47. When I obtained my first iPad, it came in a box that reminded me of rich European chocolates. The iPad inside was wrapped in a clear film. When I lifted the iPad from the box, my first instinct was to hold it reverently in my hands as I might a piece of art. Everything about it —its appearance, its feel, its solidity —evoked a kind of awe.

34. "The one question I'd truly love Steve to answer is 'Why are you sometimes so mean? '" one colleague told Isaacson. When Isaacson posed the question to Jobs, he said," This is who I am, and you can't expect me to be someone I'm not. " That was it. Case closed.

33. Those had to be moments of massive humiliation and self-searching. Was anything to be learned? While Jobs may have been able to identify his failures in executive leadership, I doubt if he ever looked inside himself to seek the root of the many faults and flaws that often made working with him an intolerable experience.

32. But one day the board of Apple reached a point of intolerable frustration with Jobs. At the age of 30, Steve Jobs found himself out of a job. He once again experienced the echoes of rejection, abandonment - but this time at the age of 30. The man who'd often abandoned others was himself abandoned.

31. As often happens, the people at Apple mostly adjusted to Steve Jobs's way because ,
in spite of his volatile personality, he caused highly talented and motivated people to
achieve things beyond their own wildest expectations. If one was tough enough to
accept the abuse involved in working for and with Steve Jobs, the success in terms
of wealth, fame, and professional satisfaction was enormous.

30. Years later Steve Jobs hit a kind of bottom. To simplify a very complex story: Jobs was a man with limited people skills. In his haste to fulfill his visions, he could be
intimidating, obnoxious, intolerant, impatient, profane, and offensive.

29. The Wozniak-Jobs partnership will be the subject of more than one dissertation or book in years to come. It could make for a rich conversation today: how do partnerships begin, and how are they nurtured? And what's the nature of a relationship with God?

28. Isaacson writes: "Wozniak would be the gentle wizard coming up with a neat invention that he would have been happy to just give away, and Jobs would figure out how to make it user-friendly, put it together in a package, market it, and makea few bucks."

27. I'm most interested in the contrasts between the two men. Wozniak was shy, embarrassed by public recognition, obsessive about facts and truthfulness. Jobs, on the other hand, was brash, ambitious, and controlling.

26. The birth of Apple Computer came in the years that followed, and the two men attracted a host of brilliant youngish people to join them in developing the company.

25. While other boys played ball, Jobs and Wozniak built their first computer in the garage of the Jobs's home. Theirs was a powerful synergy of skills: Wozniak's grasp of the inner workings of a computer and Jobs's instinct for its design and utility.