13A- Reading Reflection No.1

The book I have chosen is Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. What surprised me most about Steve Jobs was his upbringing. I was unaware that he was adopted. Even though he had his adopted parents, he felt abandoned in his early life. He got kicked out of multiple schools because he was bored and far ahead of his classmates. His adopted parents saw from the beginning that he was a special child, obsessed with electronics. I most admire his drive. He would rummage through junk yards and pull pieces together to form something new, which often times would get him in trouble. When Jobs and Wozniak came together, their first project was the Blue Box, which controlled long distance phone calls. Many people were unsure how to use it, but instead of stoping there, they kept working together until the formation of Apple. What I would say I admire least is that he dropped out of college his Freshman year. I understand his reasoning, he was an entrepreneur with a vision, but I also feel like professors and classes could have pushed him to be even better. After the release of the iPhone 4, consumer reports came back bashing the antenna because if you placed your finger perfectly over the gap, you would lose connection. Again, instead of letting this small failure stop him and his company, he created a system where you could return the phone, but by doing more research and looking through report data, he discovered that regular mobile phones were having the same problem.

Jobs competencies are definitely his imagination, ambition, and persuasive skills. He could see a product and explain how it could benefit people. He also had a way with words. He could excite people and explain to them why they NEEDED his product over anyone else's. In the book, Scott Adams claims," If you want to know what genius looks like, study Jobs' words."

I believe great entrepreneurs should take feedback from others to perfect their product, like we do with peer reviews in this course. One thing that confused me with this book was that he was not willing to except or use feedback from employees at Apple.

If I had a chance to speak to Job, I would probably ask what was the reason for not being open to suggests from peers? Due to his passing, I would also love to ask him what he thinks of the recent products Apple has released?

Jobs dedicated his live to Apple. I think one of his most effective skills was hard work. If he would have just quit after something failed, Apple wouldn't be the largest tech corporation today. I feel like I relate to his perception of hard work, by understanding and reminding myself that failure leads to success.