13A – Reading Reflection No. 1 Submit Assignment

Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson

I work for Apple and absolutely love the company so this book was my absolute first choice. Steve Jobs is an amazing and unique brilliant mind, who can teach the world a thing or two about entrepreneurship. Although I will be analyzing the book and his impact as an entrepreneur, I also will go into a bit of detail about his intellect and human tendencies.

There are a few ways that you could be surprised by Steve In this book. The most obvious is how transparently human he becomes in the book. There are multiple sets of photos in the book that speak to his relationship with Lourine Powell Jobs and his kids, it gives you the impression of a very “human” person. This is a vastly different view of Steve as compared to the media stories. In the media and in his presentations, Steve was portrayed as a very manipulative and cold, even when his stories were meet with infatuated applauses. The book talks about him growing up around drugs and various other social issues, these make him all the more human. 

The most admirable thing about Steve is his perseverance in the face of adversity, his ability to recognize his own failures and being realistic about why the failures existed. Two examples come to mind for this, one was his ousting from Apple in the early-mid 90’s. He had a few options at that time but what he did was sell all but one share of the company so that he could remain invested in the company. The one share that he kept enabled him to sit in on shareholder meetings and also contribute his thoughts on the business ideas. The second example which is kinda anecdotal; during on of the Mac World expos, as Apple was on the brink of bankruptcy  they partnered with Microsoft for a cash infusion and licensing deals but Steve had Bill’s image on a big projector screen, as a result it made Steve look like a very small person as Bill’s image was cowering over. This was displayed with the 1984 commercial which made it almost sort of comical, because Apple had pushed out the commercial 15 years ago about Apple being revolutionary and standing above and how they were going to beat down “big brother”. In this critical presentation, Bill gates is towering  over the crowd in a “big-brother-esk” fashion. Steve recounts this as one of the worst stage presentations ever. He is able to recognize the impact of this on him personally and the message that it sent to his consumers.

His relationship with his oldest daughter Lisa Brennen Jobs, He fought tooth and nail about not being her father. When paternity test inevitably came back he still pushed back quite a bit, still very stand offish and also missing various child support payments. Overall, Steve was not a very good father to Lisa durning the early years of her life, they were able to rectify this and have a pretty nice relationship. His lack of awareness and the value of relationships with his family.

I might of already touched on his encounters with Adversity and failure, however I’d like to further address this. Another clear cut example of this is again his ousting from Apple. Steve was ousted from apple and was facing adversity in his own board, and his board of directors no longer aligned with him, forcing him out of his own company that he built. The second thing, after he left  apple and started NEXT computing, the company promised to be this revolutionary computing system for educational systems, in reality they didn’t have anything to actually go on. Steve actually spent thousands of dollars on the logo for the company without having an actual product to back it up. Steve was so focused on developing the pitch and the sale, he didn’t care about wether or not he had a product. Steve knew that he could manipulate the media and those around him to give the perception that he had this revolutionary product. 

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

intellectual hoursepower is most certainly one of his largest competencies, his insane ability to learn on demand and keep learning. I’d also say another competency is his ability to deal with ambiguity as aforementioned. His customer focus and managerial courage are also really good examples of his competencies. 

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I’d say the most confusing or challenging part of this was the presence of Ronald Wayne, the third founder of Apple. Suddenly finding out (I already knew, this is just the overall perspective from a new reader because nothing really confused me.) that this large company that is loved and held at a high, has a third founder that is never spoken about. Whaat also contributes to this is the fact that Ronald Wayne is actually quoted to be one of the most “unluckiest” people alive, giving up his stock in the company that is now valued at over $90 Billion dollars. 

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

If I had two questions to ask it would be these:

1. What was your greatest influence or inspiration personally and professionally?

2. (If he is forced to be completely honest) Do you believe that you had this reality distortion field, or the ability to manipulate people? And if you believe that you have this ability, how did you develop it over time? Furthermore, do you think you might have been as successful as an entrepreneur without it?

Why? Well, it helps cultivate the competency and skill to be able to manage expectations the way that he did, its almost an invaluable skill that would benefit any entrepreneur. 

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

Steves Belief was that you worked, and worked, and worked because it’s your responsibility on earth to make a dent in the world, if you’re not doing this then your life is not worth anything.