, think again.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/steve-jobs\/prod9781408703748.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-18076\" title=\"Apple\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/overview_hero1.jpg?w=200\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"123\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>9 Did Steve Jobs control who Walter Isaacson spoke to when researching the book? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No. Jobs had an amazingly open attitude to this. He wanted Isaacson to have contact with as many people as possible from his life, even when he knew they wouldn\u2019t necessarily have positive things to say about him. A huge number of interviews went into this book.<\/p>\n<p><strong>10 How much time did the author have with Steve Jobs himself? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This was a major project for Steve as well as Walter. The book is based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs over two years \u2013 as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors and colleagues. The manuscript is peppered with references to Walter\u2019s interviews with Steve, conversations, shared meals etc, and this also gives the narrative a certain charm.<\/p>\n<p><strong>11 Are there exclusive illustrations? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes, there will be. I haven\u2019t seen them yet but I\u2019m told they will be exceptionally good.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>Think biography. Think different. <\/strong><\/p>\n<hr size=\"1\" \/>\n<p><strong>Publisher synopsis:<\/strong> From the author of the bestselling biographies of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/benjamin-franklin\/prod9780743258074.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Benjamin Franklin<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/einstein-the-life-of-a-genius-treasures-and-experiences-series-\/prod9780233002712.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Albert Einstein<\/em><\/a>, this is the exclusive biography of Steve Jobs, written with his full cooperation.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18058\" style=\"width: 207px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/search.ep?author=Walter+Isaacson&amp;title=Steve\" target=\"_blank\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18058\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18058\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/97814087037481.jpg?w=197\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-18058\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Draft cover and title?<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years \u2013 as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues \u2013 this book chronicles the rollercoaster 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. It is also a book about innovation. 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, so he built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.<\/p>\n<p>Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off limits and instead encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly \u2013 even foes, former girlfriends, and colleagues he had once fired or infuriated. \u201cI\u2019ve done a lot of things I\u2019m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t have any skeletons in my closet that can\u2019t be allowed out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. Likewise, 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.<\/p>\n<p>He was not a model boss or human being, tidily packaged for emulation. Driven by demons, he could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple\u2019s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is thus both instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/search.ep?author=Walter+Isaacson&amp;title=Steve\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-18061\" title=\"Click here to order your copy of Steve Jobs\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/290167_199212300139611_190369794357195_544727_3235179_o.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"468\" height=\"318\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18063\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/search.ep?author=Walter+Isaacson&amp;title=Steve\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18063\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-18063\" title=\"Author: Walter Isaacson\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/286513_201457563248418_190369794357195_552923_7102402_o.jpg?w=200\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"133\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-18063\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Walter Isaacson<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Walter Isaacson is the author of the forthcoming biography &#8220;Steve Jobs.&#8221; His previous books include &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/benjamin-franklin\/prod9780743258074.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Benjamin Franklin: An American Life<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/einstein-the-life-of-a-genius-treasures-and-experiences-series-\/prod9780233002712.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Einstein: His Life and Universe,<\/em><\/a>&#8221; &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/kissinger\/prod9780743286978.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Kissinger: A Biography<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; and he is the coauthor, with Evan Thomas, of &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/the-wise-men\/prod9780684837710.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made<\/em>.<\/a>&#8221; Isaacson is the CEO of the Aspen Institute. He was previously the editor of Time Magazine and the CEO of CNN. He was born in New Orleans, La., on May 20, 1952. He is a graduate of Newman School in New Orleans, Harvard College, and Pembroke College of Oxford University. He serves as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other U.S. international broadcasts. He is also the chairman of the board of Teach for America. He is on the boards of United Continental Airlines, Bloomberg Foundation, Harvard Overseers, and Tulane University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expec\u00adta\u00adtions as Apple\u2019s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnately, that day has come. I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chair\u00adman of the Board, direc\u00adtor and Apple employee. As far as my suc\u00adces\u00adsor goes, I strongly rec\u00adom\u00admend that we exe\u00adcute our suc\u00adces\u00adsion plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple. I believe Apple\u2019s bright\u00adest and most inno\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive days are ahead of it. And I look for\u00adward to watch\u00ading and con\u00adtribut\u00ading to its suc\u00adcess in a new role. I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work along\u00adside you. Steve Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography By Walter Isaacson Global publication date: 22 November, 2011 Pre-order your copy here Summary Sheet 1 Is the book is good as we have all been hoping? This is the best bit of news. The book is extraordinarily good. It\u2019s easily as good as we\u2019d all hoped it would be. No, in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[642,5023,6427],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18055"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57633,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18055\/revisions\/57633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}