Pirates of Silicon Valley

这是一篇关于斯蒂夫和比尔盖茨如何成名的故事。

The movie Pirates of Silicon Valley has again vividly presented the stories of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates about how they became the top famous and rich celebrities. The movie mainly focuses on the process of how they gradually shifted from nobody to somebody and the cooperation and friction between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates during this process. Through the comparison and contrast between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, the movie enlightens viewers and provokes their reflections on issues about the traits of an entrepreneur and ethical issues in business environments.

From the successful stories of this two celebrities, some common traits of an entrepreneur can be concluded. First, entrepreneurs should be curious and innovative. Today, the element of most importance deciding the future of a company lies in the innovation power. Entrepreneurs, as the leaders of companies, should be curious and sensitive to any unimpressive details in our life because sometimes a small discover can bring our world a huge change. Moreover, entrepreneurs should also be innovative and able to use their intelligence to turn their discovers to significant changes. Second, passion and concentration are also needed in terms of being an entrepreneur. As leaders, if entrepreneurs are not passionate, it is difficult for employees to work in high spirit. However, passion only marks the beginning of a success. It is concentration that leads to the finish of a success. Therefore, both passion and concentration are the necessary qualities in being a successful entrepreneur. Third, entrepreneurs should be ambitious and own the spirit of adventure. A company must unremittingly pursuit development unless they prefer to die in the fierce competition. Therefore, entrepreneurs should be ambitious enough to lead the company to a stronger position. During the process of development, a company will face large amounts of difficulties as well as chances. As for the risks in those difficulties and chances, leaders must be brave enough to shoulder them and turn them into the drive power of further prosperity. Therefore, spirit of adventure is indispensable. Fourth, entrepreneurs should be those with awareness of cooperation rather than the arbitrary ones. In this 21st century of close connection and globalization, it is impossible for a company to have an isolate existence. Leaders with the awareness of cooperation can bring maximum benefits for the company through intelligent cooperation. As far as I am concerned, an entrepreneur may view himself as the forever server of his company and the one who is responsible for the  revolution of the society or even the world. I consider both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur is defined as “someone who identifies a business opportunity and assumes the risk of creating and running a business to take advantage of it”. Moreover, entrepreneurs have plans for expansion. The common basic premise is that both of them are the founders of their companies: Apple and Microsoft. They both work hard for the strengthening of their companies. However, they have their own qualities that make them entrepreneurs. Though Steve Jobs is arrogant and too strict, it should be admitted that he has a talent in innovation, which equals to the core competitiveness of a company. Moreover, he is greatly passionate, outstandingly concentrated, and brave enough to take risks. However, what needs to be pointed out is that Steve Jobs is too strict to his employees, and his bad tempers also outrage many people. Therefore, in my eyes, he is an entrepreneur but still has a lot to improve. Bill Gates is intelligent, patient, and hardworking. His path to success is more twisted than the one of Steve Jobs. However, he never gave up when facing difficulties.

Reasons attributed to the success of Microsoft and the great wealth of Bill Gates are obvious. First, it should be based on Bill’s master of Basic language. This intellectual capital makes it possible to have accesses to investment. Only when the intellectual capital is valuable enough, can a company seek for breakthrough among competitors. Second, Bill Gates has a keen insight. In 1981, Jobs shew the operation of Macintosh to Gates. Gates was attracted by its graphical interfaces and the use of mouse, and he quickly judged that it would be a tendency in the development of computer. Then he began to develop his own products.Therefore, from this point of view, if a company wants to success, it must be sensitive enough and be able to catch the tendency of market faster than other companies. Third, more than a discoverer, Bill Gates is also a quick learner. From the movie, we can see that no matter what have been shown to Gates, he can quickly learn and improve on the basis of what he has seen. Therefore, it is also important to tightly follow the innovations and improve them. As for the reasons leading to the success of Apple and Steve Jobs, they can be listed as followings. First, Apple really focuses on innovation. Steve Jobs has a high requirement to his employees. He requires them to be unique, different and innovated. At the same time, only outstanding, particular products are needed in Apple. From the movie, we can see that Jobs once insulted a interviewee who is average and ordinary. Moreover, many times he lost his temper and abused his employees because their works cannot reach his standard. However, it should be admitted that given by his bad temper, it is difficult for other people to tolerate him. Second, Steve Jobs is passionate and desires to explore. From the movie, it can be seen that Jobs is always energetic and he focuses on the exploration of customers’ needs. New product ideas always come from audience. He always prefers innovated products. He is also good at advertising his products, which makes all people crazy about Apple. Therefore, the characteristics of Jobs also contribute to the success of his company and he himself.

Ethical issue has also been revealed in the movie. There are two obvious frictions between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. One scene is that Jobs was angry at Gates, yelling that he was stealing the Apple’s products. This happened after Jobs had shown Gates his newest product: Macintosh. The second scene is that Jobs condemned Gates for breaking their contract and selling Microsoft program to other computer companies. However, Gates claimed that they are all learning from Xerox. In a business environment, imitation of the newest innovation is prevailing and it is very difficult to prevent. As far as I am concerned, the best approach is to establish strict laws to standardize the process of using a newly born innovation. As for some confusing cases, they should be handled by the court and people who steal others’ ideas should be heavily punished. Issues of imitation is very difficult to addressed and it needs more efforts.

For a long time, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are compared and contrasted. In the early stage, both of them are nobody. They both are brave enough to quit universities to pursuit their beloved causes. What makes them different is that Gates experienced more twisted success than Jobs. In 1977, when Jobs began to sell his products at the exhibition and became famous, Gates was still thinking about selling his program. At that exhibit, Jobs ignored Gates and immersed in the joyfulness of success. In the later years, Jobs quickly absorbed substantial capitals and established Apple while Gates was still selling his program. Later, as Jobs was the CEO of Apple, he bought the use right of Gates’ Basic Language. Gates then began to catch up with Jobs.

There are many famous entrepreneurs today. One of the most out-standing one in my mind is Li Ka-shing from China. I admire him not only because of his intelligence and wealth, but also that he is an elegant, simple and gentle man with great kindness. He always has a smile on his face and keeps polite. He also has done lots of charity. As far as I am concerned, good temper plays an important role in being a successful entrepreneur. An entrepreneur with better temper can more efficiently exert his influence on the society for that he can encourage other people to join meaningful events when it is needed.

The movie Pirates of Silicon Valley depicts the early stage when Steve Jobs and Bill Gates established their companies. In the movie, the respective characteristics of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates has been clearly presented. Through comparison and contrast, it also leads viewers to think about the traits contributing to a successful entrepreneur, including being curious, innovative, passionate, concentrated and ambitious and owns spirit of adventure and awareness of cooperation. Reasons respectively leading to the success of Apple and Microsoft can also be partly analyzed through the movie. As for the ethical issue of imitation, it needs more attention and stricter measures of punishment. In conclusion, this movie has gave viewers a lot of enlightenments and the story of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates can be the suggestive examples to entrepreneurs today.