13A- Reading Reflection No.1

Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson

1.

• What surprised me the most was the reasoning for the title 'Apple'. Not only does this come from Jobs' satisfaction with apples at the time the name was due, but also the simplicity behind an apple as a symbol. Most importantly, this became the name because Apple comes before Atari in the phone book, as Jobs' previously worked for this company and didn't want his competitor to show up first in the phone book. This reminded me of what we discussed in class about website title importance for Google search results and how that reflects awareness.

• I admired Jobs' confidence to go against the normal during his time of getting a college education and doing well in school, all while becoming one of the most well-known entrepreneurs to this day. He was extremely determined and was unaffected by his multiple failures. He had a viewpoint on life called a "reality distortion field", in which no matter the challenges, if something had to happen he would bend reality to his will to make it happen.

• I least admired Jobs' approach to his relationship with his family, specifically his wife. The fact that they would sometimes go months without speaking is unhealthy and probably caused issues in their relationship. To me, family is more important than any financial or entrepreneurial successes. I believe Jobs' outlook on his career and his family should not have been identical.

• I believe Jobs' personality in and of itself put him in many situations having to face adversity. For example, not doing well in school and dropping out of college in pursuit of his differing perspectives on life was at the time unheard of. Obviously, when Jobs was fired from Apple due to conflict with board members and personality issues, adversity was faced. This as well as the failure of the NeXT computer design Jobs created allowed him to think differently and use as a learning opportunity for what was to come.

2. Jobs was determined and unafraid of failure from the beginning of his career when he decided to drop out of college. He pursued each idea and continued to produce products after multiple setbacks. He used valuable resources as aids in his business and used his experiences to his advantage.

3. One part of the reading that confused me was Wozniak and Jobs' role in the creation of apple and credit for the idea. Why if Wozniak had the initial idea for the 'all in one' computer idea was Jobs most largely recognized for the title?

4.

1. What would you change from where the company is at today?

2. What was your biggest regret at the start of Apple?

5. I believe Jobs has an approach of always striving to achieve the highest level of success possible, while removing stress and pressure from what the outside world has to say. I feel as if he takes a very careless approach on life, while staying extremely determined in his own decisions.