Chapter 4
Down but Not Out
J
obs continued to take Apple to new heights. But in 1985 a
power struggle within the company caused Steve to lose his
job. He took on new projects, spending almost all his money try-
ing to make them successful. When it looked like he was about
to lose everything, he managed to turn things around. Not only
did his new projects turn out to be extremely successful, Apple
asked him to come back. The company was lost without him.
Steve Jobs was Apple.
A New Idea
With his private life in turmoil, Jobs moved out of the house he
shared with Chris-Ann Brennan and bought an old mansion in
Los Gatos, California. Except for a few cushions and a mattress on
the floor of his bedroom, he never furnished it. Nor, did he spend
much time in the house. His real home was Apple, where his lat-
est goal was to create a new computer. To help with financing,
he got the office machine company Xerox to invest one million
dollars in Apple.
A visit to Xerox PARC, the company’s research center, provided
Jobs with inspiration. He saw a demonstration of a revolutionary
computer named Alto that Xerox was working on. It had a point
and click graphic user interface.
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