What are the factors that contributed to the success and failure of Steve Jobs as a Technopreneur?
Almost everybody knows who is Steve Jobs is. He is the founder of the company Apple Inc., the home of our most adored gadgets nowadays e.g. iPad, iPod, iPhone and others plus many more as the company continue to progress. But seldom knew the story how Steve Jobs attained such position in the IT Industry. Who would have thought that he did not finished his degree in college but instead he ventured by being a young technopreneur back then. Last July 10 we watched the movie “The Pirates of the Silicon Valley” which is a story of two college boys, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, and how they move the history of computers If you want to know them better and I recommend you to watch this movie but if you want to have a straight-forward answer on how Steve Jobs became what he is today then all you have to do is read further. I will tell you the contributing factors to the success and failure of Steve Jobs as a technopreneur.
I already know that it is hard to start a business from scratch. What more if you are still a student. In my opinion, this is one of the contributing factors of the success of Steve Jobs as a technopreneur - being a risk-taker. You normally see students doing their assignments, preparing for their project presentations or doing riots on the university grounds but Steve Jobs was different. He had a wider perspective in life than closing his ideas in the four corners of his university. He also has this tendency of pushing his co-workers to their limits which, if became abusive, gives him the title of an encouraging superior or partner just like what he did to convince his friend, Steve Wozniak, to sell his invention by putting up their own business rather than giving it to other companies. Another factor that contributed to Steve Jobs’ success is how he manipulates or charms potential investors to supply his business and persuade people to buy his product which I think is also the reason why Apple hired him back.
Steve Jobs went through failures first before going back to Apple Inc. This is because of he can not control his anger where the encouraging superior now becomes an abusive boss. Due to his hunger for power he made two factions, Apple and Macintosh, and made them fight each other which made a division in the company that almost tore down apart the Apple Inc. And he is also fragile when it comes to family not only the part when he did not recognize the baby of her girlfriend as his even though she explained everything to him but also the part when Bill Gates used this weakness to trick him. Bill Gates made him believe that they were a “family” so this weakness also made him to easily trust Bill Gates and giving then the Graphical User Interface and Mouse technology that they acquired from the Xerox Company. These were the factors that kick him off from the top. He was fired in Apple Inc. but luckily he was rehired and now he is continuing what he does best in the IT Industry.
How do you see yourself as a technopreneur?
Let us first define the word “technopreneurship”. It is actually a combination of two words – “technology” and “entrepreneurship”. According to wikipedia.org, Entrepreneurship can be defined as “one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods”. Entrepreneurship actually comes in many forms and one of which where we Information Technology students must focus upon is technology. Technopreneurship talks about developing or planning enterprises with the main media which is using the current technology to endorse new innovation to the market. Being a technopreneur requires having good management and leadership skills with innovative and out-of-the box ideas. Unfortunately, I don’t really have these kinds of characteristics. I just simply satisfied of people giving me something to work and not the other way around. It is not really called mediocrity because it is the way I do things. It is the way that I am comfortable of having lightweight responsibilities. If I land in a good job after I graduate, I actually see myself as a junior or senior programmer, a web developer, a network technologist or maybe a mobile developer. But I never really imagined myself of building a business. And honestly speaking, this is also what most of my classmates imagine themselves in the future too. It is rare to see students prepare to venture for their own business during college or after they graduate. But I think this why the Philippine National Information Technology Educators of Davao promoted to have a technopreneurship class in the curriculums of students who are currently taking Bachelor of Science in Information of Technology students to change that mind set of rather having an ambition of being an employee they want us to have a wider perspective in life in order for us to become the employers.
If ever I will have a chance to become a technopreneur. First I will have to have a more business-suited attitude which means I have to eradicate my habit of being tardy and I should really try to practice handling big responsibilities. Second, I have to enhance my creativeness and innovative thinking in order to create saleable ideas. If ever I can accomplish all of this which I really hope I can, I see myself as a future Davaoeño technopreneur. It may take a very long time before an IT company in Davao City progresses but if you will think of it the IT industry in Davao is slowly emerging it will be about time when other businessmen will invest in the IT industry in Davao where as one of the few IT companies in the city we will get the upper hand of getting potential investors. I also see myself as a good boss, honestly, I am not really used to boss around people so as long as they do what I told them to do there will be no more problems. Actually, being a technopreneur is hard especially that we all know that the technology nowadays advances rapidly and you need to be adaptive to this kind of environment. I really hope that I will have the guts to start my own business in the future.
Would you take the same career path as Steve Jobs took? Why or why not?
Steve Jobs started to change the world at a young age. If I were given a chance I would also like to take the same career path as Steve Jobs took. He has proven to the world that his decision, though was coupled with failures, brought him as one of the big guys in the IT industry not just today but also in the future as he continue to innovate the world with his remarkable ideas. Steve Jobs has this extreme dedication on his work that I envy which led him to his success in the first place. This kind of characteristic is what I admire the most about Steve Jobs and what I think that all technopreneurs should have. I want to be like him who made a mark in the IT industry with his innovative ideas. The journey may not be called as a good influence for new technopreneurs for along the road he used his ideas to deceive other people which eventually backfired at him. But this story of Steve Jobs makes me realize that in the world of business is somewhat alike with the jungle. You do not know who you will trust or who you will depend on because the animal of deceit can be lurking around you; waiting for the right moment to devour you at your weakest. Steve Jobs made sacrifices to satisfy his hunger for power which resulted to his inevitable downfall. Unlike him I would never sacrifice anyone in order to attain my desires. Well, sacrifices in life are always expected but trying to manipulate other people in order to have personal satisfaction is not my thing. He may be the kind of person who is always ten steps ahead to most of his competitors during his time in Apple Inc. but he misused this ability by making factions in the company which is the opposite to what he must have done – unite and promote teamwork in the company.
It maybe easy to dream but everybody knows how hard it is to attain success. But for Steve Jobs he attained success with a breeze. But his problem was he was succumbed by power that is why maintaining his success was the challenge for Steve Jobs. The path of Steve Jobs taught me many things, not only in the world of business but also in the life in general. If ever I will have the chance to start my own career I would do my best not to encounter the problems that Steve Jobs had back in his days. I would never be succumbed by power but instead it will try to keep my feet on the ground. I will push my employees to do their best in a way that is not abusive but instead being beneficial for me as their employer and as for them as my employees. It will not be long (hopefully) before I graduate in college I hope that someday I would be successful on what I do and who knows you might be reading the blog of the future Steve Jobs!
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