A new book about Apple CEO Steve Jobs aims to paint a more balanced picture of the enigmatic leader than previous bios and news articles, which often portrayed him as a "half-genius, half-jerk."

Coming four years after his death and Walter Isaacson’s semi-authorized bio, "Becoming Steve Jobs" co-authors Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli argue that it was lessons learned in the middle period of Jobs' life – after his first round at Apple -- that moulded him into the leader who would direct the company’s incredible turnaround.

After being famously ousted from Apple in 1985, Jobs went on to develop the computer company NeXT. He also eventually become a co-owner of the animation studio Pixar.

During the NeXT and Pixar years Jobs would learn valuable lessons before his return to Apple in 1996, the book argues. And in just two years after coming back to Apple, Jobs took the company from near bankruptcy to profitability.

Tetzeli said Jobs gained valuable experiences working with Ed Catmull, who ran Pixar at the time. "Steve learned a lot about patience and about working with creative employees from him," he told CTV's Canada AM.

Jobs also learned how to overcome adversity from Pixar's Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter, who had to work past delays and initial failures to create the film "Toy Story," Tetzeli said.

"Steve learned how to become patient," he said. "So when he came back to Apple it was not all about creating one great product, it was about managing for the long-haul. And that's a key to why Apple was so successful over those years."

The authors also reveal in the book that Tim Cook, who became Apple's CEO after Jobs died in 2011, offered Jobs a portion of his liver when Jobs became ill with pancreatic cancer. 

As it became clear that Jobs was in need of a liver transplant, Cook began to research and discovered he had a rare blood type like Jobs, Tetzeli said. Cook told the authors that he had travelled to other states to take tests to see if a transplant could be arranged.

But when Cook told Jobs about his plan in 2009, Jobs rejected the offer "outright," Tetzeli said.

Tetzeli added that Cook agreed to speak with the authors, because he wanted to change some commonly held perceptions of Jobs.

"Cook wanted to show that Steve was not the selfish person that people think of him as," he said.

And during interviews, many of Jobs' friends also said that they felt that the Apple CEO had never been properly portrayed.

Tetzeli said that co-author Schlender, who became one of Jobs' friends during the 25 years he worked for Fortune magazine and the Wall Street Journal, wanted to write the book because he felt the same way.

"(Schlender) felt that Steve had changed more than any other executive he had covered," he said. "He felt that that wasn't understood, that portraits in the past had portrayed him as half-genuis, half-jerk from birth and that was not the way he was."