- What surprised me the most about the life of Steve Jobs is that he was adopted. He was biologically born unto a Catholic mother (Joanne) and a Muslim father (John). Joanne's parents disapproved of the relationship which led to her putting up her son for adoption. Steve Jobs was adopted by a couple in San Francisco, CA. His adoptive father, Paul Jobs, was an engine technician at the time and first introduced Steve to engineering and design. The quality skills he learned from Paul are still reflected in his Apple products today. Interesting fact: On the day Jobs was thinking of a name for his new company, he was walking back from an apple orchard, and the name "Apple" stuck with him. Apple Computers was born. Unfortunately, it also surprised me that Steve Jobs struggled with and eventually passed away from pancreatic cancer at the young age of 56.
- What I most admired about Steve Jobs was his desire to give back to humankind. He appreciated the inventions and progress that was laid out before him by others . He wanted to take advantage of it, use it, take it even further, and pump the progress back into humankind. Steve Jobs said, "We try to use the talents we do have to express our deep feelings, to show our appreciation of all the contributions that came before us, and to add something to that flow. That's what has driven me."
- What I least admired about Steve Jobs was his lack of empathy. He didn't seem like a very heartfelt or sensitive man. To him, people were either "enlightened" or an "asshole." He wasn't the best family man, not the best father. In fact, he said he wasn't ready to be a father when his first daughter, Lisa Brennan, was born and was not present in her life (only financially). He would go to work at 7am in the morning and not return home until 9pm at night. By then his kids were already in bed and he was too exhausted to even talk. His career, Apple, was his family, his baby.
- Steve Jobs encountered a lot of adversity and failure throughout his adventures. He faced failure with some new ideas and products (lack of sales for the new super fancy professional NeXT). He faced adversity with partnerships (such as Atari and Pixar) and when he felt people had stolen his ideas (Windows, Android, and Antz as a spin-off of It's a Bug's Life for example). Jobs just kept fighting in the face of these challenges. He stood up for what he believed was right. He never gave up and always kept moving forward.
2. The best competency that Steve Jobs exhibited was his fearlessness to go against the grain, to come up with wonderful ideas and to own it fearlessly. He wasn't afraid of having off the wall ideas and opinions and standing up for himself. On that note, he wasn't afraid of being off the wall himself and never changed his quirky personality and ways.
3. I suppose a part of the reading that was a little confusing to me was just following all the business connections and roles of different people.
4. If I was able to ask Steve Jobs two things, they would be:
When did you realize you were hitting it big and what did it feel like?
Did it change you? How so? Better or worse?
One more question to make it three: Do you have any regrets? If so, what would you go back and change?
5. I think Steve Job's opinion of hard work was to never give up, if you fail get up and try again, keep pushing, and don't be afraid to be different. I do share that opinion and greatly believe in that.
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