How They Rule: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates

After reading the long bibliography of Steve Jobs I have finally understood how Steve and Bill runs their empire and what make them unique to each other.

Being Steve Jobs is not as easy as it may seem, as I droll over his past one could understand how he have become who he was right now. At an early age he grow up in an orphanage, a place where love seems to be luxury in the eyes of every child. Experiencing this kind of path allows a child to mature faster than those who live in a normal life. They tend to depend on their selves and for them love seems to be just an illusion that was made in order to express the exact word in pampering a little boy.

One of the greatest transitions that Steve Jobs experience was the day he drop everything from college after six months because he got bored and couldn’t see the value on it. The moment he experience the reality of the path he had chosen was the moment he morph into someone not human. Sleeping in every floor of his friend, returning coke bottled for the 5 cents to buy food and a 7 miles walk across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Karishna temple is something not everyone could last. With a neglected look and bad smell one could imagine the feeling of being treated as a lost dog inside the ambient chaos world of Reed campus but then again this pain and suffering that this guy experience are the basic foundation to become the best in running his own empire.

Immunity to critics, optimism to every risk he take and hard work to achieve excellence in everything he does are just the small things that I could see during his stay in Reed campus. These things are not thought well in school because reality dictates that it should be experience by an individual in order to understand the essence of it.

The moment Apple II hit the market by storm from1977 until 1979, Steve Jobs life will never be the same. At the age of 24 he had became a millionaire and his personality change as he metamorphosed into businessman.

On December 12, 1980, Apple went public with a success no company had experienced since Ford’s own IPO in the 50s. Steve, who owned $7.5 million of Apple stocks, was worth $217.5 million by the end of the day. He became one of the richest self-made men in America.

Steve was absolutely on top of the world. What Steve Jobs did not know was greed and power is something that he should be very careful for it will unleash the true dark side of a person. As I read all over his story he never donates a single penny to any charitable foundation thus making him more like Gollum obsessed with greed and power thus, the result was devastating in the next coming years as IBM entered the market.

The Macintosh project was born out of the imagination of Jef Raskin. One of Apple’s earliest employees (#31), Raskin had written the manuals for the Apple II.

Internal corruption started to consume Steve Jobs when he had major disagreements with Raskin on how Macintosh should evolve. Raskin disagreed - and therefore, by early 1981, Steve took over the project.

Steve became so selfish that he was so confident on what he can do without understanding the reason of why he made it on top. It was Woz creative and long term dedication that made Apple II such a hit and I also believe that Raskin brilliant mind should have pushed apple to even greater heights. This guy have spent most of his life dedicating his work to Apple and therefore he understands more about what innovation is.

Steve Jobs insisted his LISA project without proper coordination to his staff and the result was such a disaster that Apple III and LISA was a failure.

It was such a failure that it gave way to IBM and Microsoft. It was so trusted in business that it quickly became a standard despite the superiority of Apple.

The real question here that I want to ask each and every one of you is what makes the combination of IBM and Microsoft so powerful that in a split of time they manage to steal the market against Apple and became the standard in computing?

The answer is simple. While Steve focuses much of his attention providing Americans what they really want, IBM and Microsoft focus their attention in giving the world what they really need.

Little did Steve know that computers are made because of the great need for computing and not as a luxury. Steve was so focus in providing excellence in user interface and the point and click of a mouse without understanding the complexity of his own demands plus the need of every sector beyond interface such as database, programming, files and adaptability of different software’s.

Enter Bill Gates…William Henry Gates III was born into a family with a rich history in business, politics, and community service. His great-grandfather had been a state legislator and mayor, his grandfather was the vice president of a national bank, and his father was a prominent lawyer.

Unlike the team combination of Steve and Woz, Bill and Paul Allen was a natural thing since both of them knows each other very well and understands the nature of what computing is. Bill and Paul understands what people need and the importance of computer in every person.

Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and a few other Lakeside students (many of whom were the first programmers hired at Microsoft) immediately became inseparable from the computer. They would stay in the computer room all day and night, writing programs, reading computer literature and anything else they could to learn about computing.

The importance of their foundation provides a vital part in justifying why they have manage to became the standards of business in just a short period of time. Microsoft mission of continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. At the same time its commitment to a long-term view on research and development makes them earn the number one spot in the field of Information Technology. Unlike Steve, Bill don’t have the charisma in persuading people in order to buy his product instead he listen’s to what people needs and deliver products that matters the most may it be in a beta mode or full blown product.

Both Steve and Bill have a different style in managing their own people and department. While Steve uses brutal force to unleash one’s best such as calling “the Apple II group the “dull and boring product division”. Bill uses the inspiring type of encouragement and you can see it on his webcast words like “Computer Science is the most exciting course in today’s world.”

At the end of the desktop wars Microsoft have conquered the world with 90% user’s after releasing one after another Windows OS as compared to Apple’s Mac OS X 5% users.

There are a lot of things that I could talk about on how Microsoft have dominated the computing arena but then again most of you are aware about this.

As I reflect on this two great people I begin to question: What is the perfect leader?

Perhaps it’s the combination of both Bill and Steve. A person with higher expectation in excellence and yet manage to have a heart, conquering the world will require one person to focus on the needs, easiness and aesthetics of its products, people are not your assets it’s the right people, and the last but not the least problems and failures will always come your way what matter’s most is your ability to rise and return stronger ever than before.

I actually have a lot of things to say on this thing but then again shessshh I need to work! I have my deadlines! Hello even I have to be as human as you are guys hahahaha.

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