THE PIRATES OF THE SILICON VALLEY

The Pirates of the Silicon Valley, brief summary:

This movie showed the progression of the computer since the 1970’s. It also shows the competition between IBM. Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs. The movie gives a real life perspective of the struggles they faced in their personal lives and the struggles they went through within their companies. Jobs started constructing computers with his partner, Wozniak, in a small garage, while Gates began building computer software in a motel warehouse. Jobs became more successful than Gates in the beginning when he created the Apple Company and was making new computers almost every year. Although Steve Jobs had great marketing skills, he treated his employees horrible. They worked extremely long hours and when he got mad, he would take it out on them. Gates was a lot more laid back with his employees. Throughout the movie Gates and Jobs tried their hardest to make their companies better than the others. Apple was more focused on creating the computers themselves and Microsoft was eager to design the actual software and hard drives that were being put into the computers. At one point in the movie Bill Gates saw what Jobs’ was doing and wanted to make his prototype his own. He convinced Steve Jobs to let him work for Apple only later to find out that Gates stole the computer information and redesigned it to create his own computer and sell it to other marketers. After stealing Job’s ideas, Bill Gates became one of the richest men in the world. At one point in the career of Apple, Steve Jobs was fired only to return a few years later with an attitude adjustment. In the end, both companies became very successful but neither were able to gain each others full trust and merge into one large company.

The Pirates of Silicon Valley is a flick about the rivalry between Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computers, and Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft. The movie draws out the historical development of these two large computer companies, from the time when Bill Gates and Steve Jobs’ college days to 1985, in moving pictures using old cinematography. It is an enlightening depiction of the evolution of a true phenomenon, the age of personal computers. The movie also emphasized the negative qualities of the two gentlemen that are now having big names worldwide. Despite of the unenthusiastic attitude of Steve Jobs to his team and co-founders, he still managed to uplift and give a renowned recognition of the Apple Company. On the other hand, Bill Gates also tried to put everyone down who are in the same business even though Microsoft at first was an underdog. Still, he survived and also made Microsoft as a threatening counterpart to Apple. Moreover, the movie highlighted on how Apple grabbed the idea of the Graphic User Interface from Xerox, how Microsoft purchased the first Disk Operating System from an underground programmer, and how Bill Gates developed Windows behind Steve Jobs’ back. For these reasons, the revolutionaries were depicted by the title movie itself as the Pirates of Silicon Valley. Through this, they become the two richest men in the world. What was really amazing about the film was that the two contenders actually worked together until Steve Jobs realized that Bill Gates developed Windows using the software that Apple had programmed for their computers.

I was wrong with my assumptions with the movie. The movie was all about hard work I think, and not to let money and power go to your head. Bill Gates worked hard and Steve Jobs worked hard. But when Apple became something, Steve Jobs let it went to his head. Eventually he was fired before he learned his lesson. To end this overview of the movie, even though it didn’t turn out to be the way I expected it to be, the movie was great. It is inspiring and informative in some weird way. Informative in a way that I can relate to the terminologies, and I’m also familiar with the scenarios of the movie. I liked this movie a lot because it was very informative but also very interesting. It was inspirational to see two different companies that started out as nothing become something so big. Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were incredibly intelligent people who had their own strengths and weaknesses. Though they were great marketers, I don’t think I would be able to work for either of them. Steve Jobs treated his employees so cruelly while Bill Gates was so brilliant he might be hard to keep up with. Steve Jobs took more risks and developed things more quickly while Bill Gates took his time and in the long run came out ahead. I think they should make a sequel to this movie and show how much farther computers have come today. I was really surprised by this movie. If that is how Steve Jobs and Bill Gates really were, I would have never have imagined. I think of those two very successful people as being more professional than that, their actions they displayed in the movie just seemed ruthless. They did whatever they could to be ahead. Their motto was “good artists copies, great artists steal.” This movie really gave me insight to who the real revolutionaries were, not the people that got credit for it. Like I never knew Xerox came up with the mouse and graphic interface. Steve Jobs stole it from them, and then Bill Gates stole it from Steve. For how awkward this movie made Bill Gates seem, I am really surprised he was so able to talk people into doing things and believing him. This movie made the other computer companies seem really stupid. Like when the one executive said what would ordinary people do with computers? Or when IBM said the profits are in the computers themselves, not the operating systems. If they only knew then what they know now. 

