A635.5.3.RB
Video
Debrief of Team MA
While
watching the referenced YouTube video, I was transported back in time. Not because of the content but because of the
video quality, sound, background music and voice over. I was reminded of the eighth grade and
watching 8mm films in class on a projector.
I was so distracting that I actually had to watch the video three times
to get the content.
Frankly,
I had very little knowledge about Jobs other than he had founded Apple, he had
been forced out of Apple, returned some years later and died of pancreatic
cancer. I honestly do not even remember
NeXT.
So, I
have been asked to discuss how my characteristics would have fit with the
makeup and culture of the NeXT startup team.
I am
a very outgoing individual. I usually
make friends fast. I enjoy being
in-charge but can follow.
In
the video, a young Steve Jobs comes across as the obvious leader. Steve pitches his vision for NeXT by, “Steve’s
goal is to transform the learning process at the college and graduate school
level with a powerful computer and a new kind of software and we decided we
wanted to start a company that had a lot to do with education and in particular
higher education colleges and universities. So what our vision is, is that
there's a revolution in software going on now on college and university
campuses and it has to do with providing two types of breakthrough software.
One is called simulated learning environments.
It's where you can't give a student in physics a linear accelerator. You can't give a student, in biology, a
five-million-dollar recombinant DNA laboratory but you can simulate those
things. You can simulate them on a very powerful
computer and it is it is not possible for students to afford these things. It
is not possible for most faculty members to afford these things so if we can
take what we do best, which is to find really great technology and pull it down
to a price that's affordable to people. If we can do the same thing for this
type of computer, which is maybe 10 times as powerful as a personal computer
that we did for personal computers, then I think we can make a real difference
in the way the learning experience happens in the next five years and that's
what we're trying to do.” (Jobs, circa 1985)
What
a dynamic thinker. Truly a man well
before his time. I would have loved to
have been on the NeXT team!
Jobs
was a great entrepreneur. Personally, I
do not have that same entrepreneurial spirit.
I enjoy following those with these great minds and believe that I have
the “go-getter” attitude to make the visionary’s vision come true. I have personally followed great leaders such
as Carl Vuono, H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Colin Powell, Gordon Sullivan, Gary Luck,
Tommy Franks, George Casey, David Petraeus and Raymond Odierno. I personally worked directly or indirectly
for these four-star General Officers. As
a matter of fact, it was then, Lieutenant General (3-star), Raymond Orierno who
personally pinned Master Sergeant Rank on me when I was last promoted. Don’t
get me wrong, gentle reader, I do have visions but nothing like Steve Jobs
had. I have not invented a single
thing. I look up to men like Marconi,
Edison, Bell, Pullman, Otis, Ford and Jobs.
Their visions have continued to amaze me. Heck, without them, we wouldn’t have the
radio, light bulb, phone, passenger train car, elevator, mass produced
automobile and all of those great Apple products!
In
closing, I would have made a great team member on the NeXT start-up team. I could see their passion and desire as I
have always done in everything that I have done.
References
Jobs, S. (circa 1985). YouTube: Jobs brainstorms with NeXT Team. [Video File]. Retrieved
from https://youtu.be/loQhufxiorM
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