This is a painful read, at least until NeXT pivots to WebObjects and revenue starts coming in.

Yes, this book chronicles Steve Jobs’s time in the wilderness, in between his two stints at Apple. And it hasn’t been documented to this degree before, not really ever. We know NeXT failed and was ultimately rescued by Apple, but…

Everything you’ve heard about Steve Jobs is evidenced here. He demands absolute loyalty and even that is not enough to keep you safe from his wrath. But it’s even worse, he’s delusional! Not only promising impossibilities, but categorically unable to see the landscape. Known as a visionary, he’s got very little vision here.

One can debate whether there was a need for the NeXT computer, a $3000 workstation for universities, but it ended up costing more than 10k. Even worse, by time it hit the market, much of its innovation had already been adopted by competitors.

But Jobs refuses seemingly every olive branch. He won’t sell to the government…

They don’t usually write books like this. Nonfiction is either about winners or utter tragedies, and this is neither. I mean yes, Jobs comes back to Apple at the end, but that’s a sliver of the overall book.

Which is not hard to read.

But you will be stunned how it all happened so long ago. Hardware has been superseded by software. Unless you were paying attention back then, does anybody remember Gil Amelio? Even John Sculley?

And that’s another point the author makes, how this history is not well-documented, so many people who were there have passed and so much has been thrown out/destroyed, even legal documents.

So the author, Geoffrey Cain, deserves kudos. There have been tons of books about Apple and Steve Jobs, but none about NeXT.

And the truth is you’ll learn a lot more lessons reading this book of failure than the ones of triumph.

Then again, Jobs admits he needed that failure to evolve into the person he became.

A big turning point is when he has kids. He suddenly gets it. His priorities change, a little. He can see that his employees need time off. He mellows.

So… Ultimately this is a very good business book, but who is going to read it?

I cracked it because I’m one of the Apple faithful, I wanted to fill out my mental history. But even I had a hard time continuing at times, because Jobs keeps shooting himself in the foot.

So if you devour everything Apple, I recommend this book.

I only wish wannabe business people would read it. But it’s almost too depressing to get through. But when you see a guy f*ck up this bad… It teaches you how not to behave.

And it also teaches you that people can change.

But some do not.

However, the lore is true, when the prodigal son returns to Apple he’s been wizened by his losses. He’s mellowed just enough to get along with people. Furthermore, he’s learned lessons about the computer world, which continues to evolve. He re-evaluated his priorities.

This is something you rarely see today, whether it be in business or in government, people questioning their actions and behavior. Everybody doubles down, trying to win via intimidation. But it didn’t work for Steve Jobs, and he had a lot of tools in his belt. He was smart, he was there at the beginning of the computer revolution, but even he couldn’t see where it was going. Oh, he saw a few things, but those were not enough to save NeXT.

People will read the Walter Isaacson book, but you’ll learn more about Steve Jobs in this book.

Assuming you care.

And even Jobs says this. That today’s tech is built on the foundation of yesterday’s, and those who created yesterday’s are forgotten.

But Steve had a run. And if you were there, it was mesmerizing, and fulfilling.

But what was he doing before he made the turn? How bad did it have to get for him to see the light?

This book tells you.