The Second Coming of Steve Jobs

by Alan Deutschman

Silicon Valley Saga

Most CEOs don't banish smoking and institute vegetarian-only cuisine on their corporate campuses. Nor do they fire and rehire the same people while making a habit of terrorizing their employees. And they don't tend to spend millions of dollars and countless hours designing the perfect office and factory instead of creating a marketable, successful product.

Even if they were to pull off such behavior, as Steve Jobs did in his various professional endeavors from 1985 to 2000, would they still be worshiped and canonized as he has been? Few others could fall from grace so publicly and have the wherewithal to return so triumphantly. Job's homecoming to Apple Computers, the company he founded, after his humiliating ousting in 1985 heralded one of the most astonishing business turnarounds in corporate history. Bringing Apple's stock price, sales figures, and market share to all-time highs in a PC-dominated world stunned the industry and reestablished Jobs's place in the corporate pantheon.

It's one of many experiences that have made Jobs such a fascinating subject of the many works that have focused on him. His legendary charisma, exceptional genius, and the cultlike following he inspires make for an extraordinary character, but not one without considerable flaws, all of which are explored from an insider's perspective in Alan Deutschman's intriguing book, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs.

There's little doubt that Jobs is a visionary and revolutionary, but the substance of The Second Coming of Steve Jobs reduces him to human scale by recounting his often irrational and repugnant behavior through more than 100 interviews with Jobs's friends, employees, and professional contacts.

The Second Coming of Steve Jobs feels like a 304-page magazine profile, a style that fits the author, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair magazine and a former Silicon Valley correspondent for Fortune. The content of the book is two-thirds gossip and dish and one-third chronology and analysis. The result is an entertaining page-turner that reads like an episode of VH1's Behind the Music, complete with the classic rise, fall, and rise again plotline, obscene displays (and misspending) of wealth, betrayal, and appearances by other notable players, like Bill Gates of Microsoft, Jim Clark of Netscape, Larry Ellison of Oracle, and Michael Eisner of Disney.

Steve Jobs's successes are far less interesting to read about than his failures, the most outstanding of which is NeXT, his mid-'80s, post-Apple computer company. Jobs started NeXT in an attempt to outdo and exact revenge upon Apple but ended up alienating his core team of professional confidants, burning through money at a phenomenal rate, and ultimately seeing his company liquidated garage-sale style. After reading about the way in which Jobs ran the company, it's actually little surprise that it was such a stunning failure.

According to the book, Jobs spent more time obsessing about finding the perfect furniture for his office, building the most aesthetically pleasing hardware, and spewing vitriol against Apple than focusing on how to develop a killer computer. He fleeced enormous sums from investors, only to empty his coffers on the company's logo and factory and end up in the red. NeXT barely shipped computers and never met its sales projections. Jobs ignored advice about reconsidering his strategy and rejected buyout offers. Toss in the climate of fear that he created within the company, and it's a perfect recipe for disaster.

But Jobs refused to deal with any of that. Deutschman paints a portrait of a man so obsessed by the concept of perfection, so embittered by the injustices he felt he suffered, that he'd become blind to reality. This is best evidenced by his egomaniacal dealings with the creative founders of Pixar, the computer animation company behind the movie Toy Story.

Jobs tried to impose his way on the familial corporate culture of Pixar, insisting that his money gave him the right to run the company in his image. But eventually, a broken Jobs realized that the company's virtues lay in the creative spirits of its founders and artists, and he lost his battle for control. Instead, he waged war against Disney and won unprecedented lucrative contracts from them, took Pixar public, and reclaimed the wealth he lost with NeXT.

The Pixar episodes are among the most interesting material in The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, providing revealing perspective on a less-discussed aspect of Jobs's professional history. They also reveal an incarnation of Jobs that encapsulates his best and worst qualities as a businessman, negotiator, and visionary. As reviewed in the chapter of the book called "Being Steve," Jobs is a walking contradiction, an insecure, capricious, childlike man whose fierce tenacity engenders his legen...

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Business, Apple, Technology, Audiobook, Computers

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Alan Deutschman is currently writing "Walk the Walk," a book about leadership, which will be published in September 2009 by the Portfolio imprint at Penguin.

His blog about leadership is at:
http://www.leaderswalkthewalk.blogspo...

