Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple is often seen as one
of the most iconic leaders of the century, as well as a pioneer who revolutionized
the usage of personal computers. Like all leaders, they all start someplace
small. For this week’s module, we watched a short documentary on Job’s earlier
days when he founded NeXT Incorporated. The documentary mainly focused on the
first couple days when the company was founded.
One of the most noticeable thing throughout the
documentary was that Steve Jobs had a clear vision on where he’d like NeXt to
be rather than focusing too much on the details on how to get there. Placing
myself in the scenario, I personally find Job’s ideas to be interesting, and I believe
the key here is motivation. As a former business student, we’ve mainly been
taught to find the single right plan to achieve our goals. To do this, we “branch
out” and focus on the small details of the organization which includes anywhere
from marketing to budgeting ideas. From an honest standpoint, these details are
often times pretty boring and can sometimes lead to confusion, as well as
people to go off track.
On
the contrary, Steve Jobs focused on the possibilities for his company. For this
case, Jobs brought awareness to employees that college and higher education
students are starting to rely on computers for learning opportunities. To
explain, Jobs talked about simulated learning environments: where it allows
something that’s intangible (such as a linear accelerator for physics students)
to be tangible, as well as providing a more cost-efficient option for both
students and faculty (as an example, he mentioned a five-million-dollar DNA
Laboratory). To motivate his employees even more, Jobs acknowledged his employees’
skills and passion on technology. He states a couple times throughout the
documentary that he wants people to put their “hearts” to their products (Nathan,
1986).
Perhaps
the most capturing moment of the documentary was when Jobs talked about putting
some “heart” into their work. While I currently work at a non-profit organization,
I can refer and related to Job’s approaches with NeXT Inc. Prior to working at
my current position, I was a student from the same university that I currently
work for. While my advisors provided me some assistance throughout my degree,
they were almost always rushing: causing me to feel lost and hesitant to ask
for further assistance. Now an advisor, I knew that I had the ability to make
things happen. Since day one of my job, my goal was to ensure that students do
not have the same experiences as I did a few years ago. To do this, I try to
not only provide the resources to students, but I try to know each and every
one of them. Despite my experiences with my past advisors, I overall (and still
do!) had an amazing experience with the university. To enrich my advisement, I
often times share experiences and tips. A few months into my job, I started to
notice a difference at the campus. More people were contacting me for
assistance, and some of us have established a closer relationship: where we
engage in small side conversations.
References:
Nathan,
J. (1986). Entrepreneur [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=255&v=loQhufxiorM
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