27A – Reading Reflection No. 3

The Book: "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson

1) You read about an entrepreneur: 

• The most surprising thing I learned from reading Steve Jobs was the creation of Job's RDF, the reality distortion field. The RDF meant that once Jobs had decided something that should happen, he would bend reality to his will until it became true. He was determined in every way imaginable and it was his infectious determination that would allow him to convince a team of engineers to work 20+ hours on various fonts for the Macintosh computer. He had convinced his entire workforce that they were building the world's greatest computer, and it was their duty to fulfill that goal for Apple. 
• I admire Job's determination and enthusiasm surrounding his creation of Apple. Apple was nothing but a longshot of a dream when it first started and it took extreme determination at the top to push the company to its massive success of today. Job's provided the framework for Apple's success, and without his driven leadership, I do not believe Apple would be where it is today. Lastly, Job's also embraced failure and decided to learn from it with a positive perspective versus a negative one.   
• I least admire Job's self-obsessed nature for success. He seemed to view his ideas and creations to be better than everyone around him, which caused either great success or great failure. Job's was so determined in his basis of beliefs that nothing could ever change his view, which caused him to have some serious failures that I personally believe could have been easily avoided. 
• Job's did face a lot of failures throughout his time of being an entrepreneur. His ability to accept these failures and overcome lead to his ultimate success. I think the biggest failure Jobs overcame was his ousting from Apple in 1985. He had to overcome his obsession with complete control. He returned in 1997 with a fresh perspective on management and allowed himself to place more trust in individuals he believed in. This allowed him to bring the best version of Apple to the marketplace. 

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

• Steve Job's exhibits extreme passion and determination when pursuing any new business venture or project. He has the extreme ability to push for the best in his various ventures, as well as motivate his employees to view their part as essential for creating the best version of Apple. Lastly, he also has the ability to channel various amounts of knowledge and direction into any project with a flip of a switch. This has allowed Apple to gain dominance in the tech industry for well over 10 plus years. 

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

• There wasn't much that confused me about this biography, but the one confusing part of the biography was about the selection of Apple as the name for Steve Job's computer company. I understood the various reasons for Jobs calling the company Apple, but the general ideas behind do not make sense to me. I guess Job's obsession with fruit and his diet was one of the main driving factors.  

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

1. How do you personally measure your own success?
2. How do you constantly keep innovating?

Why: I would ask Steve Jobs the first question to gain insight on how to properly navigate a personally fulfilling and successful career. I would ask the second question just based on my own curiosity for how one continues to innovate year after year. 

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

Steve Jobs views hard work as the key for any entrepreneur to be successful in their pursuits. Steve Jobs is his own testament to the benefits of hard work and perseverance. He failed constantly and still carried the belief to learn from those failures, which allowed him to have such great success in building the greatest tech company too date. I share the exact same opinion of this belief.