Pirates of the Silicon Valley...

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

                As we people had our own minds, we start to formulate dreams and goals in our life. Upon making dreams and goals in life to be true, it’s a choice that depends on us. It could be either you will continue and do your best to achieve it or just leave it in your mind and do nothing with it. As a person chooses the first one, there are no assurances that he will be successful in attaining in what he wants, in what he needs. There are many instances that may come in our way that maybe the reason of our downfall or maybe the reason of our way to success. Therefore, there are no assurances in life. Even a successful person may be fail later or sooner as these natural happenings hits.

                Talking about failure, there are many factors why people hit with this kind of instances. It could be for the reason that there are things that is not destined for you to achieve. Like choosing a field you want to be successful. Whatever you do or how much effort you put on it, you end up failing because it’s not really your line or it’s not the thing that is meant for you. Another factor of failure is that there’s a problem within the person itself. There are times that a person commits some mistakes regarding with his actions or his decisions. Mistake is an inevitable thing. It’s natural in person’s life. Even the great people with brilliant minds and the richest people in the world could have mistakes. Like what happened in the known person in the world, Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs is known as the founder of Apple Company. He’s one of the people who presented successfully a computer during his time. He’s even more powerful and famous way back in his time. But, in just one snap, the fame and the things he had built was gone with his hands. Why these things happened to him?

               

Watching the Pirates of the Silicon Valley made me understand who is Steve Jobs and what he have achieve in his life. I also discover how great he is as a technopreneur and how he have come so far with his brilliant mind and his personality. This movie made me know what steps and techniques that he used to reach his goals in life. I also discovered and somehow witness his downfall in times the success he have in his own hands. But before I revealed why and how he end up failure, let me have my insights regarding how great he is. Actually, he’s just a normal person who has goals in life which was a product of his brilliant mind. As what Steve Wozniak said, Steve Jobs sees things differently. He sees power in the advantages he had. As he and Wozniak start their business, he was really a competitive person. One of the great things he has is his determination to push to something. Even though they have to get a loan to support in making a computer, he was really eager to sustain what they had started. He’s also good in sales talking in customers to let them buy their product and then, that’s the key in their success. He’s good in convincing people just to gain things for the betterment of their business. I can really say that the he’s an effective technopreneur. He was even then one of the cover of Time and Fortune magazine naming him as the America’s Risk Taker. This only proves that he’s on the peak of his success. He’s also a good thinker in terms of Technopreneurship. When the Xerox Company developed graphic interface and mouse for a computer unit, He was positive to convince them to have this invention for the betterment of Apple. As a result, he got what he wants and developed Lisa as well as the Macintosh. As Bill Gates known the new things that Apple Company has, that’s the start of the downfall of Steve Jobs.

                The success of Steve Jobs was fast as well as the failure. For me, there are two things that have big contribution of Steve’s failure as a technopreneur. Steve has great personality as a technopreneur. As what I said earlier, the success of Steve was fast which only signifies who great he is in the world of technopreneurship. But, there’s a part of him is very disturbing and I think it’s one of the factors why he fails. He’s attitude is unidentified. Me as a viewer, find him as a person who has attitude problems. I don’t understand why he has sudden mood swings which have a bad effect not only for him but also for the people around him. I called it as a mood swings due to the reason that sometimes he’s okay then suddenly changes. As his mood changes, he became rude to his team in the company. Like what happened in the movie, when his girlfriend talked to him about their baby, he was just disgusted and just be so rude to everyone. So how this affected him as a technopreneur? Being a leader, a manager, or any title in a company must possess good character. It’s good to have efficient skills like sales talking, making ideas, or dealing with computer technologies but without a good attitude still matters especially if you work with a group of people. If you and your people don’t have good relationship with each other, attaining the success you want is difficult. Your people may find you so rude and end up resigning in the company like what happened to Steve Wozniak. He don’t understand why Jobs acts like differently so he decided to resign in his job because he can’t take it anymore. If all of he’s men were like Wozniak, then no one will work to Steve because they may find their boss as a crazy person who have complicated attitude and it’s very difficult to work with these kind of people.