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

Who is Steve Jobs anyway? Steven Paul Jobs was born on 24 February 1955 in San Francisco, California, to students Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Schieble who were unmarried at the time and gave him up for adoption. He was taken in by a working class couple, Paul and Clara Jobs, and grew up with them in Mountain View, California. Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs is an American business magnate and inventor. He is well-known for being the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple. Steve Jobs was a college dropout when he teamed up with Steve Wozniak and others, they designed, developed, and marketed personal computers assembled in Jobs' garage. That was the beginning of Apple Computers, which revolutionized the computing industry and made Jobs a multi-millionaire before he was 30 years old. He was among the first to see the commercial potential of the mouse-driven graphical user interface which led to the creation of the Macintosh. Steve Jobs' history in business has contributed much to the symbolic image of the idiosyncratic, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of design and understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. His work driving forward the development of products that are both functional and elegant.
Steve Jobs once said: “I want to put a dent in the universe,” – an inspiring quotation he said from the movie. This indicates his intention to be in the frontier of technopreneurs. Making big amounts of money while giving the best he can give to his costumers.

Who is Bill Gates? Bill Gates was born on 1955 in Seattle, Washington to a prominent family. During prep school, he met Paul Allen, who would become his partner and co-founder at Microsoft. In 1973, he enrolled at Harvard College where he met Steve Ballmer, who would also become his future business partner at Microsoft. In 1975, Gates and Allen began operating under the name of Micro-Soft while working on a software for the MITS Altair 8800. The company was officially registered the next year and Gates never graduated from Harvard. Perhaps the defining moment of Microsoft and Gates' history was his approach in 1980 to IBM to offer them an operating system for their upcoming IBM PC. Gates made a series of risky yet crucial decisions, like offering them someone else's software, and asking to retain the license over the software, which wasn't customary at the time. Both decisions proved to be accurate as DOS became one of the most important operating systems of the time, and software licenses became the prevalent form of software distribution, turning Microsoft into a key player in the IT industry. But Microsoft's biggest claim to fame came years later with the release of the Windows software. Despite being largely similar to the Apple operating system, Windows availability to different computer manufacturers turned the software into the most used operating system in the world and Microsoft into the largest computer software company, while making Gates one of the wealthiest persons in the world.. Despite Gates' success and the popularity of Microsoft, he has been often criticized by his business practices, which have been labeled as monopolistic and non-creative. Still, Windows continues to thrive and Gates has topped the Forbes list of wealthiest men in the world for years and years. Since 2008, Gates stepped down from his full-time job at Microsoft and dedicates most of his time now to philanthropic ventures.

