The trouble with Steve Jobs

Jobs likes to make his own rules, whether the topic is computers, stock options, or even pancreatic cancer. The same traits that make him a great CEO drive him to put his company, and his investors, at risk.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs mingled with the faithful at this year's Macworld Expo.

Jobs' artistic sensibility extends to everything the company does, including its memorable advertising campaigns.

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Stock options or cancer treatments, Apple's CEO makes his own rules which could put his company and investors at risk. Play video

Timeline

Steve Jobs' journey

See key events for Apple and its CEO, from the company's start in 1976, when the Apple I was introduced, to its ascendance today. View the timeline

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(Fortune Magazine) -- In October 2003, as the computer world buzzed about what cool new gadget he would introduce next, Apple CEO Steve Jobs - then presiding over the most dramatic corporate turnaround in the history of Silicon Valley - found himself confronting a life-and-death decision.