1. What are the factors that contributed to the success and failure of Steve Jobs as a technopreneur?
2. How do you see yourself as a technopreneur?
3. Would you take the same path career that Steve Jobs took? Why or why not?
Steve Jobs. A well-known public
figure in the industry of technology mainly because of his ideas, designs, and
innovations. He is known for being the co-founder and the Chief Executive
Officer of the company called Apple. He is one of the world’s known people. The
people of Earth knew him as a successful man who revolutionized the way of
technology since when they started Apple, and later became more popular for
introducing the iPhone, iPad, Mac and many to mention. There are three hundred
forty six products, designs, etc. that are patented under his name. But, just
like a normal person, he had a story. A story that had its ups and downs. Steve
Jobs was not gifted a luxurious life, he was a normal person like us. But, how
did a normal person like him became a worldwide phenomenon?
Steve Jobs had a lot of things that
had contributed to his success. It was his friends back then who helped him.
Before he became a well-known public persona, he and his friend, Steve Wozniak
which eventually will become the co-founder of the Apple along with Steve Jobs.
Both wanted to do things. With that hobby of theirs, they made something. They
were the ones behind the Blue Box. The Blue Box was originally designed by
Steve Wozniak. The Blue Box was used to switch a normal into a long distance
call, just by producing a certain frequency of tone, and use the Blue Box to
enter operator mode and route your calls wherever you want. It was Steve Jobs’
idea to sell the Blue Box, they made tons of these until stopped making Blue
Boxes when they were nearly caught. Wozniak claimed that they made $6000 during
their venture on selling this. Because of that, they started to do even more things.
Steve Wozniak was Steve Jobs’ bestfriend buddy. They were like a perfect match.
The path their career started when the two joined a computer faire to display
Steve Wozniak’s design. Wozniak’s design was the first computer (would be the
first personal computer) to have a small TV screen as a monitor. It amazed the
people, drawing their attention to Wozniak’s invention. But, the thing is that
Wozniak was not good at talking to people back then, so it was Steve Jobs’ job
to do the talking. Steve Jobs was the one who found a way to sell Wozniak’s
invention, but Wozniak said that he cannot create more of those things to sell,
because he had a contract at HP where HP would claim Wozniak’s first invention.
But fortunately, HP declined Wozniak’s invention. They refused to it cause they
see it as a toy. They worked at the garage of Steve Jobs’ house to build more
of Wozniak’s computer with the help of Elizabeth and Daniel Kottke. Then, Steve
Jobs visited one bank to another just to acquire a financial assistance. But,
Steve Jobs’ tremendous effort to look for financial assistance, he was very
unfortunate. He kept on getting rejected by those banks he visited, mainly
because of his appearance. Then one day, a miracle came into the garage. Mike
Markkula came and offered to finance Wozniak and Jobs with a quarter million
dollar. They sealed the deal and is the start of Apple. Then one day at
computer faire, the people went rushing on Apple’s stand. Almost all of the
people neglected the other company and they drew all of their attentions to
Apple since it was the only computer to have a monitor. Until then, Apple
became famous they eventually became a company. They have their own
headquarters, and they have lots of employees who are very loyal to Steve Jobs.
And then on, Apple became more and more successful. Steve Jobs received lots
and lots of recognition of every success they had in spite that it was his team
who actually worked hard at it.
Looking at it, Steve Jobs would be nothing IF they were
not friends with Steve Wozniak. The people around him contributed to his
success, especially his team. Steve Jobs was not a programmer nor an engineer.
He has nothing, nothing but his team and his wit. It was the way how he talks
to the people. He was the face of Apple, and everytime there will be a
launching of product, Steve Jobs was the one who face the huge crowd of people
and talk to them, introducing the item. He was the one who had the charisma. It
is also on how he control the team. As I have mentioned, Steve Jobs was not a
programmer nor an engineer, but had his team and his brain. Even though he does
not know how to do programming or build things on his own, he had his team.
