Steve Jobs

In this chapter, Isaacson tells the story of how Pixar and Disney partnered to make Toy Story, which was the beginning of Pixar’s massive success in the entertainment industry. The head of Pixar, John Lasseter pitched Disney, who would be distributing the movie, an idea called “Toy Story,” a buddy movie about toys whose sole purpose was to be played with and whose greatest fear was being discarded in favor of a newer toy. When Toy Story became a box office hit, Jobs leveraged a new deal with Disney, which created a partnership that exists to this day.

According to Isaacson, “by the mid-1990s Jobs was finding some pleasure in his new family life and his astonishing triumph in the movie business, but he despaired about the personal computer industry” (294). Meanwhile, at Apple, stock prices were declining. After John Sculley left the company amid the drop in performance, Jobs came back to Apple in an advisory role, an invitation made by Gil Amelio, Apple’s new CEO, in an attempt to breathe new life into the company. Eleven years after his dramatic departure in 1985, Steve Jobs was appointed advisor to the chairman.