Tim Cook: The man who turned Apple around

Cook’s career started with a 12-year-old stint with IBM where he quickly moved to the ranks and was recognized for his work. He then worked with Compaq for moving on to Apple in early 1998, a decision he called one of the best ones in his life.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has finally hit the billionaire spot for the first time and there could be no perfect time to recall how this low key corporate genius changed the fortune of Apple. Born to a shipyard worker and a pharmacist in a small town called Mobile Alabama, US, Cook had humble beginnings.

After graduating from Auburn University with a degree in industrial engineering, he went on to pursue an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.

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Cook’s career started with a 12-year-old stint with IBM where he quickly moved to the ranks and was recognized for his work. He then worked with Compaq for moving on to Apple in early 1998, a decision he called one of the best ones in his life. This was a pre iMac, iPod, iPhone, or iPad era at the corporate giant and the company was seeing declining profits instead of profit growth.

"While Apple did make Macs, the company had been losing sales for years and was commonly considered to be on the verge of extinction," he said addressing the Auburn students during his commencement speech in 2010. "Only a few months before I'd accepted the job at Apple, Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Computer, was publicly asked what he would do to fix Apple, and he responded, 'I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders,” he added to roaring applause from the audience.

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Cook accredited his intuitions for his success. “There are times in all of our lives when a reliance on gut or intuition just seems more appropriate–when a particular course of action just feels right,” he continued,
Things changed when Cook joined the board as Vice President resulting in a profit for Apple in less than a year. In August 2011, Cook was named Apple's new CEO, taking over the position for former CEO and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in October 2011 after a years-long battle with cancer.

Working in Apple brought a responsibility to maintain the streak of beautiful, premium, innovative products. While, his earlier days were spent in the subtle hint drops of Apple TV, but the endeavor didn’t go as expected. Cook’s first big product was the Apple watch, and then the wireless earbuds released in 2016 that seem to be everywhere. However, the number of products sold were not released by Apple but considered to be the dominant players in the market. 

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Cook is a fitness enthusiast and enjoys hiking, cycling, and going to the gym. He is known for being solitary, using an off-campus fitness center for privacy, and little is publicly shared about his personal life. 

According to a book about the late Apple CEO, co-written by Fast Company executive editor Rick Tetzeli and veteran reporter Brent Schlender. Cook in 2009 offered a portion of his liver to Jobs since they share a rare blood type. Cook said that Jobs responded by yelling, "I'll never let you do that. I'll never do that."

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He has been awarded several honors such as Financial Times Person of the Year in 2014. Fortune Magazine's: World's Greatest Leader in 2015, Human Rights Campaign's Visibility Award 2015, Courage Against Hate award from Anti-Defamation League in 2018, etc. 
In 2020 Tim Cook’s net worth crossed over a billion for the first time as Cupertino-based iPhone maker broke all previous records and is now the world's most valued company at over $1.84 trillion.

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