Assignment no 1

1. What are the factors that contributed to the success and failure of Steve Jobs as a technopreneur?

- In life, there are many chances to grab either in success or in failure, it is on you which path you want to take or you want to grab, whether you will take the success or the failure, or, you want both paths you will take. Many technopreneur nowadays success in their lives. One Example of these technopreneur is Bill Gates where he was the currently wealthiest man in the world. As Bill Gates starts his business, he has nothing, but because of his views and perceptions in life, he cope all his hardships and conquers to the top where he was now belongs. Because of his cleverness, he conquered IBM and Apple. There are some technopreneurs failed to their business, it is because they do a wrong move or path that’s make them failure.

Steve Jobs in his history is a simple man who schooled at Berkeley. His just being simple but he has high ambitions in life by the help of his friend. On his journey as being a technopreneurship, he has his success and failures in it. One of the following factors contributed him on success are his characteristics like the following:

· Being an ambitious man – Being an ambitious man, Steve Jobs is one of the successful men on the field of technopreneurship. On the movie entitled, “Pirates of Silicon Valley” he said that “Information is Power”, he believe that if he the people know the different kind of information, they will not be easily be fooled by someone. Being an ambitious man is very important in the field of technopreneurship. If you will not aim high on your ambitions in life, you have no courage and will to conquer that ambition.

· Being good in Sales Talking – Steve Jobs has the characteristics of being a technopreneur; it is because he is very good in sales talking. As I had watched the movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley”, I noticed that many venture capitalists and invest capital in him, because of that, his Apple Company easily grow. Since he is good in sales talking, many people buy his products. He also gets the mouse of the Xerox Company because of his characteristics.

· Being Hardworking - Being Hardworking is one of the good qualities of being a good technopreneur, it is because being hardworking is very rare to have it these days. Some of the employees are just working in a manner of “buying the time” they just sit down on a chair and wait until the time comes. I can say that one of the factors affecting the success of Steve Jobs is being hardworking because he always makes a way how to achieve his goals even though he is in the state of failure.

· Never lose hope – not to quit in pursuing the dreams to become the world’s richest man, even if you will suffer in failures and struggles at the start, still you need to get up and continue your ambitions to achieve it. You need to have the courage to finish it no matter what it takes. Steve Jobs is a person that never loses hope. At first, they just only selling a “blue box” that can have free phone calls on the world, because of the ambition of him, they came up with a computer a personal computer that can be used by both business and in home, until they was discovered by Mike Markula who invest on him and make Apple Computers Inc. and make it in a big company.

- While Steve Jobs was in his success in life because of the good factors he had, there are also times he was in failure, like he had a unwanted baby with her girlfriend, he also lost his best buddy for a short time who was Steve Wozniak. Some of his employees was also don’t like him. The factors that affects his failure are the following characteristics:

· He was a tolerated man – Being a tolerated man will be more reactive to his decisions in life even if it can go to success or failure in life, it is because what you always think is the better or just we should say it was correct. Things get complicated if a tolerated man will decision, it can suffer a lot hardships if it will fail, it can also affect the people who are near in you. Steve Jobs possesses this kind of attitude, resulting it to harm other people and also his own technopreneurship career. As I watch the movie, he was always being tolerated by his mother and also her girlfriend.

· He was acting weird -- Acting weird sometimes can be useful, it cannot sense your true meanings or intentions. It cannot read your true intentions by other people, but most of the times, acting so weird will also affects the people around us, it can ruined other plans and also by you. I can say that Steve Jobs possesses this kind of characteristics , being weird, it is because, he is very unsustain by his decisions, who do you think a person will make his two products will against by each other, the Macintosh and the Apple II, only Steve Jobs can do that, he actually set rivals for Macintosh and Apple II people, it was the start to his technoprenuership career fails. He also lost his best buddy that was Steve Wozniak, who was against of what he was doing with the company.

2. Being a Short Tempered Person ---This kind of attitude will cause a great destruction or casualties on your way to a success business like in the field of technopreneurship. In this attitude, no one employee will last for you in years, not even in years but in months. If you usually get angry by just a simple problem, you cannot focus on the main problem, causing it to greater or bigger problems, Steve Jobs possesses this kind of attitude what I hate the most. He usually get mad if there will be a personal problems in life, his problems will be bought in the office and many terrible things will happen there, he will act weird at the front of the person who was applying for a job, he will ruin the unfinished design of the programmers he had. Many employees will become angry about him and some will protest against Steve Jobs.

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2. How do you see yourself as a technopreneur?

- Technopreneurship nowadays is the best kind of business will be settled in, it is because, many of the products nowadays focus on new technologies. Many venture capitalist invest their capitals on computers, new gadgets and many more. At first, I don’t know about this kind of business, but when I enrolled in this subject IT Elective (Technopreneurship), I had an idea that in this kind of subject, I will know the different kind of styles and techniques of being a good technopreneur.