Back on track to the question, for me, these are the factors for Steve Jobs’ success: First is faith. Steve Jobs didn’t always know what he was doing in his life. He dropout of college wherein fact his parents spend their entire life savings just to admit him on college. Many gave up on him and had little faith in his abilities. But, Steve Jobs didn’t give up on himself. He continued pursuing avenues that he found interesting, trusting that in the end it would be more meaningful and even perhaps useful. He soon learned that everything in his life, even the most terrible things, seem to happen for a reason and he is now able to place a certain amount of trust in the uncontrollable. I remembered a piece of his speech he delivered at Stanford University way back on 2005, here it goes; “You can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future”. Passion. Steve Jobs(2005) once said that “You’ve got to find what you love.” It wasn’t only for money that he strived for his business to progress, but also it was really his passion. He doesn’t do those things because he is pressured to do it, but it was different to a passionate man. He does those things because he loved it. He worked passionately and he didn’t notice that his business was growing. His passion for work was one big factor for his success. Third is courage. Steve Jobs has the guts and courage to maintain his respectable icon. He dared to challenge the challenging markets and sailed the stormy seas onto his success. Knowledge. To start a small-scale business, it is a prerequisite that a person must know the nature and concerns of the business. The person must be knowledgeable in the field that the business is in; in Steve Jobs case, technology and programming (although most of the work was done by his friend and business partner Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs was also well-acquainted with electronics and programming). If a person who starts a business is knowledgeable, and he/she becomes the manger, he/she will not be fooled if one of the employees is making a bogus business. In this way, the person can also impart his knowledge to his/her employees, and in turn it will make the business progressive, like what happened to Steve Jobs’ Macintosh and the Apple Series. Fifth is risk taker. Steve Jobs didn’t turn his back on every challenge thrown at him. He even beautifully surpassed it with ease. His got an attitude of aesthetics wherein he wants all his creations to be aesthetic and with beauty and art.
Sixth is innovation. Steve Jobs is concerning himself with the next big thing. Personally meeting with suppliers and suppliers’ suppliers, Jobs made it his top priority to keep on top of the next frontier. He wants innovation with his works and be the first in the market with new and exciting technologies. Perseverance. It is also evident that, throughout Steve Jobs’ journey to success, he had the quality of being perseverant. He burnt almost a dozen or even a hundred midnight candles just to make business plans and also speeches on how to persuade his clients. For me, this is an important factor that drove Steve Jobs to his success.

Seventh is vision. An open mind and the ability to put new twists on old techniques was one of the key distinguishing factors between Jobs and his competitors. From cute and utilitarian ads to those that appealed to counterculture rebellion, Jobs’ vision was integrated into every aspect of the company’s strategy. If you dreamed of changing the world, then Jobs was out to prove that you needed an Apple computer to do it

Connections and Friends. Given the situation that he had met the only ace among his deck of cards which is Steve Wozniak, he had many connections to many people that are of the same involvement in the field of technology. And the connection grew and grew as his business expanded – it’s like a complicated computer network where big people in businesses are interconnected. He was benefited from these alliances because they shared common goal and wealth. He hired many influential people in his company, even John Sculley who was the manager for the Pepsi-Cola company before entering Apple. He used these connections to break in to what it seemed to be closed doors, and eventually these doors opened for him to expand his business more. A Good Speaker. In nature, Steve Jobs is charismatic. Every word he says seemed to be believable. He was very persuasive that his clients and customers where convinced immediately before he knows it. He was very good in sales talk, complementing to Steve Wozniak who’s got the brains but not the convincing powers. Before Steve Wozniak even finished the computer, it was already considered sold. Thanks to Steve Jobs. Smart and Clever. He was very smart enough to fool his competitors in business. At first there were many companies that had edge in terms of the product. But before it will outsell his product, all he had to do was to take the initiative of persuading the owners to sell the product and then copy the feature that will make Steve Jobs’ computer on the edge of technology that has never been present before. He convinced Xerox to sell their product to him, but his black propaganda was to steal the “mouse technology”. In some other sense, it was a form of cheating; an indirect cheating, that is. But in the world of business, it is a common thing; to outsmart your competitors is the best way if you want bigger profit for the company. Setting Bigger Goals. He didn’t stop at having small business in an old car garage; he wanted more. He was an ambitious man that wanted to gain more. Even though he didn’t succeed in overtaking the giant IBM, he is now a very successful technopreneur and businessman in his own accord. And that is it, the factors that paved the way to success of one of the world’s top icon and technopreneur, Mr. Steven P. Jobs.

References:
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 How do you see yourself as a technopreneur? 

Before sinking in to answer the question, let me first define what technopreneurship and a technopreneur is. Technopreneurship is a lucrative business; take for example Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. The key people who innovated and brought us now what they called personal computers. Can you imagine your life living without computers? – I bet not. People nowadays are very attached to computers. Updating status with their facebook accounts and as well as chatting through networking sites. All thanks to the people who innovated and brought its technology to the masses. Technopreneurship is not a product but a process of synthesis in engineering the future of a person, an organization, a nation and the world. Strategic directions or decision-making processes are becoming more demanding and complex. This requires universities, and in site professional development programs and training to produce strategic thinkers who will have skills to succeed in a rapidly changing global environment.

