13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

1)

·       What surprised you the most?  Of course I know about Steve Jobs as the creator of apple, but I did not know his long journey behind it, so I was very curious. I was surprised that Jobs worked with Disney and Pixar. I had no idea about the process it took to get the iPhone and how long ago Jobs started this process. Jobs dedicated his life to creating Apple and now it is crazy to see that an apple product is held in almost every person’s household. I simply have 4 in my room.

• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? I admire Steve Jobs’ ability to see things outside of the box. Steve took chances and constantly seemed to succeed. Steve did not care what other people thought about him
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? Steve Jobs’ ability to work with others. It seemed as if his personality clashed with many of his workers, which pushed him away from certain ideas and businesses. Of course it all worked out good, but he did not get along with many people he worked with.
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? Steve Jobs seemed to have a very successful career with little failures noted in the book. His failures did not seem to be life changing or career changing, which is good. One failure noted is his “Power Mac G4 Cube,” which simply did not sell. The design and beauty of it was great, but the use of it was not. He simply learned from all of his mistakes and came out with something better each time.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? Steve Jobs has the ability to start from nothing and make something out of it. The way Job’s approaches idea’s is what caught my eye. Jobs had a way of motivating people and convincing people that anything was possible. Jobs could distort reality easily through his vision of a black and white world. He quoted that everyone was “enlightened” or an “asshole.”

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. When many people complained about the IPhone 4 having too many dropped calls, Steve Jobs replied and said that phones are not perfect. It confused me that he would deal with it this way because normally he deals with everything perfectly and Apple’s customer support is great.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

I would first ask Steve Jobs how the product, the Apple I, was so trusted because it was profitable in 30 days. I would then ask him what made him continue producing more products even though there could be possible failure.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? I think Jobs worked hard throughout his whole life because of a passion. I think Job’s vision of hard work is pursuing a passion everyday and working at it until you get exactly what you want. Many people think they have to be the best at everything, but if you work hard at something you really like than good things will come out of it. I believe Job’s opinion is very true but also comes with a little bit of luck and timing. I am sure many other people are interested in technology, yet even if they work hard at doing something with technology, they will not be as successful as Steve Jobs.