The Story of Albert Einstein

(1) Without any indication he was destined for something great, Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879. In fact, his mother thought Albert was extremely unusual. At the age of two-and-a-half, Einstein still wasn't talking. When he finally did learn to speak, he uttered everything twice.

(2) Einstein did not know what to do with other children and his playmates called him "Brother Boring." Because of that, the youngster played by himself much of the time. He especially loved mechanical toys and looked for them everywhere he went. Looking once at his newborn sister, Maja, he is believed to have said, "Fine, but where are her wheels ?" Einstein began learning to play the violin at the age of six because his mother believed it was important. He later became a gifted amateur violinist, maintaining this skill throughout his life.

(3) Unfortunately, that awkwardness extended to school as well. A headmaster at one of his early schools once told his father that Einstein's profession wouldn't matter because, "he'll never be successful at anything." But Einstein was not a bad pupil.When he was fifteen months old, his family moved to Munich,Germany.

There, he went to high school and earned good grades in almost every subject. He hated the strict school environment though, and often clashed with his teachers. At the age of 15, Einstein felt so stifled there that he left the school for good. He then took the entrance exams for college and although he failed some, his scores for Physics and Math were so good, they let him into the school.

(4) In 1900, at the age of 21, Albert Einstein was a college graduate and was employed. He worked as a teaching assistant and gave private lessons on the violin before finally getting a job as a technical expert in Bern's patent office. While he was supposed to be paying careful attention to other people's inventions, he was secretly developing many ideas of his own.

(5) One of his famous papers, published in 1905, was Einstein's special Theory of Relativity. This theory had to do with time and distance not being absolute. His theory explained that two perfectly accurate and synced clocks would not continue to show the same time if they came together again after a journey where one traveled at a faster speed than the other. From this theory followed the world's most famous formula which described the relationships between mass and energy:

E = mc2

(6) In 1915, he published his General Theory of Relativity, which provided a new idea of gravity. An eclipse of the sun in 1919 brought proof that his theory was accurate. Einstein had correctly calculated, in advance, the extent to which the light from fixed stars would be deflected through the sun's gravitational field. The newspapers proclaimed his work as a 'scientific revolution.' (7) Einstein received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. He was showered with honors and invitations from all over the world and applauded by the press.

Steve Jobs

(1) Odds are, you've heard of iPods, iPhones, and Apple computers. And you've

probably seen films like "Toy Story" or "Finding Nemo." But you may not have

heard of the man who is behind the scenes of all these ventures. His name is Steve

Jobs, and he may be the single most influential person in American popular culture.

(2) Jobs was born in 1955. He was a fairly good student in high school and was

admitted to Reed College in 1971. However, his interests lay elsewhere. As a

resident of Cupertino, California, Jobs lived near many of the most important

computer companies in the world. These firms were growing as they brought the

use of computers to almost every kind of business. Jobs attended lectures and

business presentations and got a job working at Atari, an early manufacturer of

video games. After just one semester at Reed, Jobs dropped out and returned to

Atari, where he met another young computer enthusiast, Steve Wozniak.

(3) In 1976, Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple Computers. Wozniak was a very good

computer engineer, which Jobs was not. Jobs' role was to organize the business, to

bring in new ideas, and to direct the creativity of the designers. The vision that

Jobs and Wozniak shared was one that not too many people took seriously at

the time: personal computers. Most people in the computer industry considered

this a ludicrous idea. Why would someone want to buy a computer for home use?

After all, computers were good for working with large numbers or sets of

information, but they weren't easy to learn and they didn't seem to fit into the

average person's lifestyle.

(4) Jobs saw things differently. He imagined a computer that would be easy or even

fun to use. He knew it would have to have a certain enjoyable style as well as

practical use in the home, or people wouldn't buy it.

(5) That kind of thinking inspired Apple's first big success - the Macintosh computer,

which came out in 1984. It was the first computer that used a white screen instead

of black with green text. It was also the first to use a point-and-click mouse and

pull-down command menus. Before that, computer users had to remember long

lists of commands they had to type in order to get the computer to perform even

simple tasks.

(6) The Macintosh was hardly Jobs' only success. He spent some time away from

Apple in the late 1980's and early 1990's. During this time he became the owner

of Pixar Animation, a film studio that focused on computer-based graphics. Pixar

had a string of hits, including "The Incredibles," "Monsters, Inc.," and "WALL-E."

(7) Jobs returned to head Apple and modernized the Macintosh line to take advantage

of the growing internet boom. In 2001, Apple introduced the iPod, a device to play

MP3 audio files, usually songs. Other devices already existed to play MP3s, but the

iPod was easier to use, and it fit well with Apple's online music store, iTunes.

(8) Similarly, when Apple came out a few years later with the iPhone, it was hardly

the first cell phone. It wasn't necessarily the best. But its catchy graphics and ease

of use have made it the most popular cell phone.

(9) This is a theme that has run through all of Jobs' work. He has a tremendous

sense of what people want. Jobs isn't a particularly impressive computer

programmer, or designer. Thousands of people know more than he does about

how to make a cell phone or music machine work. He doesn't write or direct films

- but he is heavily involved in choosing which films Pixar will make. He has the

ability to understand what entertains an average person.

(10) This is true in the Macintosh, which has evolved from its early roots to become a

favorite consumer brand. It's also true in the development of the iPod. As his

engineers showed Jobs their plans, he kept instructing them to make it simpler.

He wanted any song to be no more than two clicks away. That insistence on making

the devices fit to people, rather than the other way around, is one of the reasons

why he was voted America's Most Powerful Businessman of 2007 by Fortune

magazine.