13A

The book I read was Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Here are my thoughts:

What surprised you the most? What surprised me the most from reading about Steve Job’s life was how his journey began. His biological parents gave him up for adoption and trusted that his adoptive parents would give him a proper education. Especially in today’s age, this would be a very controversial decision and one that would be very difficult to make for most parents. In this scenario, it worked out perfectly as Job’s biological parents stayed true to their religion and Jobs was put in a situation where he could reach his full potential.

What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? What I most admired about Steve Jobs was he was always the underdog. His parents gave him up, he wasn’t well liked by most, his adoptive parents didn’t support his decision to go to the college he wanted, and his company had an initial loss of sales. Steve Jobs was able to overcome all these obstacles and become of the most famous entrepreneurs in history.

What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? I would say the least thing I admired about Steve Jobs was his arrogance. He struck a lot of people he encountered the wrong way because of it and it even had an impact on his jobs. Even though being arrogant is not a positive character trait, it worked for him and he used it to his advantage in order to be successful.

Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? Yes, Jobs dealt with a lot of adversity and failure throughout his life. His biological parents gave him up and he was expected to thrive educationally because of the situation they put him in. Jobs didn’t let this adversity slow him down, he used it as motivation and became very successful mostly because of his personal drive to overcome it. It wasn’t all easy either, Jobs dealt with failure along the way. The first Mac was not a success immediately, but he trusted in his vision and continued perfecting it until he designed the product he knew would be revolutionary.

What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? Steve Jobs was internally motivated, hard-working, innovative, and independent. These characteristics made him the man he was and are the reason he was as successful as an entrepreneur as he was.

Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you: I would say the most confusing part of the reading to me was how persistent Steve Jobs was about attending Reed College. His adoptive parents wanted him to go to Stamford or Berkley, which were both schools in the state and would have probably offered Jobs a scholarship. Instead, Jobs chose Reed College, a very expensive school in Oregon that didn’t have more than a thousand students. It wasn’t the expected choice of college, but Steve Jobs had a vision and going to Reed College was part of that.

 If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why? My first question to Steve Jobs would be what does he think his defining moment as an entrepreneur was. I feel like this is interesting and important because without that moment he may have not taken the route he did. My next question would be what do he think his biggest mistake was and why. Our mistakes and how we overcome them define us as people so I feel like it would say a lot about Steve Jobs based on his response.

For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? I believe Steve Jobs opinion of hard work was to set a goal and don’t stop until you achieve it. He dealt with adversity and letdowns throughout his life but he stayed focused on his goal and was willing to work as hard as possible in order to fulfill it. I do share that opinion but it is not easy to be as motivated as Jobs was. I strive to be on that level because I believe that mindset is what makes entrepreneurs so successful.