Assignment
13A
Steve
Jobs, Walter Isaacson
1.
- Two
things that surprised me the most were occurrences that happened early in his
life. The first was that I had no idea that Steve was adopted. I was also surprised
to hear that he was caught with LSD and marijuana during his teenage years. We
all know the business side of Steve’s life but not many study his early life.
- One
thing that I admired about Steve the most was his drive to get in the computer
and engineering business early, specifically at Atari’s. From working in the
garage, learning from his dad, and knowledge gained in the work force over a
short period of time eventually helped him and Steve Wozniak create Apple.
- I least
admired that Steve only saw things and people as really great or down right
terrible. I believe as an entrepreneur you have to be able to see the in-between.
This is important in seeing the opportunity in situations through your
customers. He also was very cheap when it came to paying his first employees and
crediting their ideas even after the company exploded in revenue.
- Early
in his career Steve had to drop out and try to step foot into a business. He had
to constantly move around and eventually work his way into Atari’s gaming
company. This is basically where he got his start and ideas to storm for the
company.
2. The
first thing I noticed about Steve was he was a very persuasive man. From the
start he was able to convince his employees and people higher ranked about any
of his ideas were possible to capture. Another ability I saw in him was his
visual learning and patience. While he was offered the CEO position many times
during his early career, he sat back and maintained his advisor position mainly
to watch the successes and failures of past owners.
3. I was sort
of confused with Jobs time at Pixar. He worked partly as a CEO at Pixar but
also was very involved in Apple. When I was reading this, it caught me off
guard because it almost seemed like at one-point Jobs was going to put all his
time and commitment into Pixar and the relationship with Disney.
4. – Was there
any point at which you wish you focused more on Pixar than Apple?
-Did your relationship with Steve Wozniak fall apart after you ran
off with Apple?
5. I think
Steve had a very narrow-minded opinion towards hard work. As I mentioned before,
Steve only thought ideas and products were really bad or amazing, so it is easy
to say that he strived for everything in his company to be perfect. While on
some occasions I agree with Jobs, I however see the in-between in things.
Hi Chris, it was really interesting to read about Steve Jobs, I also did not know he had been adopted. I agree with you in that to be a good entrepreneur, you must think of people in a better sense than did Jobs. To be a great entrepreneur requires some sort of good leadership, and with that comes good human skills and high emotional intelligence. Great job.
ReplyDeleteHey Chris! I also read about Steve Jobs because I thought that he was the most interesting entreprenuer from the list. I too wrote about how I didn't know that he was adopted. I really liked your first question, and that is an interesting concept to think about.
ReplyDeleteChristopher
ReplyDeleteI too read this story, and I would like to say I like the lens with which you viewed this story. I also was glad to read your post because it also gave me a refresher on the story I read. One thing I can say I agreed heavily with is the fact that Jobs was very convincing. Would you agree that the addition to his character is the real power behind his business? But overall great post, thank you for sharing.
-Elly