What is technopreneur? The one who is brave enough to operate, to manage, to own and to take the risk of operating any legal form of business through the aid of technology known to man. The one who manages all the factors of production to carry on with production. But as time pass by, the purview of the word “technopreneur” changed dramatically and became a comprehensive word that signifies a lot of different aspects and forms of business. Due to the changing markets, technopreneurship rose, the word is self explanatory, but let’s try to understand and try to have a look at this word in more detail, and the essence of the said word, technopreneurship. What is a technopreneur?-well, this could be understood as the new age of entrepreneur wherein, taking full use of technology to come out with something new and unique to current market as well as to innovate. And if he succeeds, he will exploit his achievement and make money out of it. What differentiates a technopreneur from any other business man is the way a technopreneur operates his business. A technopreneur’s business is generally marked with a high growth potential and high leverage of knowledge and intellectual property. What is more, he always have a viable exit mechanism. High-tech and entrepreneurial skills are driving our economy back to prosperity. Technopreneursip-merging technology prowess and entrepreneurial skills- is the real source of power in today’s knowledge-based economy. A technopreneur distinguishes logic from tradition, tradition from prejudice, prejudice from common sense and common sense from nonsense while integrating a variety of ideas from diverse groups and disciplines. Creativity is breaking the conventional mental blocks and playing with imagination and possibilities, leading to new and meaningful connections and outcomes while interacting with ideas, people and the environment. Technopreneurship is the only source of long-run sustainable competitive advantage. In an era of man-made brainpower industries, individual, corporate, and national economic success will all require both new and more extensive skills sets than have been required in the past. By themselves skills don't guarantee success. They have to be put together in successful organizations. But without skills and technopreurship there are no successful organizations. So, if you want to be a technopreneur, start with assessing yourself, if you are really for it. And be very honest about it. You can’t cheat yourself can you? What is your interest? Are you really interested in being a technopreneur or are you joining the bandwagon? Do you have the aptitude to be a technopreneur?

I am also currently working at the Department of Social Welfare and Development as an encoder on Social Pension and putting up into practice my skills in computer literacy. I find it challenging since this is my first time to work on government agency. This kind of job is a bit hard since I’m still attending class in the day and working 8 hours in the night. Time management is really my key for me to be able to do my responsibilities in work and in school. But, while thinking of these things, there is one problem: I am not much of a risk-taker type of a person myself. I was always afraid to take the risks ad new opportunities. I always think of the negative consequences. But, as a popular saying goes, “A person who is always afraid to try new things will never achieve greater things than what he has have now.” So, I must adhere to this, and must not concentrate on the negative consequences, but of the positive ones. So, I can see myself, as of now, as a passionate technopreneur. Through this I will be able to meet and work with the people that are of the same interests as I am. That would be cool! And because we love what we do, we can explore new worlds and discover new horizons that will come to us unexpectedly. Not only that, I am the boss of my own right too! I will be able to customize my business and run it the way I wanted it to be. And also through this I can finally find myself, and I will be able to enhance my skills in the field of technopreneurship. I can also help people by making them work for me, and as a result, there will be also less unemployed and underemployed. And if there are less unemployed and underemployed, I can help contributing to the growth rate of job creation in my city. In my nation. This will result to more productivity for the Philippines. For a better life and future. So I can also say that I can see myself as a helpful and productive technopreneur. But all this will not be possible without the help of God. But I know he will make me a good technopreneur. I should believe in myself. Think of positivity, out of the box. I know that He will guide me in my path to success and will lead me. Unto Him I commend my trust and faith.

