To what extent do risk, rewards and motives contribute towards an entrepreneurs goals - Assignment Example

Steve Jobs – An Icon of Entrepreneurship Burlingham and Gendron (2013) argue, "Without Jobs, after all, there would have been no Apple II". Steve Jobs is a glaring example of true entrepreneurship in the current times; the one, who assesses risks carefully, faces challenges that come his way, and accomplishes tasks in hand successfully. And in this process, he gets rewarded handsomely so much that in his own life time, Apple, in terms of market capitalization, transforms into the world's largest company.

That is a great feat indeed! As per Kathryn Lang, entrepreneurship requires thought, planning, and persistence. It is not always the money that makes people entrepreneur. It is the passion or urge of creating something – product or service that exhorts their entrepreneurial spirit. Fixed paychecks in the job do not excite them and insecurity outside the jobs does not stop them from trading into unchartered territories. That is why entrepreneurs are always ready to take risks and face new challenges to get rewarded handsomely.

It is this sense of achievement that drives them towards entrepreneurship. The case of Steve Jobs is no different than this. Major Motives – Innovation and Perfection According to John Kao, a consultant to corporations, it is the innovative culture created by Steve Jobs that is responsible establishing Apple ahead of many of its rivals. Though formal education is required yet attitude to learn more in all situations is a prerequisite for creativity. There is no doubt that Steve Jobs has these traits since an early age.

At a fairly young age, he was fascinated toward electronics doing projects on radios. While he is fired from Apple in 1985, his entrepreneurial spirit forces him to float two new companies under the names ‘Next’ and ‘Pixar’. He remains in control of these two companies until 1996 when he returns to Apple and becomes chief executive officer (CEO) there. In 2005, during a commencement address to the students at Stanford, Steve is quite categorical in his statement, “It turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me” (Lohr, 2011).

What he says is that perseverance pays and it goes without saying that perseverance is one of the key characteristics that make one entrepreneur. Perfection in the product design has always been his obsession so much that even on internal circuitry that no one is going to look at, he insists that "every line of solder on the circuit board be perfectly straight" (Burlingham and Gendron, 2013). That is why on aesthetics too each product of the Apple Inc. receives accolades from the customers. Steve Jobs emphasises on the innovation in the task and jobs that one undertakes and that becomes possible only with experimentation, taking risks in life and being curious.

In line with this, he further adds, "I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you” (Lohr, 2011). Entrepreneurship and Risk Taking Ability True entrepreneurs are prompt in taking risks. As saying goes: no risks, no rewards. This remains a universal fact always as one goes deeper into the events that shape the lives