                “Trust, Big word”. That’s one of the movie lines that were said by Sarah Geronimo, a Philippine singer/actress. So what’s the catch in saying this? This one big word is one of the reasons why Steve fails as a technopreneur. As he made his step into the peak of success and being known, there’s a person also who seek him as an enemy who want to achieve the success as what Steve Jobs have. This person was Bill Gates. Along with the fast expansion of the Apple Company as his name was known in the world, there’s a person who also made his way to compete the world of technopreneurship. Actually, at first, no one knows who is Bill Gates. He’s a person who is also fascinated to computers and wanted to be successful in his passion. He and his friend was form a group called Microsoft. The start of their boosting career happened when they were able to sell the DOS, an operating system, in the IBM which was not their own. Bill was really good in talking that made the IBM to approve in their proposal. Even though they don’t have the operating system he said in the IBM, he just grabs the opportunity he sought. How did they pass through this? Well, they were able to present an operating system in the IBM through buying an operating to some guy which worth 50000 dollars. As they have the capability to put their own and stand their business align from the other competitive companies, he began to step his way into Steve Jobs territory, the Apple Company. For me, it’s a big mistake to make Microsoft guys steps their feet in the Apple Company. Words are so powerful and because of words, it can change anything. As Bill made a talk to Steve, it gave him an opportunity. Knowing how desperate Bill is, he took this opportunity and did everything he can to take over the success that Steve had. This thing that had done by Bill can be considered as betrayal. Steve trusted Bill without considering things. Steve must consider that the world of business is a war, a competition. Second, don’t trust any stranger. Third, think twice, thrice, and many times before deciding things. Steve must know that even Bill is like a saint, offering help for him, he must consider that after all, Bill is still a technopreneur same as him who is competitive to achieve success. Therefore, the main factor of his failure is his self. Bill Gates is just a part of it. It’s natural for a competitive technopreneur to made his way to success and do everything he could to attain it.

                “Good artist copy, great artist steal”. These are the words that were said by Steve Jobs and eventually the words that failed him as a technopreneur. As I watch this movie, I realize that this is an eye opener to everyone not only for the future technopreneurs but for everyone who are involved in the business world. Attitude and intelligence to weigh things are the two factors that can either bring you to the zenith of success and to the terrible failure. I’m against to the idea of the quoted words above. You can achieve success through making your own instead of stealing and copying things. But, what’s the real point in the thought above is the reality about the world of business. Business is still business and it’s a competitive world. Your faith is like a toss of coin. It has two faces which have success and failure and it really needs luck and great determination. So, even you’re in the top and in the peak of your success, competition doesn’t stop there. There are many competitive people who will do anything just to achieve what you have so it’s better to put up your walls rather than being comfortable in your place.

How do you see yourself as a technopreneur? 

                There are no assurances in the future. We don’t know what it will be and how our careers will be going in the future. We cannot check it even have a peek of it. People have dream careers and just hope that these goals will be smoothly followed based on what we are aiming. As these hopes we were forming just to be positive in our goals in life, there’s always a question that will be put into mind. This question signifies doubts. “Would I be a successful person in the field I choose or I am into?” It’s a question that gives worries to the people out there who were aiming success within their chosen field. This question will be followed by how to make it possible and what steps will be done to make the chance be in the positive side. These questions are also playing in mind whenever I have time to think over things like this kind of matter. I belong to this people who really have questions what will be the future and how our life will be going soon as we receive our diplomas and will enter the real battle ground.

               

As an IT student like me, I have a dream career also. I want to get a job that is really related in the course where I consume my energy, blood and sweat. I want to be a successful person in the field that I chose. Well, before the subject Technopreneurship was introduced to me, I just have the mindset to have IT related jobs. I don’t have specific job that I like or I want to have as long that it’s related to the course I’m taking right now. But when I enrolled this subject and discover what’s in the Technopreneurship, I was inspired and have labels on the job I want to have soon and it’s to become a boss someday. A boss in my own company I created. Be a successful technopreneur someday. My determination to continue the goals that I built grows more as I was inspired after watching a movie. This movie maybe boring for those people who doesn’t care about how the devices we use in our daily life was made. But for me, I find it fun though there are times that I can’t understand what the characters are talking about since they talk so fast. By the way, this movie is entitled Pirates of the Silicon Valley. As I mentioned earlier, it was a story not only focusing to Steve Jobs but also to Bill Gates. It was a story about the success and failure and how both of them achieve those. I think the highlight of the story is their experience as a technopreneurs including the way how they achieve their success and how failures come into their lives. If you don’t know who these two people are, well you must watch the movie. The Windows computers and the Apple products like phones and laptops are the product of the brilliant minds by Steve and Bill. Each of them has different kind of story as they achieve their success. They undergo ups and downs before their name was known and became one of the richest people in the world. But, who will expect that these two great people treat each other as a stranger? How this two were related? As what I mentioned earlier, this two great people have connection to each other. It’s not the feelings like something fishy but they have connection in the sense that the two of them are the reasons of their individual success and also their failures. They affect their careers in both ways based in the movie I watched.

