Reading Reflection No. 1

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

• What surprised you the most?

I think what surprised me the most was how controlling and manipulative Steve Jobs was as a young entrepreneur. He has such great ambition and he had some great ideas, but his attitude was awful.

• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

I most admired his ambition and how he never gave up, even after he was fired from Apple he went on to run his own business, NeXT, as well as acquiring Pixar. He was constantly coming up with new ideas about not only computers, but also animation and new partnerships. Steve Jobs knew how to be successful. I also greatly admired him for recognizing that he wasn't ready to be CEO and continued to find other people to fill the position.

• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

I think that I least admired his bad attitude which showed just how immature he was. I think that he should have been more caring to his employees and taking their ideas into consideration.

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

I would say that the Macintosh computer was a failure on Apple's part, yes it sold well initially but quickly began to fall. Steve Jobs was fired at this point, but he did learn from his mistakes and continue to push on and find new ways to build his new business. I think a lot of his failure rooted from the conflict with the other employees, in order to over come this failure Steve Jobs grew up and matured, which led him back to Apple.

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

Steve Jobs exhibited the ability to successfully come up with and lead new projects. He would have the idea for a new computer and he would go through the necessary steps to successfully create these computers. He was full of innovation and imagination with a lot of ambition. 

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

I think the part of the reading that was confusing to me was when they described what the business NeXT was, I didn't fully understand the point of the business. I looked more into it and found that it was a computer company that designed workstations for business and higher education markets. 

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

Do you feel that being fired from Apple was what helped you to grow as an entrepreneur and also as a person? 

Do you feel that the success of your business was worth the time that you sacrificed away from your family? 

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

I think that Steve Jobs felt that hard work was doing whatever it took. Whether that meant making deals with people you don't exactly like, hiring people that you don't agree with fully, taking time away from your family. Hard work was sacrificing a lot. 

In some ways I do agree with this but I also feel that you can work hard and not sacrifice as much.