On June 2 1, the civil aerospace project "Spaceship I" successfully made its first flight, and the founder paul allen once again became the focus of discussion. When talking about this extraordinary space travel, he said: "Spaceship I is a clear proof that human beings have achieved space travel, and it also shows that non-governmental organizations, that is, non-governmental organizations, will play an important role in the exploration of this field."
Since 1983 left Microsoft due to illness, Allen has been defined by the media as "a billionaire carelessly", "an investor who failed at will" and "the worst manager". It seems that he has accumulated inexhaustible wealth, just because he was lucky enough to create Microsoft with Gates in his early years (Allen was rich in Forbes in 2004).
But paul allen would never agree with such an evaluation. What he wants to tell people is that he is very happy to enjoy the present success, which is a unique successful investment measured by different success criteria. He is very satisfied with this situation. He is engaged in unusual or high-risk investments, regardless of quarterly income or shareholder returns. Perhaps the writer Scott Fitzgerald was right: "Let me tell you what very rich people are like. They are different from you and me. " This is the case with Paul Allen, who has unique management rules and different success criteria. He is also sincere and doesn't want to think of himself as an idle rich man. He said: "A good life is creation, whether it is making music, writing programs or investing in securities."
Wired magazine in the United States said: Being unsociable but not arrogant is the key to understanding Allen's way of doing things. Because he is not sociable, the media will give him a simple definition. In fact, Allen is a multifaceted person. At least he can be defined as a visionary, a lover of music, a lover of sports, a lover of space flight, a lover of family and a fighter against diseases. In addition, when it comes to Allen, people always call him an "investor and philanthropist". In short, Allen is a maverick, arbitrary billionaire. He invests a steady stream of money in what he likes, as if he doesn't care about failure.
A visionary.
If he didn't seize the opportunity to start Microsoft, Allen might just be an engineer of Boeing Company or an employee of a software company. Allen is very modest. He doesn't think he has foresight and never asks for foresight, even though he was an entrepreneur in high school.
He thought he was "very lucky to appear in the pioneering stage of the microcomputer age". As early as 10 years ago, he said, "the information superhighway will be the next trend, and you can't always catch up with two such trends."
Of course, what can best prove his foresight is the establishment of Microsoft. Anyone who writes a biography of Microsoft can't avoid that period of history: 1974, 1974 In February, Allen read a report about the world's first microcomputer Altair8800 in Popular Electronics. He found Gates' school with a magazine and advised him to start a business together, which contributed to Microsoft. People should not forget Gates' memory: "Paul saw that the technical conditions were ripe. He always said that if we don't do it, it will be too late, and we will regret it all our lives. "
Free investor
After leaving Microsoft, Allen made frequent investments in the fields of information superhighway, multimedia, cable TV and high definition multimedia, and was regarded as one of the most active investors in the high-tech field. The media described his investment in M&A companies as19th century tycoons bought farms, livestock, railways and meat processing plants. However, these investments rarely succeed. In 2003, Business Week even listed him as the worst manager.
Bill Savory, the senior manager of Allen Group, once said that there is a "Allen effect", that is, once Allen invests in a certain field, it will become very valuable because of Allen's investment. Now there is another "Allen effect": his company is far from profitable and hardly needs to develop innovative products to adapt to the market. Company employees reflect that companies can speak freely, but they also have a strong feeling that these companies are more like foundations than competitive companies.
philharmonic
Contact with Allen, people will realize that Allen does not have arrogant entrepreneurial temperament. In front of great art, he will be humble. For example, when talking about the rock singer Jamie Hendricks, he said, "Listening to Jamie's music is very exciting." To this end, he built a museum for Hendricks. He said: "Strictly speaking, I am an amateur musician. Some self-taught people here have incredible talents."
He also said: "I love programming, but it can't compare with music." He often plays guitar with famous musicians and sometimes sings his own song "Time Bomb": "Everything I do seems to be wrong, but my heart is still high."
People who love sports
He has a standard basketball hall in his own home, which is sometimes open to employees. He invested in Seattle Seahawks football team and Portland Trailblazers in NBA, but both investments seem to have failed: the team's record is poor and scandals continue.
People who love science.
Allen's investment in science and technology is not limited to "Spaceship I". He loved science fiction since he was a child, and science and technology accounted for a large proportion of the projects he funded. He donated money to build the Seattle Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, which contains various sci-fi works, and also donated13.5 million dollars to the "Search for Extraterrestrial Civilization" project looking for extraterrestrial life.