As I see myself as a technopreneur, actually, I cannot see, but when I saw the movie, “Pirates of Silicon Valley” I had the idea of what I will do on the next 10-15 years. I can now imagine of what will I do in the near future. If it is in God’s will that I will be a technopreneur, I will do the good techniques and styles like the styles of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Their strategy in the technopreneurship is very clever and very tricky. In the field of Steve Jobs, I would like to inherit his ability in good communication, since I was poor enough in good communicating. Steve Jobs is also good in sales talking which I like the most of him. He was also hardworking in his ambitions. He believes that “Information is power”. As for Bill Gates, who was the currently the wealthiest man in the world, I would like his characteristics as smooth- clever person. As I have watched the video, his cleverness was successful at Steve Jobs. He has also the attitude of being a “sigurista” that was also good in business, in this kind of attitude; you can gain a lot of income if you can fool your customers or investors at a good cost.

As for me, in technopreneurship, we must have the quality of being “risk taker”, because in a business like this, you must risk everything so that you can gain profit with it, you can make your business grow faster and also, if it will success, it can gain more and more employee and produce a high quality of products and services. It can also make you a famous man in the near future like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates experienced in their times until today.

Another quality of being a good technopreneur that I want to inherit of being a technopreneur is being passionate on what are the things he do. It is a big factor if you must have the passion of this kind of business. You must love this kind of business so that you will strive hard for success of your work. Just like Steve Jobs, he has the characteristics of being passionate on his career even though he was sometimes rejected by his capitalist and also whenever he loans for capital in the bank, but still he strive for his ambition, he works hard until his little own company discovered.

I will enter the field of technopreneurship, I want to be observant of what are the things that the people are looking at the new technology, I will observe at different kind of places where there are uncivilized people who did know more about new technologies like the computers. I would go there and find a almost perfect idea of what the things they are needed to. I will also observe the land area of what I am taking for business. I will enter. If cannot gain enough profit for the business, I would rather search for a new location for business that can gain me enough or greater profit.

In business, I must be an open- minded to everyone and too all possible things that will happen like if there will be an incoming vendors or projects who want to invest at me, I will not look the things that can harm my business, but, I will look for the good possibilities that will cause in investing that kind of project. In the history of Apple computers, Steve Jobs looks for another products or add- ons that can help his minicomputer work according to customers wanted it too. He copied the mouse – cursor graphical user interface form Xerox company, since he noticed that it will be more convenient for the users of a computer if there will be a graphical user interface because the time will be lesser in opening a programs and also in can modify your desktop the way you wanted it to. On the side of Bill Gates, he was grateful that time since he has nothing at the time he entered the IBM. He just only buy an operating System form the other company and resells it to IBM. On his cleverness, he reach his richness on his attitude.

I must be also creative on what will I do in my business. Products alone will not be sold even if it is in a high quality. You must know how to run your business the way the people will go and buy the different kind of your products. You must have the “charisma” like Steve Jobs had. Even Steve Jobs fails, he has the face to face his customers to communicate with them.

In being a good technopreneur, you must also communicate other technopreneurs. They can help you in times you had some problems in your business, they can be your mentor of what will you do in order to make your business grow. According to Bill Gates, “Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning”. Therefore, technopreneurs may work hand in hand with other technopreneurs. As they say, two heads are better than one. Partnership will contribute to the growth and success of the business.

Lastly, if I am a technopreneur someday, I would hire my own countrymen rather to hire for outer space, I mean the form the other country, It is because, you can help your nation form being one of the most people who are unemployed in the whole world. If you have a business, you will create employees, it will lessen the population that is unemployed. Create employees that are Filipinos, not the foreigners so that you can understand each other.

Reference: http://www.expertsonline.com/technopreneur.aspx/

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3. Would you take the same career path that Steve Jobs took? Why or why not?

Taking up a career of the technopreneurship business is quiet hard for me to imagine, but now, I have the plan to become a technopreneur someday it is because of what I saw about the movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley” and also, the things I learned from my facilitator. I saw many technopreneur nowadays succeed in their career, it is because it is easy to sell new products that was more focused on new technologies. Steve Jobs is one of the most well-known technopreneur nowadays. If I am taking up the career of being a technopreneur, there is a possibility that I would take the same career path as Steve Jobs took, however there are some factors that I would not take up like Steve Jobs do, let me share some sort of experiences that Steve Jobs do so that I could explain very well the factors that affects me why there are some possibilities that I would not like to take up like Steve Jobs.

