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Introduction
The social experience of a person shapes his life from a very early age. The impact of sociological theories such as structure and agent theory is also prominent in the person’s overall experience in very sectors such as family, race, ethnicity and social inequalities. As a person grows his learning and experience from an early age also becomes mature (PANAGIOTOU, 2019). Steve Jobs is known as one of the most successful entrepreneurs, industrial designers,s and media investors of all time. This essay focuses on the life experience of Steve Jobs in various sectors. The influence of structure and agency are also demonstrated in their experience in the later part of the report.
Steve Jobs: A brief overview
Steven Paul Jobs came to the earth on the day of 24th February 1955. His biological father Abdul Fattah and his mother was Joanne. Soon after the birth, Steven was given up for adoption in the family of a mechanic father Paul and an accountant mother Clara. In his early life, Steve learned mechanical basics from his father(McKenzie, 2012). Steve Jobs tried to continue his education after high school and soon dropped out of college because he simply could not keep up with the traditional way of learning and studying. Soon after Steve jobs started attending creative classes and learned calligraphy.
In his life, Steve Jobs went through many life experiences. At the beginning of his adult life, Steve job was homeless and could not provide for himself. He used to go to Hindu Ashrams for free food and would rest there. In search of enlightenment, he went to India and stayed in several ashrams. But he found solace in Buddhism of Japanese core religion. The simplicity of industrial designing that later was used in Apple products was adopted from the live view of the simplicity of Buddhism.
Steve Jobs along with Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple. They found success in the Apple II computer in 1976. Steve Jobs gave rise to the wave of personalized Apple computers in the 1970 and 1980s era. The famous Apple Inc. was founded in the garage of a tiny home. Even though he was outcast from his own company by Scully. Through the sale of the Macintosh and the creation, NeXT Steve jobs again became one of the successful inventors. Later he started Pixar and became a billionaire once Pixar went public soon after making Toy Story the animated movie (Storch Rudall, 2012). Later Steve jobs Sold Pixar to Walt Disney and NeXT to Apple Inc. He became the CEO of Apple Inc. with Steve Jobs in the CEO position of Apple Inc. Brought some of their most revolutionary products and grabbed multiple industries. Among them, iMac, iPhone, and iPad are the products that took the young generation by storm and increased the market value of Apple Inc. almost overnight.
Soon after this living legend was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer(Apple founder Steve Jobs dies – HISTORY, 2020). Even in his diagnosis and treatment period, he continued his duty as the CEO of Apple Inc. After taking a lever transplant Steve Jobs resigned and put the duty of Apple Inc. in the hand of Tim Cook. Steve Jobs died in 2011 after a long battle with his illness.
Personal Experience in Two Themes reflecting the influence of structure and agency theory
Theme 1- Family
Impact of Structure
Steve Jobs was born in the womb of a college-going mother and a non-American father. None of them was capable enough to raise him and was not married then. For this reason, they gave up Steven Jobs for adoption. The very early age of Steve Jobs was impacted by the overall structure. If the socio-economic condition of the biological mother and father were strong enough they would not have haven up Steve Jobs for adoption.
Later, Steve Jobs was raised by his foster family. The father Paul was a mechanic and his other was an accountant. Steve learned the basics of business and his handicap through machine learning experience from his father (Midgley, 2020). Latest the path of his career was largely influenced by his father. Other than that, For his own family, Steve Jobs did not initially take the paternity claim of his very first daughter Lisa. He was motivated by the fact that it was a scam to bring down his early success. All these experiences reflect the impact of the structures on which Steve Jobs did not have control. The majority of the experience was part of rules and regulations set by society in which Steve did not have any free will.
Impact of Agency
The impact of agency refers to the free will of a person. The decision-making that is not influenced by any other external batters is also known as the impact of agency in sociology. Steve jobs in his life demonstrated many aspects of individuality in decision-making. In the case of the family even after his biological parents were married he chose to remain in his foster family because they took his responsibility (Isaacson and Baker, 2011). This indicates personal choice along with individual decision-making at a very early age. In times of his marriage, he also chooses Paul (the adoptive father) as his real father in the ceremonial attempt. In the case of parenting is first child Lisa Steve was chasing his dreams and chose not to become the father figure for her life at an early age. It was when Lisa turned teenage that Steve Jobs started to recognize her as a daughter. To win back the trust and show her value Steve also named her first Apple computer Lisa. He certainly chooses a versatile method of parenting for Lisa, his firstborn.
