13A: Reading Reflection No. 1

For this assignment, I decided to do a reading reflection on Steve Jobs. As an owner of almost all Apple products, I thought it would be interesting to get to know more about him and how he was able to become one of the most successful people in the world.

1) A. What surprised me the most about Steve Jobs was that he was involved in 70% of Pixar's stake. I did not think Steve Jobs had any correlation to Pixar until I read this book. I also was surprised to hear that he was adopted.

    B. What admired me the most about Steve Jobs was how much dedication and drive he had to make Apple the best tech company in the world. I love how effective he was in persuading other companies, even Microsoft to work him despite the rivalry they have. I also really liked that with each criticism he received for his products, he went above and beyond to create something better and add something extra, such as when he received criticism over the iPad but then added the program Garage Band to it.

   C. What I least admired about Steve Jobs was that he spent so much time on his career that he neglected spending time with his family. I also did not like how he insisted on using natural treatments instead of treatments that would most probably guarantee him to live a longer life and allow him to be with his family. I thought that it was a little selfish of him. His family had to suffer his absence because of his career and had to go through the dismay of his lack of well being due to his cancer.

   D. Steve Jobs did encounter adversity and failure, but he used it as a lesson and learned to better improve himself and his products. For example, when he came out with the iPhone 4, critics were saying his prices were too high. However, him and his team proved them wrong and ended up exceeding the amount of sales than expected on the iPhone 4. I remember being in middle school when the iPhone 4 came out. Everyone was going crazy for it because it was the coolest thing on the market at the time.

2. As mentioned above, Steve Jobs competencies were that he had the ability to take failure and make it a lesson which would help him better improve his products. Also, he had an excellent skill in negotiating with different companies and signing contracts with them to do collaborative work. This helped him form connections and improve his brand with the skills he learned from others.

3. What was confusing to me was why did Steve Jobs biological parents put him up for adoption just because his mother's family didn't approve of his father because he was Muslim. Couldn't they just get divorced and decide who would take custody of the child? I just didn't understand why they put him up for adoption.

4. If I were to Steve Jobs two questions, it would be why did he only believe in receiving natural treatment for his cancer and if he kept a notebook of all his future ideas for Apple before he died that he left with the new CEO? The first question I believe is relevant because if he were to be open to receiving other types of treatment I believe that he would be able to live longer. The last question I also believe to be relevant because I'm just curious to know to what extent he has thought about the future of Apple's creations before he died. Also, it would be cool to know what was Steve Jobs's ideas and what is the new CEO's ideas.

5. Steve Jobs was a firm believer in hard work. In one of the last chapters of his book he wrote “I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product.” It showed that he was dedicated in making sure Apple was superior to Android, and he was willing to do whatever to prove that to the world.