Family-loving person
Allen's sister Judy Allen Barton is in charge of his foundation. She is also the vice president of a company in Allen and the executive director of the Hendricks Museum. His mother lived in the library of Washington University, and Allen donated $654.38+00 billion to the library in the name of her late father.
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs was born in 1955. 1972 After graduating from high school, I only studied in a Polish university for one semester. 1974 Jobs got a job designing computer games in a company. Two years later, Jobs and Wozniak, then 2 1, then 26, set up Apple Computer Company in Jobs' garage. The Apple II they developed has 4K memory, and users use their TV sets as monitors, which is the first personal computer on the market.
Jobs later said, "I am very lucky. When computer was a young industry, I entered this field. At that time, there were not many people with computer degrees, and the employees were all outstanding talents who became monks in the fields of physics, music and zoology. They have a strong interest in this, and no one has entered the computer industry for money. " 1980165438+10, Apple shares rose to $22 per share, and Jobs and Wozniak became millionaires overnight. 1986 Jobs acquired digital animation company Pixar. This company has now become the producer of the best-selling animated films Toy Story and Bug Crisis, which is the second peak of Jobs' career.
1996, Apple re-hired Jobs as its part-time consultant. At this time, after the constant replacement of top management and poor management, Apple's business went from bad to worse, and its financial income began to shrink. 1September 1997, Jobs returned to the company as CEO. He carried out a drastic reorganization of the company and took a series of measures to reduce the price and promote new products for dying Apple. Finally, in the fourth quarter of 1998, it created a profit of109 million dollars, which made "Apple" popular again. At present, Apple's most popular product is the recently listed iMac. The body of this all-in-one multimedia computer is blue and transparent. According to Apple's statistics, iMac orders have reached 6.5438+0.5 million.
Jobs described it this way: "When I returned to Apple, the situation was far worse than I expected. Apple employees are considered as a group of losers, and they will give up almost all their efforts. In the first six months, I often thought of giving up. I have never been so tired in my life. Go home at ten o'clock in the evening, go straight to bed and sleep until six o'clock the next morning, then get up, take a shower and go to work. My wife has given me great support, and I can't praise her too much. "
Jobs quickly cut off his featureless business as soon as he took office. He told his colleagues that there is no need to guarantee that every decision is correct, as long as most decisions are correct. So don't be afraid. There are many difficult decisions, such as cutting off featureless businesses, which seem very wise today, but they are scary from the beginning.
Jobs has a hot management style, and many Apple employees are afraid to take the elevator with him for fear of being fired before the elevator is finished. However, at the age of 30, his temperament has matured a lot. He said, "I'll tell you an example that can change the way you look at things." Once you have children, you will naturally realize that everyone is born of parents, and someone should love them like their own children. This doesn't sound profound, but many people ignore it. So it's much more painful for me to fire Apple employees now than before, but I can't help it. This is my job. I stand in their shoes and imagine them going home and telling their wives and children that they have been hired. I've never been so emotional. A happy family may be another reason for Jobs' career success.
Jobs used to spend a lot of time looking for technology to produce new products, but now it is impossible to do in-depth research because of his work. He said that sometimes before going to bed, some unexpected thoughts would come up. He registered six news websites on the Internet and received about 300 emails every day, in which some strangers talked about their new ideas.
After working for many years, Jobs said, "Too many things are regrettable, but the biggest regret is what you didn't do. If I had understood the truth earlier, I could have done things better, but so what? The key is to grasp the present. Life is short, and soon we will all come to an end. This is the reality. "
Now Apple's business goal is to become the "Sony" of the computer industry. Apple is the only personal computer company that engages in both hardware and software and produces a complete set of products. This means that Apple can introduce a more easy-to-use system, which is a reliable capital for the company to win consumers. Jobs said that technology is not the most difficult, but how to determine products and target consumers. In addition to electronics, technology and production capabilities, you must also have strong marketing capabilities. Experts believe that although Apple's surplus has been greatly improved compared with the past, in the face of strong competitors such as Microsoft and Compaq, Apple still needs to do things step by step to avoid further failure.
Always listening to the needs of consumers and carrying out the original intention of "building a bridge between ordinary people and precision computers" with great enthusiasm is Jobs' most powerful weapon. Whether at Apple or Pixar, Jobs worked tirelessly to realize his dream: using computers as a tool to help bridge the gap between technology and art.
Name: Steve Jobs
English name Steve Jobs
Date of birth 1955
Drop out of college
Suochuang Company Apple Computer Company
Current position: CEO of Apple Computer Company
Mitch Kapor
Mitch Kapor
Date of birth 195 1 year 1 1 month 1 day.