The versatility of his decision-making also reflects on his marriage to a Buddhism guru. Steve followed Hinduism and Buddhism to find the meaning of life. Even though his wife was Christian the marriage ritual was under Buddhism law (Elder-Vass, 2011). Both Steve and his wife would keep their personal life private. It also reflected on the least number of guests that attended the ceremony at that time. Besides rats, bath his wife, and Steve brought equal value, responsibility and individuality in their relationship rather than the male dominating social structure family.
Theme 2- Social inequalities
Impact of Structure
Steve jobs faced social Inequality at a very early age. The middle-class family and their lifestyle were one of the motivators behind his passion for hardware and software. He wanted to build something that could be available to everyone and provide equal opportunity for learning (Steinwart and Ziegler, 2014). As part of the structural system, it is mandatory to fulfill some key requirements to continue to study in college. Steve jobs could not compete with others even though he was one of the most successful creative minds of the century.
As a result, he dropped out of education. Without a proper job and degree, American society is cruel and does not provide shelter or proper food. To survive the harsh reality Steve Jobs took refuge to many Ashrams and Buddhist shelters for the door, sleep and mental peace. However, once he was a multibillionaire he started to give back to society as Corporate Social Responsibility.
Impact of Agency
The individual decisions that came out of personal freedom helped Steve jobs fight and later build a strong fort against social inequality. From the times of Ashrams, Steve jobs learned that ‘simplicity is the ultimate luxury . He later used these simple tools in his apple Road, iPhone, MacBook, etc (Streeter, 2012). Various inventions were brought in the market in a range that is available to almost everyone. Youth were provided with the utmost opportunity to work within apple. So that they can make the best use of creativity without the risk of getting rejected. Steve Jobs also took drastic measures to reduce social class and social inequality through the Google brand. But unfortunately, the brand is now a boasting tool for the higher class people from around the world. For anyone struggling to make an individual decision and breakthrough, these are some of his famous quotes.
Conclusion
Steve Jobs has earned his rightful deputation in the course of history. It has been many years since he passed away. But his experience, lessons, and his passion for life remain as an example for those who want to be successful in their careers. Steve Jobs might seem self-absorbed, overconfident and strong-willed but he used the lessons from his life in a great manner. The apple brand, Pixar, and NeXT are some of his inventions that have left its mark on changing the course of history. His life and experience is certainly a part of social understanding. In summary, even though Steve Jobs faced a lot of struggles and obstacles in the early part of his life it is clear that our 2 chosen themes impacted his life and career in a positive manner considering his success in the middle and later part of his life.
References
- Archer, M., 2013. Structure, Agency, And The Internal Conversation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Elder-Vass, D., 2011. Causal Power of Social Structures. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ Press.
- History.com. 2020. Apple Founder Steve Jobs Dies – HISTORY. [online] Available at: [Accessed 22 October 2020].
- Isaacson, W. and Baker, D., 2011. Steve Jobs. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Audio.
- Jobs, S. and Owens, J., 2015. Steve Jobs, The Unauthorized Autobiography.
- McKenzie, K., 2012. From inequalities to equity. Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care, 5(3).
- Midgley, J., 2020. Inequality, Social Protection, and Social Justice. Edward Elgar Publishing.
- PANAGIOTOU, A., 2019. STRUCTURE, AGENCY, AND BIOTECHNOLOGY. [S.l.]: ANTHEM PRESS.
- Severance, C., 2012. The Second-Order Effects of Steve Jobs. Computer, 45(1), pp.10-11.
- Steinwart, M. and Ziegler, J., 2014. Remembering Apple CEO Steve Jobs as a Transformational Leader . Journal of Leadership Education, 13(2), pp.52-66.
- Storch Rudall, Y., 2012. Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography20122Walter Isaacson. Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography. Little Brown, 2012. £25 656 pp. 9781408703748. Kybernetes, 41(7/8), pp.1160-1161.
- Streeter, T., 2012. Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview * Steve Jobs–One Last Thing. Journal of American History, 99(3), pp.1015-1018.
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