Isaiah Miller
UFID: 80191457
13A – Reading Reflection No. 1
6/11/2020
I read about famous, and somewhat notorious, Steve Jobs. What surprised me the most was his ridiculous personality quirks. For example, he didn't bathe often, sometimes for weeks, and didn't even feel the need to use deodorant. Instead, he felt that his natural odor was appealing. He also loved the Mercedes SL55 AMG in silver on black, which I love too, and re-titled the vehicle every six months so that he never needed to use a plate. It disrupted the beauty of the vehicle. I admire Steve's ability to delegate and recruit the best talent. Whether through partnership, hiring, or joint venture, Steve had a knack for identifying the right talent, and would have huge expectations of Apple's team.
I also admire his ruthlessness. It takes a level of savagery to result in a company of Apple's caliber. Sometimes kindness doesn't get the job done. I least admired Steve's lack of life balance, even though it is also why he was so successful with his companies. He didn't pay much attention to family, friends, or anything outside of his laser-beam focus on his business ventures. Steve encountered adversity and failure on multiple occasions. He left Apple in 1985 to found NeXT, and although it didn't succeed in the way he expected it to, he was able to work a deal with Apple to purchase it for hundreds of millions of dollars. This 'failure' led him back to Apple to make it the company it is today.
Steve was strategic, logical, coordinated, organized, and meticulous. He was artistic, driven, and motivated by his vision. He was a visionary leader, and selfish at the same time.
One thing that was confusing to me was why Jobs didn't incentiveize his employees with stake or stock in the company, even after it was sold on publicly traded markets. I have always learned that giving employees incentives based on the success of the company was intelligent.
If I could ask Steve Jobs two questions, I would ask him:
1. If you had more time and health, how would you have ideally prepared Apple for your death?
2. What factors led you to decide to be tough at the cost of others' feelings?
I know that Jobs' opinion of hard-work was that it was necessary. His staff was expected to work 70 or more hours a week without complaint, and even more when launches and deadlines were approaching. He knew what the objectives were and demanded whatever it took to deliver. I agree with his philosophy. Do what it takes.
Hello Isaiah,
ReplyDeleteYou are really a good writer and I am happy to be reviewing another one of your well thought out posts. You do an excellent job at posing ideas that are thought provoking as well as informative. Your review is really good and I am looking ahead to the great posts I get to continue to read from you as the semester moves forward. Once again, great job in this review of the book.
Hi Isaiah, I really liked that you mentioned some of the fun things from the book for people who didn't choose this title to read. I am shocked that he didn’t bathe for weeks, and that he didn't want to put a plate on his Mercedes. I think that Jobs definitely was tougher and ruthless towards his employees because in his eyes they should be grateful to be working for such a prestigious brand, I mean how many people can say that worked for Steve Jobs?
ReplyDeleteHi Isaiah,
ReplyDeleteSteve Jobs was a very interesting person to say the least. I also chose to read this book, and like you, I was taken aback by some of Jobs's habits. While I do agree with your statement that his ruthlessness got the job done most of the time, I believe that there were definitely times where he could have shown more compassion and garnered the same result.