Steve to Steve

The last book that I read was "iwoz" by Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple. It is not necessarily the best book out there to read in literary excellence but definitely worth the read to understand how the Apple cuddly monster was created.

An interesting trivia, the name "Apple" was formed as Jobs had been to a commune in Oregon, he called 'Apple Orchard"

I think I tend to identify myself with Steve Wozniak - The techie guy who has been the nice boy all his life filled with ideals for the world. That has been my story as well, growing up in a god fearing middle class family, where education takes you out of the financial morass, walked into IIT and continued in technology. That path is no longer relevant in India with the BPO boom, you could have done your BA, BCom and finished at the bottom of your class, if not the University and yet you have a ticket to financial freedom if you have it in you to take the loads of shit.

Now, I pause and want to be a Steve Jobs - build companies, set the direction for the world to follow and plain, kick ass.

Jobs used an argument with Wozniak to get him along to set up Apple. It is in the last few paragraphs of the 11th Chapter just before the 12th chapter - "Our own Company'. Jobs told Woz, "Well, even if we lose our money, we'll have a company. For once in our lives, we'll have a company". That was convincing enough for Woz.

To be able to do something in life - whether a success or a failure is the most important thing in life. I could live my entire life working for a company and still have not achieved anything. Even if you have worked for 10 years, you are still a salaried employee who can be replaced, with perhaps a cheaper one. Well, practically speaking, to be dished out an appraisal after 10 years, based on an individual's whim to satisfy a Bell curve, makes you really want to consider your worth to an organization.

My plunge into the unkown through an MBA with esmt is not my purpose in my life but it is my first decision to shake up and break the shackles and the complancy that sets in during a long stint with any organization. My future is yet unwritten and the MBA is just a means to ask for a role to be able to help to write it.

The original partnership of Apple had Steve Jobs holding 45%, Steve Wozniak holding 45% and ....Rob Wayne holding 10%. Heard of Ron before? Well, he was drafted to help put together the legal framework for the new company. His 10% was bought out for $800 before the company went anywhere, because "he was used to big companies and big salaries" and not working out of a garage. (http://www.katize.com/2007/08/13/ronald-wayne-apple-computers-third-founder/) The link quotes him saying "“the best decision available at that time”

Only time will speak for the decisions that I make.

At the Crossroads at Christmas 07

I am just back from church and I read the replies from my colleagues to my mail wishing them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Those who knew "the news", wished me a wonderful new year knowing that I am at the crossroads of my future. They sounded more confident of my future than I did myself!

Yes, I had a good ride at Satyam - 9.5 years to boot. I had the ups and downs - mostly the ups - during my stay and I think I have morphed from a boy into a man. It took me 9.5 years but I guess I am ready to achieve what I had set out to achieve.

10 Years back when I sat in the corridors of Tapti hostel in IIT M wondering with Isaac and "" (forgot his name but remember his face very well), on the eve of the IIMC Interview, fretting that I did not know much of this world that I should be doing an MBA immediately out of IIT, I was not convinced then and I set out to discover myself at work before I thought I was ready to call myself a MBA manager. A path strewn with IIMC, IIMK, IIM L, Duke, Michigan, Kellogg, ISB ... ending with a non descript college - esmt - a school yet to prove itself. I do not know if it were providence that threw this school along my path but I am convinced I would have been less happier at INSEAD or any of the other US schools. Atleast this school is not pretentious ... there is no fat, yet. Now I will know if I do well, it is because of what I am capable of doing, rather than a brand of a school - I think I have come this long way from the Tapti corridor, my prayers answered and I will be a leader in my own right.

Perhaps the most important think I learnt is that My God is a Real Person - a Real Father. The prayers that I had made to him, asked with complete earnestness, 10-12 years back, he answers now ... He took me through a path that made me completely trust Him, though I had not put my complete trust in him and doubted him all along the way, he keeps his side of the bargain. Hopefully I will begin to trust him a little more now.

I have just got to work with a great team and I feel yanked away to do the MBA. As usual, I will fret and complain about God's timing but maybe when I reach the next point to stop and think, I will realise that the timing was perfect again.

So, Here I am at Christmas 07, with the joy of the company of a God who accomplished in me a 10 year task on the one hand and the fear of a new MBA school with an uncertain future on the other...

Eccl 1: 18 "For the wiser you are, the more worries you have, and the more you learn, the more you suffer"

God Bless and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2008