Review of Book about Steve Jobs
                       Copyright 1988 David W. Batterson

STEVE JOBS - The Journey is the Reward, by Jeffrey S. Young; Scott, Foresman &
Co., 1987, 440 pp., $18.95.

     All the great hardware and software companies have their heroes and
villains.  The problem is trying to figure out which is which.  Apple Computer
is no exception.
     After reading this book, it appears to be a tossup over who is the most
obnoxious and overbearing egomaniac in Silicon Valley:  Atari's Jack Tramiel or
Steve Jobs, now at NeXT.
     Author Jeffrey S. Young, one of the founders of Macworld magazine, poked
his inquiring mind into the murky closets at Apple, and did he ever shake out
the dirty linen!
     If the stories he tells--garnered from more than 50 interviews--are true,
then the book should have been subtitled "Cry Me A River."  I've never read a
book in which a grown man cried so much.  According to Young, if Jobs did not
get his way through bullying, he resorted to buckets of tears.
     According to a quote from Donn Denman (who created MacBASIC), Jobs "would
destroy someone's ego with a thoughtless remark, ridiculing him or her...the
sharp-edged tongue kept lashing out.  You'd get ripped to shreds."
     Most tolerated the daily abuse, but many quit.  In the early days, when
Jobs came to work unbathed and in unwashed jeans, some refused to stay in the
same room with him, because the stench was unbearable.
     Before his Apple days, Jobs dabbled heavily in drugs and actually
journeyed to India to meet some infamous guru, the result being a waste of
time.
     The Woz was cut from totally different cloth:  no drugs, no Zen Buddhism,
no hype, and he didn't object to baths.  Woz also gave away some of his stock
later on, unlike Jobs who "never picked up a check."
     In Young's view, Jobs contributed very little to Apple's success, other
than being a cheerleader and a masterful public relations figurehead.  Steve
Wozniak, says Young, provided the technical brilliance, while Mike Markkula
adroitly steered the business and marketing end.  Jobs, from the earliest days
until his fall from power, aggressively claimed credit for work he obviously
didn't do, asserts the author.
     Apple is often cited in books like "In Search of Excellence" as having
been an ideal corporate environment, with a warm family atmosphere.  The author
shatters than myth right off the bat.  If Jobs liked you, Young writes, you
were in clover but otherwise you were in a constant state of Limbo.
     Jobs pushed through the Macintosh (inspired by Xerox's experimental Alto
computer) at the same time a rival department's Lisa project was faltering.
But his "evangelical fervor" invented projected first year sales figures for
the Mac that proved to be grossly inflated:  500,000 to 750,000.  Jobs had also
convinced himself that he could actually topple Big Blue.
     During the final months, Young says that Jobs accused John Sculley of
scheming to oust him; meanwhile Jobs was doing the same thing.  Sculley, the
more skilled in corporate protocol and knowing that your past catches up with
you, won after a long and bitter battle.
     Did Apple succeed because of Steve Jobs, or in spite of him?  It's
difficult to say.  I lean toward the latter view.
     Read this sizzling account, and judge for yourself.
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Writer David W. Batterson's first computer was an Apple //c; he now uses an
AT-clone.  Send your comments via MCI MAIL: DBATTERSON.