13A- Reading Reflection No.1

Kalie Novosedliak
Professor Pryor
ENT3003- Assignment 13A
27 February 2020

Reflection on Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

- What surprised you the most?
I was most surprise to learn that Steve Jobs was using drugs, specifically psychedelics while in college. I know drugs are very common especially more so in the college scene, however I never pictured Jobs to be into that. I more so assumed he would be more closed off, quiet, nerdy, and really focused on his school work.

- What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
I was most impressed to learn about the passion he had for his vision and the extent Jobs went in order to accomplish some of his biggest goals through Apple. From getting fired from Apple to completely transforming the company and making it exponentially more successful is inspiring and shows that ambition and passion are large aspects of success.

- What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
Ironically, I least admired the control Jobs wanted to have of his vision, which ultimately made him really hard to work with. I feel that one of the most important characteristics an entrepreneur needs is the ability with work well with others to collaborate in effort to reach for the highest potential for that particular service or product. With this in mind and knowing that Jobs does not exactly fit into that, I least admire his lack of patience in receiving help from others purely because his vision was so set. So in some ways, his strong passion is something that I admire most and also brings out characters that I least admire.

- Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?
Yes, Steve Jobs most definitely experienced adversity and failure throughout his career. Although he is a very successful entrepreneur, it is almost impossible for any entrepreneur to not experience failure. Many of his launched products may be considered failures because they did not become as popular as others. The Pixar Image Computer is just one example of a product that Jobs would consider a "failure". From these failures however, Jobs was able to learn and improve from his mistakes which ultimately helped him in the long run, just like most entrepreneurs.

-What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?
One competency that I noticed Steve Jobs obtained was his ability to be innovative with the ideas he came up with. This is what led Jobs to become so successful. The platform he created with Apple, in initiating its own operating system is something that makes his ideas and products so unique from competitors.

- Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
I found the reading to be relatively easy and didn't find anything to challenging or confusing. One of the things that I believe would have helped my complete understanding of Jobs is to learn more about his background and life leading up to his successful career. I feel like this is important in understanding an entrepreneur because their background and early life most likely influenced their decisions as an adult and in their career. I also think I would have understood a little better if Isaacson made connections between things of his early life and how exactly they might have impacted his career.

- If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
         1. What has had the biggest influence on your career in regards to your success?     Understanding the most influential part of his success would most definitely inspire other entrepreneurs to become as successful as Jobs is.
         2. After all of your experience and knowledge throughout your career, what is one thing you would tell yourself before becoming successful and why?     I think reflection on oneself is also very important for self improvement and realizing how far one has come. This is also another tip that would hopefully help other entrepreneurs.

- For fun: What do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?
I think Steve Jobs encouraged the importance of hard work in order to become successful, which more definitely overlaps with my own opinion. Nothing comes easy and if it did, everyone would do it. So Jobs most definitely believes that hard work is a crucial characteristic an entrepreneur must have in order to reach a goal.