Tuesday, October 11, 2011

7 Things Teachers and School Administrators Should Learn from Steve Jobs

By:  Gilbert M. Forbes
www.factoidz.com posted 10/10/2011

The untimely death of Steve Jobs, the man behind the iconic Apple computers, Ipad, Iphone and Pixar has brought to life many valuable lessons in life. He is astoundingly a leader and man of vision where many who are in the area of education, leadership and management could learn from. Here are the seven striking things from the self titled article of Erick Jackson The Top Ten Lessons Steve Jobs Can Teach Us - If We’ll Listen

1. Never fear failure – Many are afraid to do experiments, even innovate and most importantly changes what one has been used to do through the years. Many, in the field of education are succumbed to that culture of fear of going out of their shell, of the box, of their comfort zones. That’s why we tend to live and follow the shadows of others whom we admire instead of just having them as our inspirations instead of doing our own marks, our own legacy. Jobs however didn’t. He went on for his passion. For it, he was later fired by the successor he picked as a CEO only to be taken again, when the Company he himself built is on the brink of collapse. It was one of the most public embarrassments of the last 30 years in business. Yet, he didn’t become a venture capitalist never to be heard from again. He didn’t start a production company and do a lot of lunches. He picked himself up and got back to work following his passion. Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told he only had a few weeks to live. As Samuel Johnson said, there’s nothing like your impending death to focus the mind. From Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement speech:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

2. Don’t care about being right. Care about succeeding – I am just like many who worry about what others will say about me. This most of the time limits my ability to try new things. To innovate and course things up. Jobs used this line in an interview after he was fired by Apple. If you have to benchmark on others’ great ideas to make yours better, do it. You can’t be married to your vision of how a product is going to work out, such that you forget about current reality. When the Apple III came out, it was hot and warped its motherboard even though Jobs had insisted it would be quiet and sleek. If Jobs had stuck with Lisa, Apple would have never developed the Mac.   To continue reading, just please click this link.

(Mr. Gilbert M. Forbes had his Bachelors Degree and MA in Educational Management (CAR) from the Philippine Normal University.  A campus paper adviser and trainer for 13 years.  Currently, he is a school principal in one of the central schools in the Division of Quezon.) 

No comments: