Andrew Burton/For The Washington Post via Getty Images; Justin Sullivan/Getty Images; Rebecca Zisser/BI
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 after a 12-year hiatus, the company was in free fall. It was on the verge of bankruptcy after cycling through a series of chief executives, faced immense competition in the personal-computer market, and desperately needed to find its next big thing. Jobs immediately cut bait on a series of dead-end projects to refocus the company.