It is the mystifying competence to change the world, not once but a lot many number of times that makes Jobs one of the greatest figures of all times amidst all the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Starring Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates, The Pirates Of Silicon Valley portrays the spectacle of concurrency and rise and fall of these two known standing figures, though more about the former one. It documents the rise of the computer industry through a rivalry between Microsoft and Apple in the early years.
Apparently neither Gates nor Jobs appear as the lead role in the movie. But the entire movie is centered about the rise and fall of Jobs, depicted through the spectacle of a third person, Steve Wozniak, one of the very close friends of Steve. It is a tale of rags to riches of the two most important technopreneurs of today’s era and a few exciting lessons in business that can be drawn through this movie with a few touches of Shakespearean themes like ambition, greed, lust, love and hatred. Looking into the characters from the very beginning brings us to the realization that from the very onset of their dreams, they had seen the world very differently. The movie begins with a flashback where Bill Gates is seen on a big TV screen behind Steve Jobs (when he came back to Apple in 1997). An irony between the switching of positions between Gates and Jobs has been demonstrated by the analogy of the famous 1984 ad by Apple.
Of course, his fetish in viewing computers as works of art rather than science gave altogether a different twist to the kind of innovation that happened in Apple. The dusky and serious story narration of Steve Jobs is contrasted with the dark-comedy like illustration of Bill Gates. Bill gates has been portrayed as an evil genius, particularly in the way, he called bluff before the IBM executives and his transgression of speeding with cars at an early age. Here are some of the insights that the movie has got to offer about entrepreneurship.
Even Big Companies make major Mistakes
One of the most beautiful things that the movie marked out was the follies, the incompetency and inefficiency of some big companies who failed to cope up with innovations then. Xerox, Hewlett Packard and IBM were failing to recognize the importance of GUI, personal computer and a mouse, which are the present day working model of any computer in the world. Microsoft and Apple will eventually land up at the same point someday and would probably remember the lessons which these companies had taught them. Eventually all other budding start-ups should take up the lesson to keep up with innovation as the utmost priority of the company.
Don’t curb your ego
In order to become a great entrepreneur, one must have ego within oneself, though it must not in any way be demolishing. History of both Gates and Jobs is a proof of this. A good entrepreneur must have ego but at the same time, he must not be reluctant to find new ways and means to stop his ego from dominating him. This is what will build up your personality and make you stand out of the crowd.
Be Competitive
Steve Jobs was a very ardent competitor. From his early days as a technopreneur, he considered IBM as his main competition. Steve Wozniak once said, “I used to think that may be Steve was born obsessed with wiping out IBM”. Steve as displayed in the movie is very opportunistic and persuasive. He persuaded the Xerox guys show them all their incredible stuffs that they had developed and tricked them to get the mouse for the benefit of computer that they were developing.
“Good artists copy, great artists steal”
As said by Leonardo Da Vinci, this is one of the themes, that has been brought out in the story. The reality of first mover’s advantage being demolished by the “me too” companies is flashed out in The Pirates Of Silicon Valley. Looking at the way, Microsoft and Apple innovated their Graphics User Interfaces (GUIs), we find a similarity in their pattern. Despite this, in a world full of protection and patents, these companies managed to stay afloat. So, this diversifies the thought of entrepreneurs and innovators making them think that a big multinational company may buy them and reap on their harvest to earn more wealth.
Follow your Passion
One of the most vital thing that lead Jobs towards success was his love and enthusiasm of doing something in the field of computers. It’s practically impossible for an individual to achieve something that he does not love. Even during his youth, Steve Jobs kept exploring, learning and deciphering new things from some pieces of scratch. It always has a greater impact when it is studied and concealed. Many a time, he was rejected and he experienced failure. But nothing in actual could deter him from doing things that he actually loved to do. It was due to this enthusiasm that even after being thrown out of his own company Apple, for his rough behavior, he trumped up the Apple NeXT.
This is a big lesson to all the entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur must love his work and must be ready to give away anything for achieving and fulfilling his desires.