Reviews

[Harrismatte]

I used Tandy TSR 80 and Commodore 64 computers in middle school. Circa late middle school, early high school my parents bought us an Apple IIe for Christmas. That computer saw us through high school history and English papers (along with a dot matrix printer). I was aware that other Apple computers had come out during that time, but I didn't pay much attention. There were IBM computers in college, and I bought my own IBM compatible PC after freshman year and ran Windows 3.1. Graduate school had macintosh computers, and I wrote my dissertation on a fancy new G3 desktop. I gave away my PC as Rachel had a macintosh. Her mom and grandparents went through many iterations of macs. Used an eMac or was it an iMac for my post-doc. Bought our first computer together in 2002, a Dell laptop to travel across the country with us. Then a Dell desktop, then another Dell laptop. Both of my employers used IBM compatibles. I've used XP, Vista, and 7. I see myself as a Windows person, but I have a checkered past and I love technology. So perhaps it is not surprising that I started following Apple when the first iphone came out. And not just Apple, but Steve Jobs. Since the first iphone, I've watched all the Apple WWDC events with Steve. Sadly, I watched the iphone 4S unveiling when Steve wasn't there and passed soon afterward. I watched the Apple remembrance. Steve, his company, and its products have inspired and wowed me, so I wanted to know more about Steve. He wasn't perfect which this book definitely brings to light. And perhaps he got more credit for Pixar than deserved. But he was a visionary and a showman full of hyperbole, and he wanted to bring computers to the masses. And for that, I am very grateful.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is was and still remains to be a major inspiration for me!
If you are a computer tech head, business owner or a creative person,
I highly recommend this read!

[Lyn Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steve Jobs was a driven man who was a futurist and brought Apple back from the brink of extinction, and brought us an iGeneration of everything. That is of course after being fired by Apple many decades earlier, fighting his own inner demons, and quite frankly if this book is to be believed an Jekyll and Hyde character of the charismatic persona to an absolute prick to those who worked for him and interviewed him.

As a parent I also did not warm to a person that would not acknowledge his first born for many years despite a DNA test result of 95% positive.

A leader can be a perfectionist and still be inspired by their staff and also be respectful; Jobs appears to come across as sporadically respectful of others and rather arrogant enough to think that others should be inspired only by him.

I enjoyed the way this book was written, yes it was written by one of those journalists ceremoniously with whom Jobs was completely rude to; and I acknowledge this book did cast a negative slant. This book however left me seeking out other sources to see if it was simply biased without seeing all the positives that Jobs brought to the world. This is the sign of a good book, when it piques your interest about a topic. By all accounts this is a balanced view of Steve Jobs based on the open source information available. A great read.

[Rodney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly this book did not add a great deal to the often rumored Bi-Polar personality of Steve Jobs. It did however add a very important concept, technology isn't so much about producing a product any longer, it's about content and content consumption.

I do not know a great deal of the early history of Apple. At some point Jobs had to have technical knowledge along the lines of Bill Gates writing software code. As explained in this book, he's a marketing person and in fact one of the worst products of that business.

Interesting that you could see the progression and creation of the Ipod at the end of this book, but at the time of it's writing it had not come out yet.

Good book. Nice early history of Pixar as well.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a great read. It had a drama, dirt, personalities, and style. It was my first encounter with the legend. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Personally, I find it so easy to worship this man. He has lots of bad qualities. Even those traits, I find them attractive. I guess that's what charisma means. Steve jobs has almost every trait that a leader should have. He's that unique.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written after the second coming of Steve Jobs but before the third coming. (i.e. before the iPod). He had made Apple a success, then been kicked out, Made a real hash of NEXT and was funding but failing badly at Pixar. And then completely due to his funding but not really due to any management from Jobs, (in fact he had been trying to sell Pixar for years, was laying off lots of loyal staff without any payoffs) suddenly Toy Story came out and Jobs pushed his way to the front and centre. From there of course he was super rich, he rejoined Apple and made a massive success of that and then as this book ends that second period at Apple was on a horrible downward cycle, falling sales increasing losses. As of course we all know now, the Ipod, Iphone and Ipad were all just around the corner. What is universal through this is Jobs seems to be a pain in the ass bully with massive charisma, but little human understanding. A good book written in a different period, because all the books in recent years about Jobs are written by people who seem blinded by his brilliance and skip over his many failings. No doubt he was a marketing great, but as you can see in this. A lot of luck and good timing was involved and he was such a perfectionist that often he seemed unable to move forward.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

The true story of how Steve Jobs pulled himself back up after being fired from Apple Computer to retake the reigns of one of the most unique computer companies that ever existed. He went on to return the company to greatness, but this book only predicted that it would happen -- then it actually did.

[Benedict Isles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insider view of Steve Jobs' workings in the Silicon Valley. You'll get to know not just Steve Jobs but all of the actors and actresses in the blockbuster movie of his life. Plus, it's an honest sketch of Good Steve and Bad Steve. Amazing, inspiring, gripping, engaging.

Best birthday gift ever!! Thanks, babe!

[Elliot Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well put together, easy to read, compelling in fact! Despite the book's age, I still found it an insightful read as to working out why people worship at the feet of the man. Whilst I like quite a few Apple products, I would never tolerate someone behaving like Steve. Or so I say until his RDF comes into play!

[Todd Benschneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting book, really helped me get a colorful picture of what Silicon Valley was like in the growth years of the 90s.

Seems very realistic and definitely does not paint Jobs in a very flattering biography, however, it also doesn’t come across as a hatchet job funded by Jobs opponents.

