becoming

One of the best articles I have read about Jobs:

In fact, Jobs had just about every detail wrong. The Open Corporation was a dismal failure in practice. Its hallmark was that employee salaries were not kept secret; there was even an attempt to impose uniform compensation. It didn’t work, of course; all kinds of side deals were cut to satiate key employees…More concretely, Jobs had the whole business plan wrong. It would be two years before NeXT delivered anything to customers. When the NeXTcube computer finally did arrive, it proved too expensive to ever command a serious market. Ultimately, Jobs was forced to admit that the undeniably beautiful machine he and his engineering team concocted was a flop.

Yet how can these 11 years in the wilderness turned into the most pivotal period of his life? I don’t see a single magic that does the trick. There is no “key factor” — Family, friends, colleagues, circumstances, success, failures and self-reflections — all played their major roles in those 11 years. He learned from them. He embraced his Wilderness Year and make the best out of it.

Next time, try not to just think of Jobs the Icon, think of Jobs the Man.

[link: Fast Company]