ENT3003 Assignment 13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

Reading Reflection: Steve Jobs, By Walter Isaacson

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

· What surprised you the most?

I never knew that Steve Jobs was adopted, which was brought up early on in the book, and was quite a surprise as I feel like that would be something more widely-known. Furthermore, he was given up for adoption because his biological mother’s family was not supportive of her relationship with Jobs’ biological father who was Muslim.

· What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

He didn’t allow himself to fall into a pit of failure despite experimenting with drugs like LSD and marijuana, getting into trouble at school, and just dealing with his odd life of adoption and having 2 sets of parents. He began to make himself self-motivated while growing up and it resulted in a passion that lead to his success.

· What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

Steve Jobs was too motivated by money, even when he had opportunities to make a product more popular or give It away as a free service, he always resented. Wozniak originally wanted to give away the apple design for free but Jobs found a way to make money off of it, and while he was successful at that it was just the start of his many money-focused tendencies.

· Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

Steve Jobs faced one specific encounter that was of great adversity, and that’s when he and his friend Steve Wozniak made a product called “Blue Box” that allowed you to make long distance phone calls for free using frequencies, they started selling it but this led to one being stolen from them at gunpoint. However, despite this experience, Jobs continued to follow his imaginiation and created more and more products until he became a success.

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

Persistence. Steve Jobs was very persistent in getting what he wanted. I can recall at one point he went into Atari’s offices and stayed there until they would offer him a job and sure enough, he got one. However, as common throughout his life, his personality rubbed people the wrong way and created issues but even with these personal issues he still excelled in doing whatever he was asked, including creating a one-person “pong” game when asked, in just 4 days.

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

I feel like this book didn’t address Steve Jobs’ relationships well enough. Chapter 7 described his relationship when he started dating Chrisann Brennan including the birth of his first child, Lisa. Lisa was later described as the possible reasoning behind the initial computer invention Jobs came up with, named the lisa. I feel like the author could have done a better job explaining Jobs’ intimate relationships and specifically his relationship with his daughter.

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

If I could ask Steve Jobs two questions I’d ask first: “Why didn’t you care for your relationships as much?” And secondly, I wonder “What was your life like when you were rich, was it better?”
I’d ask these 2 questions specifically, because he maintained such an odd relationship with his family that I can’t really understand, and I wonder if he regrets it, or if he’s not much of a family-man. I feel like this could also be related to how money changed his life, I’m interested if all the money was just too much that he felt like a superior person to everyone else.

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

I think Steve Jobs was an extremely hard worker, he was relentless in being a success. Despite being your typical “hippie” Steve Jobs still wanted to be rich, to be famous, to make the next big thing. I share his passion for wanted to be a success that’s for sure, and I hope I can maintain the work ethic that he had. Jobs’ hard work was indescribable as he was a strange man that went all over the place, even to India for a year that seemed quite random, but if one thing is for sure… it’s that he’s was hard worker.