When he can perceive a vision, an idea, he had his team to translate his vision
or idea into reality. and his logical
way of thinking to market the products was the greatest factor that helped
Steve Job on the road to success. Whenever he wants something, he gets it. Just
like how he got the graphical user interface and the mouse from the XEROX Alto
developers for free, since XEROX rebuked it because the executives did not see
its potential at that time, and because of the fact that the mouse was called a
“mouse” which the executive find it very funny. As what Wozniak said, it was
like they were like a mongol horde who were looting a defenseless village.
As we all know, success and failure
are partners. You can’t have success without having failures, and just because
you are successful, it doesn’t mean that you won’t be seeing failure anymore.
No. As what I always say, failure is anywhere. Failure is there all the time
around the corner waiting to strike its victim. A successful person, franchise,
company will experience failure, not only once, or twice, but as many times as
possible. Failure is passive. In fact, Apple faced failures. One of their
failure was the computer Lisa. It was failure to the market, which they did not
sold enough.
When Apple became a huge company,
Steve Jobs had a problem on keeping up his manner. First of all when his girlfriend
was pregnant. Steve Jobs refused to take responsibility since he insisted to
claim that it was not his. He and his girlfriend had a lot of fight because of
that matter. He kept on denying and denying that the child was his. Steve Jobs
was such a dick to his girlfriend, he dumped his girlfriend, leaving his
girlfriend pregnant with the baby all alone and continued with his
technological venture. He continued to work and he does not seem to care about
his girlfriend and his daughter at all. He even said on an interview back in
1983 that 98% of the male population of America could be the father of Lisa
(his daughter). They performed a paternity test and it showed that Steve was
indeed the father of Lisa. But, still Steve won’t accept it. He did not even want
to give a $20, 000 financial support which Steve can afford. But there was an
article I read that Steve Jobs agreed to give a $500 monthly support. He even
brought his unpleasant manner in the company. He was such a dick to those who
applicant who came from IBM since Steve Jobs looked up to IBM as their rival.
He would embarrass the applicant and rejects them. He was also a jerk to his
employees, giving time a lot of working hours way beyond than recommend, and he
would pressure those employees. He also has a bad temper which he likes to pour
out to his employees. He demands anything what he wants, whether he wants you
not to sleep for days just to do your job. Everything went up into his head. He
felt superior to others and bully those who are inferior to him. There was a
time where became like a dictator, he divided the Apple team into two, the
Apple II team and the Macintosh team, and he’d let them fight which is the best
team. As what have Wozniak said, Steve Jobs is tearing the company down. Steve
Jobs trusted Bill Gates and worked with him to bring down IBM. But in the end,
it backfired. Bill Gates betrayed Steve Jobs and stole pretty much everything
from the Macintosh and implemented it on the Windows which the Microsoft are
developing. Mike Markkula, Steve Wozniak, John Sculley (Former CEO) saw how
Steve Jobs changed, and saw how he’s tearing the company down. On an interview
at a conference, John Sculley said that Jobs was depressed when the second gen.
Macintosh was ridiculed as a toy, and the negative reception was too much for
Jobs to handle. Sculley and Jobs had a clash. Jobs wanted to drop the price of
the Mac and improve the advertising and wanted to shift a large portion of
Apple II over to the Mac. Scully disagreed and said that the problem was not
about the price nor advertisement, and if Jobs would do that, they are going to
risk throwing their company. Further clashes happened, but John Sculley had no
other option but to fire Steve Jobs. The board agreed to Sculley. Steve jobs
was fired on the company he founded (co-founded). His attitude and his
inappropriate actions were the factors that contributed to his failure.
