I have developed what I hope is a more refined perspective on the extraordinary accomplishments of Steve's business life,

one that deserves to be ranked amongst the greatest of any American, living or dead.

There is no greater distance known to man than the single footfall that

separates a CEO from a founder. CEOs are, for the most part, products of educational and institutional breeding.

Founders, or at least the very best of them, are unstoppable, irrepressible forces of nature. Of the many founders have encountered, Steve is the most

captivating. Steve, more than any other person, has turned modern electronics into objects of desire.

Steve has always possessed the soul of the questioning poet,

someone a little removed from the rest of us who, from an early age, beat his own path.

It's hard now to appreciate the dire straits that Apple was in after it brought next at the

end of 1996 in a desperate effort to revive itself. The Silicon Valley

cynics chuckled at the way Steve was able to sell next for more than $400 million

even though it had only sold about 50,000 computers.

Steve returned to Apple hardened by years of commercial adversity.

Many are familiar with the re-emergence of Apple.

They may not be as familiar with the fact that it has few, if any, parallels.

When did a founder ever return to a company from which he had been rudely rejected to

engineer a turnaround as complete and spectacular as apples?

While turnarounds are difficult, in any circumstances, they are doubly difficult in a technology company.

It is not too much of a stretch to say that Steve founded Apple not once, but twice. And the second time he was alone.

Okay, so that is from the updated introduction of the book that we're going to be studying and learning from today

which is returned to the Little Kingdom, Steve Jobs, the creation of Apple and how it

changed the world by Michael Moritz. At least I hope that's how you pronounce his last name.

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