There aren’t really any valuable management take away for the reader other than how Jobs obsession with winning negotiation created a double edge sword, even when it meant losing a critical and profitable deal over some trivial concessions.

The story did lower the level of admiration I had for Jobs, based on the book’s presentation that he had very little input on Pixar’s management strategy other than steering and hyping its eventual IPO.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A portrayal of a determined, successful entrepreneur apparently as insecure and asshole-ish as he is genius. This focuses on his resurgence from found NeXT, the failed computer platform development company that specialized in computers for higher-education and business markets, to a fire sale purchase of the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm, which was spun off independently as Pixar. Pixar produced the first computer-animated feature film, Toy Story (1995), and became a leading animation studio, producing dozens of commercially successful and critically acclaimed films. At the same time, and while stepping over key employees and his baby mama, he also triumphantly returned to Apple.

[Dennis McGhee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really did not like this one. The timeline is jumpy and disorienting. Steve feels like a side character while the book goes on about Lucasfilm, Pixar, and other companies or people with unnecessary detail. There were several whole thoughts and sentences repeated word for word a couples times, and there were several whole thoughts and sentences repeated word for word a couples times. It earned the second star because there is some great content here. The introduction of the iMac is so much fun.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a fascinating read that chronicles the tumultuous career of one of the most innovative minds of our time. The author provides an in-depth analysis of Steve Jobs' leadership style, which was often abrasive and controversial but ultimately effective in driving Apple to unprecedented success. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the tech industry, entrepreneurship, and the legacy of Steve Jobs.

[Lucia Palcikova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprising story, nicely written

I am big fan of Steve Jobs. The story is catchy and the book is readable for all categories of readers. Surprising revelations about Steve's character were planted and it gave me slightly different view on Apple. I recommend the book to all geeks who believe he was a God in order to put them on Earth.

[Lauren Hammonds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography is more critical of Steve Jobs rise in Tech and tells of his accomplishments in a harsher tone. The more difficult and abrasive side to his genius. His comeback from enormous failures of his youth and his rise again with Pixar and Disney on the backs of his many dedicated collaborators.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy these tech startup based books ( Well, not so startup at a Trillion dollar valuation, but you get my drift ) because you get a look inside the minds of the individuals who just saw things differently and broke trends at that time.

[Christian Steiner]

Faszinierendes Buch über Jobs, Apple, Pixar und NeXT, das durch sein Erscheinen im Jahr 2000 noch nicht mal den iPod berücksichtigen konnte und daher einen ganz besonderen Punkt in der Geschichte festhält.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to read a disorganized and partial biography of Steve Jobs, look no further. Otherwise, I recommend picking up a different biography of Jobs.

[Art Alcuino · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice story right after he was back to the company he founded, right before his recent success and back how he founded apple with Wozniak.

[Kasper Dissing bargsteen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most enticing and thorough view of the life of Steve Jobs that I've read. Hard to put down!

[Ivan Ryadi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this a while back, when Apple is on the brink of its successful path. iPod was everywhere on the planet and iTunes started to become the place of finding/buying your music. This is before the explosion of the Macs, and iPhone was in its early release.

The book provided insiders story about the type of work ethics that Jobs had, his determination and drives since the early days with Woz. It's quite a light autobiography and interesting read.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read if you are at all interested in the world of business, technology, or Apple Inc. Steve is a fascinating person.

PG-13 equivalent for language quoting Jobs

(I sent a letter to the author asking about whether Jobs had read the book. The author responded that Jobs claims not to have read it.)

[C.D. Reimer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently re-read this book since the death of Steve Jobs. This is my favorite book about Steve Jobs, taking place between his firing from Apple, forming NeXT in the aftermath, buying Pixar from George Lucas, and returning to Apple. The book ends long before iTunes, iPods and iPads are introduced that would form Steve Jobs' lasting legacy. A great read.

[Cesar Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always find it fascinating to learn about the personalties behind some of the world's best known names. This one was particularly interesting because Steve Jobs is one of those larger than life characters, and frankly I knew next to nothing about him before reading this book.

[Harish P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Digressive nonetheless it is about my hero. I enjoyed it. #first read on March 13 2010

/*** read this book for the third time. Narration was journalistic at times( as if it is an excerpt from a newspaper) but the research is good.
***/

[Chris Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great story of the man who got kicked out of Apple and then asked back. I choose this over the Woz book as I thought the Job's story was probably more interesting. His twist and turns are actually quite entertaining. I would recommend.

[Thom Beckett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting enough, but poorly written, very journalistic, and broadly lacking in any sources able to give real insight into Steve Jobs as a person.

Also, if he tells me that a company was 'bleeding money' one more time, he's going to find himself bleeding too.

[Chris Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Jobs book. Really enjoyed it. It mainly detailed the time between his stints at Apple, talking much about NeXT, Pixar and such. I'd heard some stuff regarding how critical he could be. His style was covered in detail. I found that to be intriguing.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book, covers the time up to the iMac (so no iPod stuff in there).

[Samrod]

What can I say? Great book.