                I’m dreaming to be like the two great people I mentioned. They were one of the successful technopreneurs and until now, they were known of what they achieved. As what others said, it’s free to have dreams so why not make it into a higher level? The achievement of the two may sounds impossible to achieve like me but I want to be successful like them. Answering the question how I look myself as a technopreneur, I would say that I’m a positive technopreneur but still not enough to be called as a successful since I’m still in the process of learning and exploring things regarding to technopreneurship. But, looking forward in the future, I will be a competitive technopreneur who will be successful in my own way. I’m aware that being Steve and Bill is very different from the reality but even if I’m not like what they used to, I will be successful technopreneur someday though it will take more time that what they experienced. I may not be like Steve whose career boost like a lightning, I will make a way that I will be a successful too even if it’s like a turtle’s movement on its progress. I want also to see myself as a technopreneur who will have innovations which has a sense and for the welfare of people. I’m not really good in thinking new and unique ideas and making those but I will see it through that it will follow the purpose that I made which will be a helpful one in the community. I’m aware also that in a career, fate has two faces which are success and failure. I know that there will be a big possibility that I may experience the taste of failure. There’s no chance that failure may come, however I will be a type of technopreneur that won’t easily give up. Like what Steve did, though he was failed at first, he still find ways to come back in his company he made and achieve the success again. I will become also as a technopreneur that will push and work hard until I will be a successful one like what Bill did. I will not do the thing like he did to Steve but I will do the same thing he did which is being persevere. Being determined on what we do and what we believe is one of the key to attain the target success we set.

                Being the ideal technopreneur I want to be someday is not easy. Being a technopreneur is not easy. Technopreneurship is still business and when it comes to this matter everything is like a war. Before achieving the success I want, I have to be a skilled technopreneur to achieve it. It’s complicated in the sense that you must have the skills to make the people around you believes you and buy what you were presenting. It’s true that you will find money in technopreneurship. Even ideas could turn into money but it’s not easy. It involves talking and convincing. It involves talking lies which will make your customer “wow”. You must also consider that customers will find much better things he wants. Being a technopreneur is like a contestant who competes to others and aiming the price, the golden “yes” of the customer.  As what I said earlier, I’m still in the process of learning to be an effective technopreneur. So, to be the ideal technopreneur I want to be, I must learn how to make it possible though no one’s perfect. I guess, the first step is to have a mindset which will lead me to think things in the line of technopreneurship. I’m lucky that in our subject technopreneurship, I learn that there is more effective mindset for a student like me. I think it’s a big help to guide student like me. Alternative mindset based in the previous meeting is a kind of mindset which has a goal not to settle only to be an employee but to be an employer and I guess, it’s a good start to have this kind of mindset at the early stage. Another thing that may help to be skilled technopreneur is to enhance my skill in talking people. A technopreneur must have a thick face and it’s one of the ability that can make you successful. The SEED which was presented also in the class by our facilitator is a big help to be a technopreneur. Everything that I learned from the class was really applicable to be an efficient technopreneur.

                Actually, there are many things that I must improve into myself before to be the ideal technopreneur that I wanted to be. There are no assurance also that someday, I will be a successful technopreneur or even to be a technopreneur someday. But as what I said, future cannot be tell by anyone. It’s clueless, mysterious which we commonly afraid of. We are worried for it and were afraid to make a move knowing that failure may come to us that will cause our depression and sorrows. But before over thinking things, we must be like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates who tried and tried until they got the success they have right now. All we must have to do is to think positively and give our best with it. We must also apply the things we learn that we think that it will be a big help for our career soon. We don’t know that the thing we aren't expecting is the one will lead us to success.        

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

                A best example of a great technopreneur is Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. They are the people who presented the new face of computer way back in their times. They were the one who introduces Macintosh and Windows who are still living in our today’s generation especially the Windows. But between these two great people, Steve Jobs is the first person whose name became famous and who achieve the success in the world of technopreneurship. Steve was even became the cover of the great magazines such as Time and Fortune magazine. To be their cover and to be entitled as the America’s Risk Taker is a positive thing for a person which only indicates that he is a very great man in their time and was very famous which catches the attention of the world. He’s really an effective technopreneur in their time then, even though the word technopreneurship was not yet made.

               

                  The life of Steve Job is very a colorful one and full of adventure. Watching the movie entitled Pirates of the Silicon Valley let me know not only the life of Steve but also to know how an ideal technopreneur must be. Steve as a technopreneur was a failure at first but he was able to come back with the company he built in his time, the Apple Company. If you’re a person who didn’t know yet about Steve Jobs, you may be so amused in him right now discovering how great he is. But how did Steve Jobs became a great technopreneur? First, he was just a person who perceives things differently. From what I understand of he’s personality, he’s a futuristic person. He calculates things and he’s positive for it that it will happen and it will fall into places as what he expected. He’s also a competitive person who has clear goals in life. Aside from being a successful man in the field of technology specifically in computer technology, he wants to wipe off the IBM from its spot which is one of the top companies in terms of technology. I guess, its one thing that motivates him to push until he taste the success he wanted. Since he have the good qualities of being a technopreneur, he was able to find ways to sell the computer that they made with his friend whose name is also Steve. They were friends then so they were great partners as their business was still starting up. Things were falling into the right place and many opportunities came into their lives as a technopreneurs. Their careers boost up rapidly and as what Steve Wozniak said, it was really surprising how it happen so swiftly.

