SUCCESS STORY

in 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created the first Apple, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) computer, the Apple I. Just as importantly, their company had received seed capital from early investors. The next year, they were ready to unveil their newest creation, the Apple II, their first mass-produced computer.

They debuted the home computer at that year’s West Coast Computer Faire, and it went on to become one of the first successful mass-produced desktop computers. Jobs’ close attention to the machine’s appearance was already evident based on the time he spent designing its beige plastic case. Steve Wozniak was primarily responsible for the technology of the Apple II. 

The computer’s success made Jobs a millionaire by the time he was 23, in 1978. That same year, with the company growing, Jobs and Wozniak hired Mike Scott from National Semiconductor to serve as CEO. By late 1980, Apple was ready to hold an initial public offering (IPO), a sale that generated more capital than any IPO since the 1956 Ford Motor Company’s (NYSE: F) offering, and created roughly 300 millionaires instantly, more than any IPO in history.

By 1981, Apple was one of the three top producers of personal computers in the United States, and possibly the biggest. But other, bigger competitors were getting into the market, most notably International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), whose most popular model surpassed the Apple II as the best-selling PC by 1983. The next year, the computing colossus also boasted $4 billion in annual PC revenue, more than doubling Apple’s revenues. (See also: Why IBM Will Go On Forever.)

But Apple was on the verge of a breakthrough that would redefine personal computing. The breakthrough had its roots in 1979, when Jobs first saw the Xerox Alto. The Alto was, essentially, the first mouse-driven computer. Until then, operating a computer was a matter of learning the computer’s language and typing in commands. The visual interface of the Alto changed all that, and Jobs immediately saw the potential.

Apple unleashed the mouse-driven user interface to the public in a computer it called the Macintosh. When Jobs introduced it at a shareholders' meeting in early 1984, the crowd went wild.

But the Macintosh was expensive, roughly $2,500 apiece, and sales disappointed. But the tech industry perked up and took more than just notes. Microsoft quickly began to develop its own mouse-driven user interface. And much cheaper PCs running the Microsoft software popped up overnight. (See also: Who are Apple's main competitors in the tech industry?)

In 1983, Apple had hired PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE: PEP) executive John Sculley as its CEO. By 1985, he and Jobs were battling over the future of Apple. Sculley wanted to focus on less-contested niches such as education, small business, and home markets. But Jobs wanted to take on the IBM PC in all markets with what he believed was superior hardware and software. Those tensions came to a head in 1985, when Jobs resigned, taking a handful of Apple employees with him to create a new company, called NeXT, Inc.

Jobs seeded the new company with $7 million of his own money, which the company burned through in its first year. Billionaire Ross Perot stepped in as an investor, and the company released its first product, the NeXT Computer, in 1990. It was state-of-the-art, but, at $9,999, too expensive for most, especially its target customer—the education sector. By 1993, the company had only sold 50,000 machines, and decided to switch to software development. The move led to its first profit, when it netted $1 million in 1994.

As CEO, Jobs began to look beyond the PC again, first with the groundbreaking iPod digital music player, which changed the way people listen to music. Prior to the iPod’s launch in 2001, very few people listened to music on portable digital players. By 2012, more than 350 million devices had been sold worldwide. 

The iPod’s sleek design and easy user interface paved the way for the company’s 2007 release of the iPhone, which revolutionized cellular phone design. In 2014 alone, Apple sold roughly 170 million iPhones worldwide. (See also: What Moves Apple's Stock Price?)

Jobs famously micro-managed every detail of the devices' design, functionality and user-interface. The success of all three devices was profound. By 2011, Apple surpassed Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM) as the largest corporation in the United States, with a market capitalization of roughly $355 billion. At the beginning of Jobs’ second reign, in 1997, Apple’s market cap was approximately $3 billion.

In 2011, with Apple at the summit of not just the tech industry, but of all of American business, Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO. He was suffering from pancreatic cancer, and knew he would soon die. Even after his resignation, he stayed on as chairman of the board, continuing to work for Apple until the day before his death.

Sachin Tendulkar was born on April 24, 1973 in Bombay, India, into a middle-class family, the youngest of four children. His father was a writer and teacher, while his mother worked for a life insurance company.

Appointed by his family’s favorite musical director, Sachin Dev Burman, Tendulkar was not a gifted student, but he had always proven himself a leading athlete. He was 11 when he was given his first cricket bat, and his talent in the sport was immediately apparent. At the age of 14, he scored 326 of a world record of 664 in a school game. As his achievements grew, he became a sort of cult figure among the Bombay students.

After high school, Tendulkar enrolled at Kirti College, where his father also taught. The fact that he decided to go to the school where his father worked was no surprise. The family of Tendulkar is very close, and years after reaching the stardom and the cricket fame continued to live next to its parents.

Tendulkar, 15, scored a century in his first-class national debut for Bombay in December 1988, making him the youngest player to do so. Eleven months later, he made his international debut for India against Pakistan, where he famously refused medical care despite being hit in the face by Waqar Younis.

Cricket Superstar

In August 1990, the 17-year-old delivered a saving game 119 did not go to England to become the second youngest player to record a century in the test game. Other famous early highlights included a couple of centuries in Australia in 1992, one of them at the fast track WACA Perth. Underlined his rapid rise to the forefront of his sport, Tendulkar in 1992 became the first international player to sign with the historic Yorkshire Club of England.

In India, Tendulkar’s star shone even brighter. In a country recovering from difficult economic times, the young cricketer was seen as a symbol of hope for his compatriots that better times were ahead. A national weekly came to devote a whole matter to the young cricketer, who baptized him as “The Last Hero” for his country of origin. His style of play, aggressive and inventive, resonated with the fans to the sport, like the modest work out of a field of Tendulkar. Even with his growing wealth, Tendulkar showed humility and refused to flaunt his money.

After finishing the World Cup in 1996 as top scorer of the event, Tendulkar was named the captain of the Indian national team. However, his tenure marked one of the few folds in an otherwise illustrious career. He was liberated from the responsibility in January 1998 and took back a captain in 1999, but usually only won four out of 25 test games in that position.