Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal is a biography of the celebrated technology leader who put a cell phone, computer and the Internet all in your pocket in the form of the iPhone. There were many other innovations that the high-tech rock star and face of the personal computer developed over the years. Although he had many gifts, he was at times his own worst enemy.

There were two things that were obvious to Paul and Clara Jobs about their son, Steve, from the time he was a little toddler: he was very bright and he hated to listen or obey anyone. Those traits followed him throughout his life and career. As a young man living in the heart of the technological age that was on the verge of exploding, Jobs felt right at home. From a young boy on, Steve loved electronics and devices. He took them apart and put them back together with great joy and excitement.

As he matured, he became friends with a number of other young boys in the neighborhood who had a similar love of technology. Once of these boys was a few years older and worked at Hewlett-Packard that was located in the Santa Clara Valley where they lived. Steve Wozniak was a true technology nerd who just instinctively knew how to create electronic devices and make them work. He was a brilliant inventor and computer whiz. Steve Jobs had dropped out of college after one semester and had no real technology background. However, he had a bearing about him that impressed people. He was hired by Atari with other college drop-outs like himself. The president of the company noticed him and asked him to develop a new game for the company. Since Jobs didn’t have the expertise to create the game, he snuck Wozniak in who developed the game.

Jobs and Wozniak formed Apple Computer Company in Jobs’s garage. Wozniak created the technology, they both assembled them, and Jobs sold them. Sales and marketing the electronic devices that Jobs loved was his strength. Wozniak later recognized that while he did the majority of creative work, he could have never sold them like Jobs did. They needed each other. The little company grew when an investor saw its potential and invested in it. The company was the pioneer in the personal computer. As the company grew and they moved to an actual office building, Jobs was always on patrol criticizing his employees and driving them to work harder and faster. He would ridicule the jobs programmers were doing although he didn’t know the first thing about it.

Jobs was a man who did think and behave “different.” He was obsessed with food and diet and with the appearance of the computers and devices that his company made. While he wanted them to perform, he would select style and appearance over functionality.

Apple Computer became Apple, Inc. and became one of the biggest forces in the advancement of technology. It created the world that everyone lives in now – personal computers, iPhones, iPods, iTunes, iMacs and iPads. Steve Jobs’s goal had always been to change the world. He met that goal and then some and made a tidy $7 billion dollars along the way.