Country and birthplace Brooklyn, new york, USA
Education: 197 1 year, Bachelor of Psychology from Yale University: 1978, Master of Psychology from Bacon University: 1980, Master of Si Long School of Management from MIT: 1999 -200 1 year. 1994 -65438 and served as CEO's personal blog website, blogs.osafoundation.org/mitch/ e-mail ()Mitch@kapor.com address Kapor Enterprises, Inc.177 Post St., Suite 900 San Francisco, CA 94108+1415 392-0963 If you knew him right after he graduated from Kapor University, you would never think that this guy would become one of the most successful reformers in the computer software industry in the future. "
Kapoor 195 1 was born in Long Island. Kapoor conforms to the typical image of that era: carefree, carefree. I like disco and rock music since I was a child. And fell in love with illegal drugs such as ecstasy for many years. At Yale University, he majored in psychology, linguistics and computer science, especially cybernetics, and became interested in computers. 197 1 after graduation, my work was erratic. From a radio DJ to a comedian. After four years of wandering, he always felt that he still lacked something, so 25-year-old Kapoor went to Switzerland to attend a kind of "transcendental meditation" training. Courses include 14 hours of meditation every day, and the ability to make people float in the air (special functions). Of course, I didn't succeed in practicing in the end. After returning to the United States, it took Kapoor several years to figure out who he really was. 1978 obtained the master's degree from Beacon university. At the same time, I work in a mental hospital. As a waiter, my job is equivalent to "emptying the bedpan" in spirit. At the same time, his interest in computers helped him kill most of his time.
1978, Apple reduced the price of Apple II to about 1500 USD. Kapoor ran around and finally bought his first computer. A few days after buying the computer, the unemployed man with empty pockets met a young man. He is asking the shop assistant how to use the new computer. Kapoor stepped forward and said, "I can help you learn." So he began to tutor him in computer applications, and the reward was $5 per hour. Before long, he swaggered himself as an "independent computer consultant". After a while, he entered the Si Long School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, trying to get an MBA degree as a facade, but he dropped out after a few days. Later, I went to work in a startup company in Silicon Valley.
A few months later, he met the inventor of the first spreadsheet software VisiCalc. I also want to develop a similar software in my mind, which can draw the calculation results of spreadsheets into charts. He and another partner developed VisiPlot. VisiPlot was very popular, and its sales soon reached more than $654.38 million per month. In less than a year, Kapoor and his partners earned120,000 dollars. Kapoor created the first success of his business career. Kapoor finally realized that there is only one way to satisfy himself: start his own company and be his own boss.
198 1 year, Kapoor and his partners raised funds to start a company. When I named it, I remembered my extraordinary meditation experience in the past and named it Lotus. 1983, Lotus Development Company released its first product-Lotus1-2-3. This is the first product in the history of software to provide users with shielding help content and attach a guide to the disk. They also set up a customer service department, which is unheard of in 1983. Kapoor predicts that it is expected to reach $2-3 million in the first year. Results The actual income in the first year reached $53 million for the first time, and it was successfully listed. In the second year, it soared to $6543.8+56 billion. In the third year, it reached $258 million. Lotus 1-2-3 went on the market for only one year, and VisiCalc stopped selling and could not survive. 1985, Lotus had thousands of employees and was the largest independent software company at that time. It was not until April 1988 that Microsoft surpassed Lotus and became the number one software company. 1995, Lotus was sold to IBM for $3.2 billion.
1983, Kapoor's position is just like Steve Jobs of Apple and Bill Gates of Microsoft today. However, stability has never been Kapoor's nature. Four years later, Kapoor resigned. Kapoor said: "I only have bail. I hate this company and I hate myself. I like doing what I am good at. But this job has gone bad now. I don't like power either. I said to myself, "Go away and find something new I want to do. Kapoor retired, left the business world and found a job as a visiting professor at MIT. But after teaching for less than a year, he relapsed and plunged into the business world again. This time, Kapoor founded On Technology Company, and he served as president and CEO for three years. But it was not as successful as people expected.
From 65438 to 0990, Kapoor and the late famous lyric poet Bellow founded the Electronic Frontier Fund (EFF), a non-profit public welfare organization, which is usually called the American Civil Liberties Association (ACLU) in the computer industry. At the beginning of EFF, the World Wide Web was not yet born, and global telecommunications was still in the early stage of development. Kapoor, on the other hand, has looked forward to the future and realized the legal intervention and control of computers. At first, they defended the rights of hackers, and later they became more involved in Washington politics. EFF has played a great role in computer and communication legislation. Kapoor is also often deprived of his rights as an American citizen.