13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

Steve Jobs:

                                       
       


What surprised me the most is that he wasn't as of a good guy that I made him out to be. A customer thinks that, because he comes up with products that pleases his customers, he is a perfect person to be around. I should have known that everyone in this world that makes a product that has good intentions treats the people in his life good. For instance, he wasn't a nice person to be around all the time based on the occurrences with his employees, family and partners. 

What I most admired about him was, no matter how difficult the task of coming up with a way to progress a product or ideas, he did not give up. He always tried to do what was best for the customer, poor or wealthy, he looked for something that everyone could enjoy. Or that even he proclaimed himself as a "protectionist" he didn't expect  each product to be perfect or all the way thought. As long as those ideas were put into motion. This for me is why he was so successful because he was about action and not about waiting.



What I least admire about him is that he contradicted himself a lot. Not the things he said, but often what he did during teamwork. He always expected other people to bend to his will of designing a product or an idea. For instance, if he didn't get his way in situations he cried a lot of the times. Or that he did not give credit when it was due. His partner Wozniak was very good at building the software, and jobs was very good at carrying out the business deals, and he was upset when apple was released publicly because he felt it wasn't his own. He wasn't very good at sharing power, and being a team player. This made him seem untrustworthy to the people on his team. 

 Failure

He failed a lot, but that contributed to his future success. One of his biggest mistakes was recruiting John Sculley because he thought he didn’t have enough experience in marketing.Sculley would later organize a campaign to fire jobs from his own company. What was so ironic about the situation is that he got Sculley to quit his job by saying  “Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?”.Jobs already had the advertising stamina that he had seeker from him, but it taught him to make sure he knew his team. With his numerous failures such as the The Apple Lisa. Macintosh TV.


Competencies

Steve Jobs was very good at identifying what the customers wanted and needed. He did not want to be in market research because he thought that was not where the action was. He said "customers don't know what they want until we've shown them.", and that what he was good at doing. He made the customers and his team believe that his product was going to change the future, and that it would be hard to copy. Or that he just didn't gravitate toward technology in computers. He also had a hand in Pixar animation. He didn't confine himself to one thing.



Confused? 

The parts of the book I was confused one was the company shares and when he was almost completely kicked out of his company. I was confused because I don't know how shares work within a company, and I always thought that him and his partner would own most of the company, but that was not true. Another part of the story I was confused with was how many projects within the company was going on separate from each other. When years had passed from releasing the Apple II, some of the company was still focused on making it better. I thought when they finished the product they moved on. I guess it compares to getting new updates on your phone while they're still releasing new phones.

My question to Steve Jobs would be: 

Your're always consistently trying to make a new product. Was this you trying to push away reality? because throughout the book your partners always talk about you not really being in touch with reality.

Hard Work: 

I think Steve jobs thought of hard work as always trying to make the lives of others easier and more relevant to progress. I think of progression as learning something new , and as a reward of always looking for something new, you will progress in new discoveries. I think have that phrase in common "stay hungry, stay foolish" in common.