“The Steve Jobs bio, and the story of the life of a man whose career would rebound more times than many critics thought possible, began in San Francisco, California on February 24, 1955. Born to an unwed American mother and a Syrian father, Jobs was put up for adoption by his parents the week after his arrival in this world. Taken in by Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, California, Jobs dislikes the term “adoptive parents” and considers Paul and Clara the only parents he ever had.

During high school, Jobs was a regular attendee at evening lectures at Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto, California, and even managed to get himself hired as a summer employee for the company. It was there that he would meet his future Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. After graduating from high school, Jobs enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but dropped out after just one semester. He did, however, continue to audit classes for non-credit. In 1974, Jobs returned to California, where he founded the Homebrew Computer Club with former HP colleague Wozniak. From there, he took a job with Atari, a computer game manufacturer, where he worked as a technician.

However, the Steve Jobs bio wasn’t quite ready to settle into the working world just yet. With Daniel Kottke, a friend from Reed College, and also later the first Apple employee, Jobs decided to hit the road and backpack around India. When he returned, he was barely recognizable to his friends. His head was shaved and he was wearing traditional Indian clothing. However, the Jobs inside was the same as the man who had left. He returned to his job at Atari, where he again impressed his bosses by drastically reducing the number of chips in their machines.

Jobs was 21 years old when his life began to take a significant turn. It was then that he saw a computer that Wozniak had designed for his own personal use. Jobs was so impressed with the product that he convinced Wozniak to market the computer, with his help of course. On April 1, 1976, Apple Computer Co. was founded, with Jobs and Wozniak as partners. Initially, their goal was to sell just printed circuit boards, but they wound up creating wholly assembled personal computers. The first personal computer the pair introduced was Apple I, which sold for US$666.66. Apple II was introduced the next year, and both were huge industry successes. The 1984 Apple Macintosh was equally as revolutionary.

In 1986, Jobs was fired from the company he had helped found. He began to work on another computer company, NeXT Computer, but never achieved the same success with it as he had with Apple. In the meantime, Apple was suffering. It wasn’t until Jobs was brought back to the company in 1996 that he began to turn things around. While returning Apple to a profitable state, Jobs earned the Guinness World Records listing for the “Lowest Paid Chief Executive Officer,” with his annual salary of US$1.

Today, as Apple continues to reign as one of the most innovative and dominant computer companies in the industry, the Steve Jobs bio stands out for its determination and commitment in seeing goals through.”-- http://www.evancarmichael.com/Famous-Entrepreneurs/568/Steve-Jobs-Bio.html

“Initially, the two had a productive and friendly working relationship. It was under Sculley and Jobs that the wildly successful Macintosh computer – the first with a graphical user interface – was released. So, too, did the company embark on a successful line of advertisements following in the footsteps of George Orwell’s “1984.” However, as industry-wide sales began to plummet towards the end of 1984, the relationship between Sculley and Jobs became strained.

Under Steve Jobs, Apple had introduced three revolutionary personal computers. But, in one fell swoop, at the direction of Sculley, Jobs was relieved of all of his duties as head of the Macintosh division of the company. As a result, Jobs decided to sell all but one of his shares in Apple. While Jobs was the very public face behind the company, few could have predicted what would come next for Apple without him.

Without its original founder at its helm, the company began to suffer, particularly when it came to innovation. Jobs had transformed the company from a niche manufacturer of personal computers to one at the forefront of all that is new and exciting in the consumer electronics industry. So rapid was the company’s deterioration that in 1997, the board of directors decided to bring Jobs back on board. In 2000, he was fully reinstated, moving from Interim CEO to CEO.

Back with his brainchild, Jobs set out to reinvent the company. He redesigned the physical shape and colour of the Apple PC, which immediately began to lift sales. From there, he began to fix the long term direction of Apple. From being a pioneer in the wireless industry, to producing a music player, to launching a web-based music store, Jobs took the risks he needed to put Apple back on track.

It has had its ups and downs, but under Steve Jobs, Apple has managed to get it right enough times than not to come out on top. Though a recent cancer scare has caused many to question his current health, along with that of the entire company, Jobs shows no signs of stepping down anytime soon.” -- http://www.evancarmichael.com/Famous-Entrepreneurs/568/Steve-Jobs-Apple.html

Based on the article that I had read, I would take up the same path as Steve Jobs took. Even though, he has failures in his career, but he manages it to return of what he had in his past success career. In life, we could not be on success every time, there will be possibility that we fail, but in case of that certain failure, we will be much more failure if we would not change our failures, that’s we will called the true “failure” for some other technopreneurs, If they failed, they usually not able to go under the things, but on Steve Jobs, he conquer his failure by doing his failure to success, Apple will not be a good company without Steve Jobs.

Resource: http://www.evancarmichael.com/Famous-Entrepreneurs/568/Steve-Jobs-Bio.html

http://www.evancarmichael.com/Famous-Entrepreneurs/568/Steve-Jobs-Apple.html