Self Actualization, Steve Jobs 4g6937

Sofía Villalobos Carrillo A01226122 Group: 151 “Self-Actualization Report: Steve Jobs”

As the psychologist Abraham Maslow stated in his theory, only 2% of the people are self-actualized. But, what do I have to achieve in order to become this? With some research I’ve made, I found out that in order to be self-actualized you should: have self-acceptance and a democratic world view, to be realistic, problem-centered, to have had peak experiences, autonomy, solitude and privacy, philosophical sense of humor and spontaneity, etc. It might look like a long list or maybe difficult, but the reality is that there are and there have been people who have achieved this. Maslow had a list of famous people which he thought were self-actualized; including Abraham Lincoln and Albert Einstein. These two are very good examples of self-actualized people, I think, but if Maslow had lived during our time, who have he thought that were self-actualized people? If you think about it, there are quite a few names that pop into your head, but one that stuck and made me think even more was Steve Jobs. I’ve read some fragments of his biography and made some research, and for my opinion, the famous well-known Apple co-founder was a self-actualized person. One of the reasons I think he became a self-actualized person is because had always a realistic view of the world. As a child, he had few economic resources and he knew that if he wanted to succeed in life, he had to work so hard he would “give everything of him”, also he always had this clear image of the projects he had in mind and to accomplish them, he knew under which grounds he was playing and exactly what he had to do to achieve them. Also, because of being realistic, he was very self-accepting. He knew that he was adopted and his family didn’t have much. For most people, their goals would be low and “easy” to persuade, but this didn’t stop him to persuade his dreams and he didn’t let anybody to bring him down because of his economic resources. Instead, he accepted himself just as the way he was and became one of the best-known people and entrepreneurs of our times. What I think was one of his most valuable attributes that made him achieve selfactualization, was that he was problem-centered. At the beginning of his career, he had numerous failures and problems with his first models of computers. But,

his great sense of responsibility made him push even harder and never give up. Even though, some problems seemed to him complicated, he knew exactly that he had to strike the problem and move on. What better term to describe Steve Jobs than peak experiences? This need in Maslow’s pyramid was plentiful during Job’s life. Not just to mention that he transcended to history and made products that changed people’s lives, to my opinion, Job had many experiences that fulfilled him. For example:  1976: Apple Computer Inc. is incorporated by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne.  In 1977: Apple is incorporated by its founders and venture capitalists.  1980: Apple goes public, raising $110 million in one of the biggest initial public offerings to date.  1986: Jobs founds computer company NeXT Inc. and buys Pixar from George Lucas for $10 million.  2000: Jobs is named Apple CEO.  2003: Apple opens the iTunes store with 200,000 songs at 99 cents each. It sells 1 million songs in the first week.  2007: Apple releases the iPhone.  2010: Apple sells 15 million iPads in nine months, giving rise to a new category of touch-screen tablet computers. As for autonomy, he never conformed others ideals of happiness as his own. He had dreams and life goals that for some people might have seemed crazy and stupid at the moment, but his visualization of happiness made him succeed. He did what made him happy and never changed or stopped for anyone. A quote of his that can show his autonomy is the next one: “Don’t follow what other people want you to do, follow what you want to do.” As to my opinion, these are the most important and remarkable qualities, needs that Steve Jobs fulfilled during his life that made him a self-actualized person. This list is short for Steve Jobs; by reading his biography you may find countless virtues he had and how he achieved his full potential as a human being. Steve Jobs is a clear example of self- actualization, and just like him, a lot of people achieve to fulfill all their needs during their lives. So, what we really need to think about is: if Steve Jobs being a humble person, like many others, could achieve self-actualization, why not us?