                But, there were also some changes within the self of Steve Jobs. Actually, based in the movie, he acts differently. The changes are not really a big change since he has this kind of attitude in the first part of the movie. He has some attitude problems like he can’t control his emotion and what I observed is that he also doesn't understand himself. I’m so confuse regarding with his attitude showing great mood swings which also affects the people around him. This attitude affected him so much in the sense that his focus was disturbed. As the another guy enter his life and he let it ruin his mind, the threat of being a failure as a tecnhopreneur approached but he didn't notice it due to the fact that he trust this person. This person was Bill Gates who is one of the richest people in the world in this present time. He was one of the reasons why Steve Jobs failed. He was quite wise and knows how to deal people like Steve and he was successful to earn the trust of Steve and that was happened of Steve’s failure as a technopreneur. After Steve knew that Bill used the invented computer that he have and innovated greater than what he had expect, Steve was fired by the president of the Apple Company. Later on, as years goes by, Steve goes back in the company he built and part of this company was owned by his enemy before, Bill Gates. Based in the ending part of the movie, Steve and Bill’s relationship was good. They were in good terms that nothing happened and he looks as Bill as his big brother as what the character of Wozniak said who was one of the narrators in the movie. I could say that even though he failed first, at least he was able to make his way again in the Apple Company as a technopreneur.

                The path of Steve was very bumpy before he reached again the success. As an IT student, I was really amazed in how he was great as a technopreneur. I want to be a successful technopreneur soon and I know this dream is very difficult to achieve. Like what Steve had achieved, I want it too. If you ask me if I will choose the same career path of Steve Jobs, yes I want too. As what I said, I want to be successful technopreneur like him. I don’t actually consider his failure as bad thing for him. He was successful then things turn into failure and became a mess but the good thing is that he learns from it. So why I choose the same path that Steve took? Actually, being a technopreneur is not easy. I find this kind of career as a difficult one since you’re always in the battlefield. It’s a competition that requires many things which has great combinations to be able to a competitive one as well as to be an efficient technopreneur. It needs courage to push something, to do things accordingly into your plans. It needs a positive aura to be able to address problems. It needs great skills as a technopreneur. You must have a great mind to think new ideas, weigh things and provide better and quick solutions to a problem. You must also have the good attitude to have good relationship between you and your team. You must also have the skill of being a good communicator between you and the customers. Lastly, you must be a competitive person to stand and survive in this kind of field. But, despite from these requirements, I find this career as an exciting and challenging. One of my reasons is that I’m taking up an IT course currently and second, I want to help also not only in my family but for the people where I belong. I like to see the future that the place where I live will be a prosperous community.

                I know that being like him as a technopreneur is not easy. As what I said, it needs a lot of efforts and requirements. Being a technopreneur is not an easy path to ride on but I’m sure that even the way of it is full of humps, and ups and downs, it’s will be cool and the nice joyride that I would take. I may have the fears right now that there are possibilities that I will end up in failing, I’m developing now my positive side and start to believe that success will be there soon as I will continue and will possess great determination to achieve that path that I want to. I may not have the complete requirements to be an effective technopreneur but I will make a way that I will achieve those. I will develop what I am lacking and always seek improvement to myself as a technopreneur.

                Knowing the life of Steve Jobs was an inspiring thing that happened to me. I learn important things with regards to technopreneurship and also with human’s life. Success and failure are like twins. There are some instances that we must undergo great hardships and failures before to step the room of success. That makes our lives colorful like a rainbow in the sky. Everyone commits mistake and experienced failure like what Steve Jobs did. It’s part of people’s life and a nature. Meaning, it’s inevitable. But, even though this failure makes you depress or makes you feel that you’re the most person who is very unfortunate in life, it’s the best teacher that we have. There are things in life that we learned not in the four corners in our classrooms and even in the power of Mr. Google. There are times that we learned from our failures and mistakes and it could be the best learning we have in our entire life. Life could be boring if all of us will be successful always, without experiencing complications and hardships. We can’t appreciate life without having differences and conflicts. It’s like a food without seasonings and pork where you can find just a simple soup only with a blank taste.  Life must be adventurous and exciting and it will be done through the challenges we will face soon. It’s like a spicy food that even though our tongue may hurt at first, at least you were able to surpass and got a price of satisfaction with it.