'I almost forgot. We are profitable'

Finally finished reading this book on Steve Jobs, with all the usual distractions of work and my crazy habit of reading 2-3 books at the same time. And now for my take on this book -

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Quite a gripping account of the phoenix who rose from the ashes to lead the convergence of 3 mighty industries of Computers, Music and Animation. The book takes you on a journey of triumphs and turbulences of this brash young man who is totally intolerant to conventional thinking and at times intolerable to his teammates. On the way he changed the rules of every game he has ever played and most of them on hostile grounds. The best part of the book is that it has not just eulogised Jobs, it gives the reader a view of his life with all his perfections and flaws.

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Cynics might discount Job's contributions by saying that he was lucky to have been at the right place at the right time and amongst the right people. Like he had Steve Wozniak during his initial days at Apple, John Lasseter and Ed Catmull & Alvy Ray Smith at Pixar and finally the MusicPortal team for the iPOD and iTunes. But there is no denying the fact that he is a visonary and has the knack of picking the right cards more often then not. Fortune does favors the brave.

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Brave indeed he has been and ruthless too. How else do you explain the fact that today Jobs is the largest shareholder of Disney with a 7% stake and a seat in its board. Isn't it amazing! It was Disney that had given Pixar the opportunity to make films with the finances for their production and the marketing engine for their publicity. Of course his knack of right timing is unquestionable, he re-negotiated this contract with Disney everytime after the success of each one of his blockbuster movies - Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. It didn't help Eisner either that Roy Disney was breathing down his neck with each passing moment and had to finally make way for the more amiable Bob Iger.

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The best anecdote from the book that gives the reader a feel of Jobs the person is the one at the MacWorld conference. This was just after he took over as CEO of Apple, Jobs gave a talk on the future plans of Apple for a couple hours to a crowd, which though captivated by his charisma was more interested in the financial numbers. Apple was in losses for past couple of quarters under Gil Amelio and the stakeholders were bullish with Jobs at its helm. This dude pretends to finish his speech and walks off to their utter disappointment and surprise. Then a moment later he comes back to the microphone and says - 'I almost forgot. We are profitable' and the crowd simply went into a frenzy at his panache, showmanship and attitude. Now thats what I call an example of a maverick at work.