Benjamin's thoughts...

Okaaaaaaaay

I’ve been thinking of deep technical projects and ideas for some sweet C# coding… with noah babbling and insulting in my ear. Oh LOVELY.

Its been FOREVA :O

The U.S. Marketplace: Too Big to Fail?

We’re taught in our conveniently government-run schools just how deplorable failure is.

“If you fail that test you’ll never get a good job and you’ll be a worthless person!” the teacher scorns. Until the fear of failure is ground into the child’s psyche without mercy.

So naturally, when the economy is down, we MUST not let it fail! But why? Because failure is so despicable, as we’re taught to believe. If the economy “fails” then people lose their Jobs! Things won’t stay the way they are.

And that’s true. When the economy goes down people do lose their jobs, things change. But is that such a bad thing?

What happens if General Motors is failing? They project they’ll go bankrupt if they don’t get more money in. So there’s two options; Number one is that you can let things take course and see if the business sinks or swims. Number two is that the Government gives them money to tie the business over until the economy comes back up. [Bail-outs]

If you go with the second option, to bail them out, not as many jobs will be lost. 

However if you go with the first, to leave the business on it’s own, it’s up to the business to figure out what do do. And there’s the chance they’ll fail, and everyone in the entire corporation will lose their jobs.

Let’s take a look at an example though on how allowing a company to fail ended up revolutionizing the whole technology industry as well as initiating the computer animated movies boom and laying the foundation from which the next two decades would have major innovation. All from one small company being allowed to fail.

This example is, of course, that of Apple Computer, inc. which in June 1996 was facing a serious crisis. The company that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had founded in the 70’s and introduced the first truly mass-market consumer desktop computer was hemorrhaging money. In 1995 Steve Jobs was publicly out. After much tension the board of directors had crippled his abilities to the point that he resigned.

Gil Amelio, CEO of Apple in 1996 began extensive lay-offs. The Macintosh, first introduced by Steve Jobs in 1984 hadn’t been majorly upgraded since then and in fact was losing it’s aesthetic and industrial appeal. Apple was projected to go bankrupt within 90 days. So in a fit of desperation Apple purchased the company Steve Jobs had founded when ousted from apple in 1985, NeXT, because of the advances they had been making in software and hardware engineering.

Steve Jobs was appointed Interim CEO and immediately began reviewing all of apples projects and killed every single one of them except four. A pro Desktop Computer, a Pro Laptop, Consumer Desktop and a Consumer Laptop, and began focusing intently on making these “insanely great” products.

Jobs had initiated major lay-offs in 1996 and cut many projects that ended up holding the company over for the time being. and in 1997 reached out to Bill Gates, Founded of their biggest rival, Microsoft, to invest $150 Million and commit to making Microsoft Office for the Mac. Soon after in 1998 Steve jobs overhauled the Mac and created the first iMac G3 which made computers appear friendly and approachable as All-In-One home appliances in vibrant colors and easy connection to the Internet (Something not found often at that time).

Steve Jobs began introducing Apple Stores in New York and Virginia and started a retail revolution for technology. Making the idea of buying a computer easy and fascinating with beautiful stores and the ability to test products in-store.

In 2001 Jobs and Jony Ivy Introduced the iPod to the world. And in 2002, iTunes. Which subsequently changed the entire Music industry forever. Around the same time the introduction of Mac OS X, which used much of the technology from NeXT, brought the iMac into the 21st century of computing long before the competition.

Later in 2006 Jobs and Ivy introduced the iPod Video and then in 2007, the iPhone. Which changed the entire phone market and introduced the first modern smart-phone. in 2008 the iPod touch which has since overtaken the handheld gaming market with games from the App Store outselling Sony and Nintendo combined. in 2010 the iPad created an entire new category of consumer electronics devices and began bringing Magazine Distribution into the digital distribution era.

Today, as of 2011, Apple is not the most valuable corporation in the world.
It’s safe to say that if Apple hadn’t been allowed to fail, these products wouldn’t have even been possible.

Failure spurs a basic human instinct, sink or swim. When we’re content with how things are nothing changes, but when we’re tense and worried about our very future that’s when we take chances and have those “That’s it!” moments that change the world as we know it.

Failure, Like death, clears out the old and ushers in the new. If we discourage failure, we’re betraying humanity and stunting innovation.

Just imagine.. What would G.M’s “That’s It!” moment have been had they been allowed to get to that point of desperation? We may never know.

[2011, Benjamin Hubbard.]