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

Steve Jobs left his big dent in the technopreneurial world. He managed to climb to the top of his success; he even enjoyed his career and became a multimillionare. He possessed great skills and wisdom to overcome difficulties he had encountered in his life. Steve Jobs utilized the available raw technology and came up with exciting ideas and products that helped his company to grow and develop. Summing up his great assets and skills, he could become as successful and wealthy as Bill Gates, we all know that Bill had only stolen Apples’ technology and make it his own, thus leading to the creation of WINDOWS to compete with MAC. But we also knew Steve Jobs made a mistake to trust Bill and hand him the prototypes of his machines. If Steve not made those moves, then most probably he would have taken the place of Bil Gates who enjoyed Job’s technology. After so much deliberation with myself, I think my answer to this question would be a -No. When we say career, it pertains to the individual’s progress in life.It describes an individuals' journey through learning, work and other aspects of life. There are a number of ways to define a career and the term is used in a variety of ways. It is a course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life)". In this definition career is understood to relate to a range of aspects of an individual's life, learning and work. Career is also frequently understood to relate to the working aspects of an individuals life e.g. as in career woman. A third way in which the term career is used to describe an occupation or a profession that usually involves special training or formal education, and is considered to be a person’s lifework. In this case "a career" is seen as a sequence of related jobs usually pursued within a single industry or sector e.g. "a career in law" or "a career in the building trade". I thought the film “Pirates of the Silicon Valley” very interesting. By the end of the film I found myself questioning the integrity of mankind, and whether or not pure innovation can exist in a corporate setting. At the beginning of the film Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were just nerdy guys who worked hard at something which they were passionate about, but somewhere along the line money and power got in the way. They both became overwhelmed with this vision of the personal computer and enacted an almost “space race” like competition to be the first to corner the market. Initially Steve Jobs was preoccupied with keeping his operations fun and anti-suit, but when Apple began to take off he became drunk with power and enamored with his own philosophy. He quickly lost his initial purist vision. I was especially shocked by his angry behavior. Every time something did not go his way he lashed out irrationally at innocent people. He managed to alienate those closest to him with his tirades. By the time it came to toast him at his party no one wanted to say a kind word about him. He went from being this fun loving guy who enjoyed spending time with his friends to a dictator. I think what disappointed me most about him was his inability to take responsibility for his actions. If something went awry it could not possibly be his fault and he would take it out on someone else. This weakness also extending into his personal life, after taking a paternity test he still refused to acknowledge his daughter or pay child support. Naming a computer after her was in no capacity being a father or taking responsibility. However, Steve Jobs was not the only person in the film who disappointed me. I was also surprised at how cut throat and manipulative Bill Gates became over the course of the movie. Before he made it big in the computer industry he did not have the guts to speak to a woman, or the business sense to dress up and prepare for clients. As his wardrobe improved and confidence grew his ethics disintegrated. He had no qualms about tricking Steve Jobs into thinking they were “family” and all on the same team. I think the most profound statement in the movie that really sums up how far these men strayed from their original visions is summed up when Jobs confronts Gates for stealing his software. Jobs tells Gates that his software is better, and Gates realizes that Apple does indeed have a better system but simply says “it doesn’t matter”. In Steve Job’s case, his progress from his small beginnings to huge successes was evidently remarkable. It is also obvious that he was ambitious, even though his business was small, he aimed high by targeting big businesses like IBM and others, and this eventually led him to greener pastures. To hasten his rate of progress regarding the business, his business approach was to be competitive and overcome big businesses in his own way. If ever I become a graduate student, I will take a different approach than Steve Jobs’. Yes, I will be a technopreneur someday, like Steve Jobs, but career isn’t only limited to the nature of the job. It also encompasses the individual’s approach to his life and his means of how will the person earn money. Steve Jobs approach was very aggressive and ambitious. Through his burning passion for his work, he wanted to earn more and be known world-wide, in fact, he wanted to leave a big dent to the world, or its history, and into the future. With regards with my personality and that of Steve Jobs, I’m far way underdog of him. I think will not be able to do all the things that he did on his way to success. I don’t have the guts to do it. Moreover, I just want to have a kind of life that is not of pressured but still surviving. I want it to be in serene, clean and happy life.  If given a chance to have their place? I could not answer it right now. I’m having double thoughts about it.