Reading Reflection No. 3

For the third and final reading reflection, I chose the biography one of the more influential people of my generation, Steve Jobs. Walter Isaacson does a terrific job outlining the entirety of his life.

1) The thing that surprised me the most was how personally invested Jobs was in his products and if somebody had a critic to make about one he took personal offense to that. What I admire most about Jobs is his determination even in the face of failure which relates well to the exercise I just completed on facing failure and growing from it. It was difficult to find something that I least admired but I would say that some of his employees and contemporaries viewed him as somewhat childish at times and some even calling a "a**hole". Jobs did face failure at times as most great innovators did, and as I said that is thing I admired a lot about him and that he remained always heavily invested and hands on despite some shortcomings and that he persisted regardless of the outcome of his products.

2) The core competencies that stood out are the obvious ones for someone such as Jobs; intelligence, hard-working, dedicated, persistent, etc. What differentiated him for me from some other large business executives was that he was there through it all, not simply just overseeing the company.

3) The whole battle with Google over the Android dispute was rather confusing to me. I understand it was a large competitor, but I never understood his grounds or reasoning for picking that fight.

4) I would start by asking Steve Jobs what his biggest regret was in all of his endeavors and then I would ask him what his greatest accomplishment was both in his personal and professional life.

5) I think the obvious answer to Jobs' view on hard work would be not only is it essential but it is the framework for being successful at anything you do, and I would completely agree. Without hard rock, no matter how smart or creative you are it will be difficult to succeed in any of your endeavors.