Ever wondered how certain high profile business people achieved their job position or status? Did they deserve it? Did they work hard for it? Or was it just handed to them on a plate? I think we’d all like to believe that it was probably all just handed to them on a plate, and there’s no possible way we could achieve their status, even if we did put in an awful lot of hard work. Well, we could be wrong.

Take Steve Jobs for instance, he was born on 24^th February 1955 to a completely normal family in San Francisco, they put him up for adoption to another no richer than your average, young couple. They moved to a place called Santa Clara or better known as ‘Silicone Valley’. At the age of 13 Steve got a summer job working Hewlett Packard factory by calling up Mr. Hewlett himself and asking if he could work there.

In 1973 Steve headed to University (on the promise of his adopted parents to his biological parents that he would attend) however he dropped out not long after as he feels there was no point in his adoptive parents wasting all their savings on his education. He did however continue to attend classes on campus that he was interested in.

In 1976 in partnership with a friend, Wozniak, and a few investors, Steve Jobs launches the first Apple computer. It does well enough for them to produce the Apple II and within three years the Apple brand is grossing around $200 million. However, the Apple success doesn’t last and 10 years down the line Steve is forced to resign from the company he helped set up. This doesn’t stop Steve though, he goes on to create NeXT, in the hope of providing a computer that would revolutionised the education and research industry, however his idea is too expensive and doesn’t appeal to his target market and so he turns his attention to a company he bought off George Lucas in 1986, the Pixar Animation Studios.

Steve with Pixar Animation Studios made a deal with Disney to make the first digitally animated movie and in 1995 a Toy Story was released. By 1996 when Steve announced that Pixar was ‘going public’ his 80% shares were worth $80 billion. At this time Apple’s profits were suffering badly due to the loss in the company’s direction since Steve was pushed out and the increased competition. The success of Pixar lead to Apple buying out NeXT and re-appointing Steve as Board of Directors, it didn’t stop there, the then CEO Amelio resigned 3 months after Apple reported a loss of $708 million and Steve Jobs was appointed as interim CEO.

As interim CEO Steve was able to cut a deal with Microsoft which contributed towards Apple’s survival. With the Microsoft/Apple partnership, investment in new technologies and the production of various new product releases, Steve was able to completely turn Apple around. By 1998 Apple reported sales of around $5.9 billion, and this is before the iPod, iTunes and iPad were introduced!

I think it’s fair to say that Steve Jobs most definitely wasn’t handed his position or status on a silver platter. He had no formal University education and his work life didn’t exactly run smoothly, it just goes to show though, that with passion, dedication, vision and the ability to get back up when you have been pushed down, you can achieve your wildest dreams.

Aurthor bio: Leah Jarratt is a regular guest writer for G2 Recruitment.