Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

(For the sake of brevity and organization, I will follow a question and answer template below.)

• What surprised you the most?

     The thing that surprised me the most about Steve Jobs and his life was his insane amount of belief in others. I do not mean the general public, as he quoted in to the author that most people fell in one of two categories, "enlightened" or "a**hole." Instead, I mean that he truly believed in a select few people and did everything possible to get them in the best positions for their respective talents. For example, his relationship with Jony Ive has this same feature. Jobs did all he could to put Ive in some of Apple's technological opportunities and gave him an incredibly large amount of responsibility. Jobs had very strange beliefs, but he was no fool when it came to true talent. 

• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

     I admire most about Jobs his genius. He truly was a brilliant man. With a strange upbringing and value system, he had a genius beyond this time. More aptly put he had a genius that innovated this time. Jobs simply imagined and conceptualized things so well that every current function and feature of Apple seems to be some aspect of the creature in his mind. Almost like an architect watching over the creation of their building, Jobs had all of this in mind. He was and is so intricately wrapped around the fibers of this company that it seems so different without him.

• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

     His truculent nature is perhaps what I admire least about him. He was pushy and at times belligerent with his staff. The fact that Apple had to create an award for those who stood up to him seems like an atrocious business practice. Jobs was never content with anything, and it showed in this aspect of his personality. 

• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

     He encountered adversity in a different way than most. While some would shirk in the face of it, Jobs experienced an adrenaline-like high from it. He excelled when pushed by Atari; he excelled in the creation and profitability of Apple; he excelled when dethroned from his own company; he excelled when he had to come back and revive his company. In all of his difficulties, he came out the other side victorious.

• What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

     He was incredibly talented with regards to engineering and art, eccentric in mannerism, tenacious in all his ventures, but more than these all, he had a "reality distortion field." As described by those under its power, he had the ability to persuade people that anything was possible, even if "anything" was near impossible. He was persuasive and allured people with his own charisma.

• Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

     I do not understand much about the computer engineering mentioned in this paper, but that is due to my own ignorance and is of no fault of the author. 

•  If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

     I would ask him "What do you believe in the most?" and "If life could have gone differently, what would you have wanted to be changed?" I think that both of these questions give me a bird's eye view into what truly drives a man like that. He had to have some internal force pumping him along, and I believe that both of these questions would give me the answer.

• For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

     I believe that hard work was no stranger to Steve Jobs. He was not a weak-willed man, nor indolent. I believe that we would have similar perspectives on hard work, but if I was to really find a person whose views most closely resemble mine, it would probably be Steve Wozniak. He desired to help others, and I believe that to be one of the most important priorities in my life.