Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
By Steve Jobs
Text Book Question and Answer
Unit - 1
1. What does Jobs say about his mother?
Ans: Steve Jobs says that his mother was a young, unwed college graduate. She wanted to leave her child for adoption. But the willing couple must be graduates. A lawyer couple showed interest in adopting her child. When Steve was born they showed reluctance because they needed a girl child, not a male child. Then she let her son be adopted by another couple.
2. How did his foster parents adopt him?
Ans: Steve Jobs' mother laid a condition that whoever would adopt her son must be graduates. The couple who came forward to adopt him were under-matriculates. So Steve's mother did not sign the adoption papers. They promised that they would send the son to college and make his career bright. Then she signed the papers and the couple adopted him.
3. What does he say about his studies at Reed College?
Ans: When Steve Jobs became 17 years old, his foster parents sent him to Reeds college. They spent all their savings for his tuition fees. It was an expensive college. But they kept their promise, sent him to college. But he could not prosper there and decided to quit.
4. Why did he drop out from college?
Ans: Steve Jobs took a mission in Reed College. Studying is expensive here. His foster parents spent much. After six months, Steve realised that the education would not help him in future. So he missed classes. Regular such attempts paved his way to drop out.
5. What difficulties did he face after he dropped out?
Ans: Steve Jobs dropped out from Reed College. Then life became miserable for him. He had no room of his own. He slept on the floor in his friend's room. He returned coke bottles for 5 deposits to buy food with. He walked seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.
6. Why did he decide to learn Calligraphy?
Ans: Steve Jobs dropped out from Reed College. He struggled hard for existence. At that time Reed college offered the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because he had dropped out and did not take the normal clases, he decided to take a Calligraphy class to learn how to do this.
7. How did his knowledge of Calligraphy help him?
Ans: Jobs learnt about Serif and Sans Serif typefaces about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. Ten years later, when he was designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to him. He designed it all into the MaC. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. Mac got multiple typefaces. Personal computers got it. Windows copied the Mac.
8. What does he mean by connecting the 'dots'?
Ans: When Steve was reading in college, It was impossible to connect dots looking forward. But it was very very clear looking backwards 10 years later. You can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, life, destiny, Karma whatever this approach will bring you success in life.
Unit - 2
1. How did Jobs set up the Apple Inc. ?
Ans: When Steve Jobs was 20, he worked with his schoolmate Steve Woznaik, starting Apple in his parents garage. They worked hard and in ten years Apple had grown from just the two persons in a garage to a two billion dollar company with over 4000 employees. It released the finest creation - the Macintosh and got immense popularity.
2. How did he lose his position in Apple Inc. ?
Ans: The Apple company grew larger and the company hired a talented person to run it with Steve Jobs. But after a few years, the vision of the two fellows mismatched. They fell out. The Board of Directors took the side of the fellow. So Steve Jobs was fired from the Apple company.
3. How did he feel about his dismissal ?
Ans: SteveJobs was a founder member of the Apple company. He was fired for being an outsider. It shocked him very much. He was publicly defamed. He tried to apologise, but it was of no use. Being a public failure,he wanted to run away from the valley, but the love for Apple did not allow him to do so. He decided to start life anew.
4. How did he return to the Apple Inc. ?
Ans: Steve Jobs, after being fired from the Apple company, set up his own company Next and then another company PIXAR. Fortunately these companies performed well. Apple bought Next. Then Steve Jobs returned to Apple, and the technology they developed at Next became the heart of Apple's current renaissance.
Unit - 3
1. How did the quotation on death affect Jobs ?
Ans: When Jobs was 17 years old, he read a quotation-"If you live each day as your last day, when the actual last day would come, you would never feel letting down. The death consciousness made him active. He forgot pride, fear, failure, harassment in life. He went on working hard before the last time came to him.
2. How did consciousness of death inspire him ?
Ans: Death consciousness helped Steve Jobs take big choices in life. He forgot all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure. These things fell away in the face of death; leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way he knew to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
3. What was the doctor's advice to him when he was diagnosed with cancer?
Ans: Steve Jobs was diagnosed with cancer. There was tumor on his pancreas. The doctors said that it was a type of cancer which was incurable. The patient would live at best six months. The doctor advised him to go home and get prepared to die. That means it would be better to die at home than to die in a hospital bed.
4. How does Jobs view death ?
Answer. Steve Jobs has seen death face to face. He was of the opinion that no one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven do not want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. Death is the single best invention of life. It is life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.
5. What is most important in face of death?
Ans: Death is certain. Nobody can avoid it. Time is short. So we should not waste time. We should not be trapped by dogma; which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
6. What was Jobs' farewell message?
Ans: Jobs' farewell message was 'Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish'. He took this quotation from Stewart Brand's issue "The Whole Earth Catalog." This quotation says - Don't feel contented with what you have already achieved, but always feel hungry to do more, and never think that you have learnt all; when you think that you are still foolish. Make yourself a fool and try to learn more.
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