This is the the story of a college dropout who experimented with drugs, shaved his head and spent most of his time in college auditing classes and sleeping on his friend’s dorm room floors.
Adopted at birth, this child showed signs of being gifted from a very early age. He would be the first to tell you that his adoptive parents were loving and supportive, in fact he had a great and close relationship with his Dad. He was a perfectionist and he would one day be known for flying into rages when the people around him didn’t live up to his standards.
His hobbies consumed his life, so that most of his time was spent tinkering with things that only other teenagers would have appreciated. In middle school he declared to his parents that his school was not good enough and insisted that they find a better one, which they did.
When he finally landed a paying summer job, he split the job with a buddy he had been introduced to by a friend at his hobby’s local club.
Although they thought their final work was “brilliant,” the company said it was not workable and gave them $700 instead of the $5,000 they would have made.
His parents spent every penny they had to send him to a prestigious college but he dropped out after one semester and chose to audit random classes that seemed guaranteed to never lead to anything employable.
He ran off to India with a college friend, shaved his head, rejected the family religion and began wearing Indian clothing and experimenting with psychedelic drugs.
At what point should his parents have said “time for military camp”? At what point should they have told him to get a grip and start doing what the other successful kids were doing?
They didn’t. They supported him in his endeavours.
Soon he was making computers and selling them, and becoming one the great leaders in the digital age. When his own company “fired him”(depending on who you talk to) he went on to do things that many thought were simply frivolous experiments that could not amount to anything.
He sold that new company back to the old company and became the CEO of his old company, Apple, once again changing the everyday lives of tens of millions of people in a way not seen since Thomas Alva Edison.
For all those parents out there struggling with young people who are floundering in a world with too many choices and not enough heart, this article is dedicated to Steve Jobs’ parents, without whom I might not be writing this article (on my iPad) today.
And to Steve, a truly gifted person who thought outside the box. . . . we’ll miss you.
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Stay tuned for more upcoming articles from Ken
Friday, Oct 21 Parents and Teachers Working as A Successful Team
Friday, Oct 28 The Parents Role in the 21st Century
Friday, Nov 02 The Step to Success for Yound Adults – Generativity
All of these weekly articles combine to create a complete system.
To see a list of previous Ken Rabow articles, go to: http://www.reallifecoaching.ca/rlc/Published_Articles.html