2. How do you see yourself as a technopreneur?
Today, were are now living in the age of
technology. An era where things that were once complicated are now very easy to
do. An age where devices that are as large as your palm can do such extreme
things. All by the power of what we call technology. In this generation, many
things and people’s lives are heavily dependent to technology. Technology made
things easier, such as when you want to search for something, you do not have
to look in the phone directories, newspapers, flyers, or etc., you can now do
it by just searching on the internet. When you want to send money to your loved
ones, you do not have to fall in line in the banks just to reach the counter,
you can now send your money digitally through online means. Before, our means
of transportation was riding a horse, riding a carriage, a trolly. Now we have
cars, trains, planes. And if there is one thing that the technology made a very
difficult thing very easy, is that they made communicating with other people
very easy. Before there was technology, people would have to know where the
other person is before they could send them a message or a letter. Now we could
just send them a message to ask them where they are at the moment. The point
what I am trying to make is that, we can now communicate very easily and we can
send messages now instantly in a blink of an eye, unlike before that we should
have to know where our friends lives or where they are at moment before we
could send them a message, and that message could reach a long time to get
there, and maybe by the time it gets there, your friends moved out to another
place. All things are now easier with technology. Now, technology is almost
everywhere. It is because that geniuses, and inventors translates their ideas
into real life whether to compete with the latest trend in technology or to
solve such problems using the power of technology. It is like that every day of
the year a new technological invention or a breakthrough will happen. It seems
that people nowadays are technological geniuses, cause if you would look at it,
there are lots and lots of people inventing something out from nothing. Even
teenagers are now into inventing something new in technology. Teenagers are now
capable of introducing technological innovation at a very young age. Of course
I am referring to those teenagers who enthusiast about studying, not those who
do nothing but to make themselves look better, and party and drink booze. It is
like there are lots of technological genius in every country here in the world
that are working their butts out to revolutionize people’s lives. If there are
any people right now who is planning to become the next greatest and most epic
technological genius in the world will find themselves struggling to fulfill
that dream. Not because tuitions are very expensive or because of the hardships
of life. They may struggle because it seems that everything that a person could
possibly think of has been invented or already been conceptualized by other
people who are on its way to invent it. It is very hard right now to think of a
new innovation that could solve problems. A possible thing that could happen is
that they would copy an existing invention, trying hard to top it. In fact,
that is already happening right now. There those company or developers who
managed to create a successful creations like apps, devices, etc. but due to their
succession, popularity and fame, there are those others who want to top it, but
they end copying the exact same thing with only a little difference. Let us
take Flappy Bird as an example. Flappy Bird became a viral and a famous game
back then. After it has gained popularity, many companies and developer wanted
something to create to beat Flappy Bird, but what they did is just a clone of
Flappy Bird. I do not why they did that? They want to beat Flappy Bird but they
made a knock-off Flappy Bird game with the exact game play but different
graphic art. I am referring these apps; Clumsy Bird, Flappy Cat, Flap Bird
Forever, Tappy Bird and many to mention. See? It is very hard to come up with
new ideas these days if you want to be a technopreneur. You have to battle with
your own thoughts just to come up with a new and fresh idea.
Now, this question asks if how I see myself as a
technopreneur. Well, it is hard for me to think of it. I haven’t even thought
of myself as an entrepreneur, now a technopreneur? I never dreamt of becoming a
technorpreneur before. Not because that I hate to become a technopreneur, nor
it is a bad idea. No, being a technopreneur is not a bad idea. Being a
technopreneur could be the greatest idea that you could have and you could ever
dream of. You can help a large portion of the Earth’s population by your
innovation, and with that, you can also gain profit from it and might become a
millionaire or even a billionaire if could do it. For me, when I was in
elementary, I dreamt of becoming a scientist since I love the subject. I love
to read science books and facts about science. I was eager to study more on
science subject than on my other subjects. That is why I am fond of the idea of
becoming a scientist. I wanted to discover things and help people by my
discovery and solving things that cannot be explained by current science. When
I became a high school student, I realized that it will be impossible for me to
become a scientist cause it will be very expensive, and I should need a highly-intelligent
brain. I was so discouraged about. I love science, but I admit that I am not
smart, and I am not a genius, so that is why I chose to become a normal person
and dream for a normal accomplishment. But even though I lost courage on
becoming a scientist, I still love science. I still read facts and read
researches of some modern scientists to cope up with what is happening in the
field of modern science of the modern era that we are living right now. I also love to read physics and quantum
physics to seek answers to questions that cannot be answered by normal science.
I managed to revert to my old dream, which to become a scientist. I thought of
many ways to pursue it, but no matter how hard I try, I still end up facing the
truth that I cannot become a scientist due to our impecuniosity. When I was in
my third year high school, I fell in love with photo editing and video editing.
