Becoming Steve Jobs
The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader
About the book
Journalists Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli trace how Steve Jobs grew from a reckless young founder exiled from his own company into a visionary leader, and push back on the familiar picture of him as half genius, half jerk. The project began as a Fast Company cover story. Schlender knew Jobs for 25 years and draws on more than 100 hours of taped interviews with him, many never transcribed before. The authors also spoke with family members and with Tim Cook, Jony Ive, Ed Catmull, Robert Iger and others from Apple, Pixar and Disney. Though unauthorized, the biography had Apple's help, and it made public that Tim Cook once offered Jobs part of his liver.
Peter Attia includes it on his In Search of Still Water reading list, and Cal Newport called it an excellent biography that sheds new light on what Jobs meant by following his heart.
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This book has 3 recommendations
Gabriel Coarna (Founder/Readable)
When it comes to books, one of the great injustices of our time is that --or, rather, how-- Walter Isaacson wrote Steve Jobs's official biography. I was almost angry when I finished the book. It was well-researched, yes; but Isaacson only used that research to "prove" well-known cliches that he already believed about Jobs. On top of that, the book's tone was stark and cold and distant; and, most of all, it was almost mean. Overall, I kept feeling like I was reading about the myth of "Steve Jobs, the warlock" -- Isaacson uses the term "reality distortion field", in a serious way, an upwards of 20 times throughout the story. Because of this, I've basically implored people to read Brent Schlender's and Rick Tetzeli's "Becoming Steve Jobs". And I'm doing so, again, here. "Becoming Steve Jobs" isn't perfect; but it is so much better than Isaacson's book that I can't even find an analogy that would capture the difference. If you read that book and you don't read this one, you're doing yourself a great disservice.
Recommended by Peter Attia (Founder/Attia Medical)
Cal Newport (Author)
Fortunately, we gain new insight into this question from Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli’s excellent new biography, Becoming Steve Jobs.
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