How 12-year-old Steve Jobs landed a job at HP

Case in point: At 12, Jobs wanted to build a frequency counter, but he didn't have the parts. Ever sensible, he suspected that Bill Hewlett, then the CEO of HP, might have some extras. And so, with the bizarre confidence of an 8th grader, he found Hewlett's number in the telephone book and called it.

"He answered the phone and he was real nice," Jobs recalled in a 1985 Playboy interview. After a 20 minute chat, Hewlett agreed to give Jobs the parts — and he also offered him a summer job at HP, assembling frequency counters. "Assembling may be too strong," Jobs corrected himself. "I was putting in screws."

5 strategies business leaders can use to stabilize and grow after a rough year

1. Embrace change

Change unsettles most people, but it is constant for small business owners. And change is happening at a frightening pace.

You've likely noticed that the old reliable ways of getting clients and serving them are faltering. The laundry list of things that need your attention is growing. Nip these issues in the bud.

If change is already happening in your business, why not get ahead of it? When you are reacting to these changes, you treat the symptoms. The better approach is to embrace change to treat the problem.