I used to edit photos and videos almost every day. I really love how it feels to edit a photo,
especially to do a photo manipulation. I had fun swapping people's faces. Most
of all, I really had fun creating visual effects using photoshop. Then, I
managed to learn how to use after effects and do more and more visual effects.
Later on, I was interested in designing, so I tried to do some designs. More
and more people knew about my hobby and they saw it as an opportunity to seek
some help from me. Whenever they want some photos to be edited, they come to me
and ask me to edit it. Or if they have a video project, they come to me and ask
me if I can do their video project. Of course, I gained money from those. It
became my sideline to help my fellow students. They praised me for my work,
they kept on telling me I am a photoshop or a VFX master. Of course, it made me
happy and it made me look up to myself. And from that moment, I wanted to
become a multimedia artist or to become a director. Unfortunately, we were to
poor to afford multimedia arts or any course that relates to directing. My
mother insisted that I should enroll in USEP cause I have a full scholar. So, I
did. I chose BSIT because my brother told me that it has a major in multimedia.
But, suddenly there is no majoring in USEP, and multimedia is just a subject.
Life was hard for me in IC, and now I am
stranded.I still have a long way to go. I have lost all of my hope because I am
not that good at programming. But when I finally enrolled in to the
Technopreneur subject, I was changed when our facilitator Mr. Randy S. Gamboa
oriented us for the first time. I was so head on in this subject, and I wanted
to become a Technopreneur now. I was thinking about what Mr. Gamboa said to us,
that we can be millionaires in just a short period of time a by just learning
this subject compared on enrolling in a 4-year entrepreneurship course. I
thought about what he said, and I guess he was right about that since all you
need in this field is your brilliant mind. I find technorpreneurship as my only
way out of poverty. I can see that becoming a technopreneur might be my true
destiny. I can see myself as a young technopreneur who is still struggling to
adapt on my surrounding. And, in many years, I can see myself as a tech giant,
having a billions in my bank account. A tech mogul who rained down a lot of
innovations that helped millions and millions of people. And most of all, I can
see myself as a leader, helping other people and inspiring them.
People nowadays are having such a
great fondness of their idols or role models. They idolize them because of what
made them that way, or what have been to. And that causes to inspire people and
motivate them. With that, a question that is commonly asked, so common that we
always hear about it everytime. That question I am referring to is “Would like
to follow *insert name here*’s footsteps?” or it could be “Will you take the
same as what *insert name here* took?”. People kept on asking that, and I do
not know why. If they mean to follow their footsteps to success, then fine.
But, taking the same path as they took, doing the same thing they did, like got
drop out of school and become a billionaire all of a sudden? Then, no. Why
would people ask that to another people? Why are they asking them if they want
to live behind someone’s shadow? I do not know. But if you would ask me if will
I take the same career path Steve Jobs took, then no. Why? I will tell you why.
I do not want or wish to take the
same path career as what Steve Jobs took. Steve Jobs is too mainstream, he is
all over everywhere. He is all over the news, TV, internet articles and many to
mention. The world knows him for founding Apple and made it one of the most
successful companies of all. He later had his fame, glory and popularity went
off the roof after he introduced the iPod to world. People liked him and
praised him for doing a good job. But, when he introduced the iPhone and iPad
series. The people went nuts about it. They were like cavemen who has been
amazed by the discovery of fire. His popularity was tripled, the more praising
he received from other people. The people looked at him like a god that gave
people something new. People are going crazy about him. They wanted to be the
next Steve Jobs, they wanted to become the next CEO of Apple, etcetera,
etcetera. But for me, it so exaggerated. For me, Steve Jobs was an overrated
person. I mean, there are lots of other people who did greater things than him,
but still they had their eyes on Steve Jobs. I do not want to take the same of
path of the man left and dumped his girlfriend and his daughter, cause of the
reason which he only knows what it was. I do not want to take the same of path
of the man who was a total jerk to his employee and his teams. But there is one
thing for sure, I do want to take the same path of the man who made his small
garage team into a multi-billion company. Despite of his horrible attitude that
a lot of people did not know, I admit that he is a brilliant man. He does not
know how to program, he is not an engineer, but he manage to turn his team of
four into a company that known worldwide. We know that Steve Jobs have his
friend, Steve Wozniak on his side ever since before Apple was born. Wozniak
made the god stuffs, but the problem is that Wozniak does not know how to talk
effectively to people. That is where Steve Jobs’ part comes. Wozniak said that
it is Steve Jobs who does the talking of the time. It is very amazing. Wozniak
plays the instrument, while Steve Jobs plays the orchestra. Steve Jobs did
anything to make Apple become a huge company. He poured his efforts to find a
financial assistance from banks, which he got rejected for countless times
before Mike Markkula came and. Eveything went great until Steve Jobs was
tearing the company down due to his actions. John Sculley said the he is not a
good leader. They had a clash, and that clash ended having Steve Jobs fired at
his own company.
But, let us look at the things
that would summarize Steve Jobs’ life. His life had its ups and downs. So,
going back to the question. Will I take the same career path Steve Jobs took?
Well, for me it is a No no. Why? It is because that I want to have my own
career path. I want to be known as me, not just a guy who lives behind the
shadow of Steve Jobs. And in order to do that, I must have to make that career
path on my own. When I was in high school, I love to edit videos, along with
editing photos. I love to do visual effects. And by doing that hobby, it made
me realized that I wanted to become a director. I want to make movies. I want
the people to know me as the director who does not want any clichéd plot lines,
shallow plot, exaggerated things. I want the people to know me as the director
who respects the traditional way of telling a plot. Where there little to no
clichés, where it does not need to be an expensive movie to deliver a good
plot. I do not want the people to remember me as the next James Cameron or the
next Michael Bay. I do not want to be compared with Michael Bay. Many people
think that Michael Bay is a great and amazing actors. He was known for
directing Pearl Harbor, and the Transformers franchise. But for me, Michael Bay
is overrated. He does not make any good
movies at all. He really depends heavily in action sequences and explosions,
unnecessary explosions for the viewers’ yes to feast. And the sad fact is that
a lot of people loves it regardless of how boring and uninteresting the plot
is. Well, that does not work for me. A good movie does not depend on cheesy
action sequences or explosion fest. I will become a director that Hollywood will
remember for my uniqueness.
And if in terms in the field of
Technopreneurship, I would love to be the reason why people have their ears
ringing. When I said that I do not want to become the next Steve Jobs, or I do
not want to take same career path as what he took, I am saying is that I do not
want to copy him or to be like him as much as possible. And if we are talking
about the concept of Steve Jobs being successful then, I’m good. As what I have
said, I want to make a career path on my own. I want to make a name in this
field. I want the people to remember that Marijune M. Alejo is a legend. If I
become a technopreneur, I would sell products that would solve the people’s
problems, and I would also sell products for the entertainment of oneself. Of course
I will start like how Steve Jobs have started, I would start small. I will work
hard and focus more about the society’s problem and work hard on it to solve it
in any means. Could be a device, an app, or anything. As soon as my team is
growing up, I will do all my best to manage them. But, our facilitator, Mr.
Randy S. Gamboa said that, you do not manage people. You only manage things.
So, to make it relevant to what Mr. Gamboa said, when my team will start to
grow up and big, I will “lead” them to do their tasks properly since it is a
new world, it is much a bigger world. And, one thing that I would never do is
to divide the team into to or into any possible. As you can see in the movie
Pirates of Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs divided the Apple employees in to two,
the Apple II team and the Macintosh II team and led them to fight each other.
That brought a huge disturbance to the balance of the company. It knocked off
the company’s balance. Just like Steve Wozniak said in the movie, Steve Jobs
was tearing the company apart. That’s why, I would do my best to keep my
employees work together with the other teams and encourage the essence of team
work. I would never do the same thing, cause if there is one thing that would
keep my company strong, it is that keeping them unified. My company will focus
on promoting innovations. Innovation that would solve the society’s problem as
I have mentioned. And of course. I will not forget to start campaigns or raise
a charity those who are in need once our company will grow. I want the people
to remember that there are still those people who are willing to help, and I
believe that doing this is like giving back to the people who helped you. I
know that my explanation sounds like a contradictory to my answer. Of course, we
cannot avoid to end up doing the same thing as others, but what we can do is
that, we can do it in a different or much better way than the others.
