Is Steve Jobs Brilliant and Creative? I think not!

Today somebody sent an email about how Steve Jobs is creative and brilliant. This reminded me of my friend overhearing a conversation from an old lady about how Bill Gates created Internet.

If we really think about Jobs, what do we really know about him? Here was my response to email, you make your own opinion:
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I differ in opinion. I do not know if he is brilliant or creative. We give all credit of iPhone to Jobs but do we know who came up with the idea or business model? I can almost bet that most big companies it is not the CEO who comes up with best ideas.

Also, the multi billion dollar creative idea called "iPhone" has been "out in the open" for 3+ years now, how come nobody can compete even now? If he was so brilliant, how come he failed at Next? How come Mac is not as popular as PC? Calling him creative and brilliant does not explain his failures. So the question is what is he good at and what he is not good at?

Jobs skills are not creativity or brilliance. He has only one skill, he
can create amazingly efficient teams. Starting from 1 person team (Steve W.) to currently massive company called Apple. These teams execute at speeds that other companies cannot. If you read about what he did in Pixar, you can see hints of his strategy. He failed at Next because despite his superb team which resulted in an amazing product, his business vision failed, same story with Mac. He even admitted it during iPhone's early days that Apple has made some mistakes with Mac that they will not make with iPhone.

Team is No 1 factor in success or failure of a company... or so I believe

Give a man a fish OR teach a man to fish

With Bill Gates billions of dollars committed to charity, Warren Buffet's billions donated to charity, Bill Clinton's 4Billion collected for charity each year and billions other collected by redcross, churches and thousands of other organizations, how much money do we collect in total per year for charity and basic human needs? Out of these billions, how many are wasted back on collecting more money?

Most of the organizations I know plan to survive on charity year after year instead of building a sustainable long term model. As I read somewhere, essentially the best way to solve issues is to encourage or incentivize entrepreneurs to solve the issues. Dont we have better chances of solving these issues once political bureaucracy is eased for entrepreneurs to take over?

California shortage of funds, prisoner release and people willing to work for food...

First, I promise I will try to stay in touch more than I have. I will write not only about what is going on with iGifter but also about other thoughts and ideas.

Today I am going to write about my thoughts on charity. A few days ago I was discussing charity with a friend and she said that governments could feed all hungry children, at least in India and China, i.e. if they wanted to. I did some quick rough calculations and found that it is indeed economically feasible.

Today's http://blog.google.org/ and previous news of California releasing a third of its prisoners triggered another thought. While there are no jobs or food in many countries, California is unable to contain its costs despite being one of the most educated and flourished states. USA has consulates all across the world, why can they not do the same with prisons? This would not only cut the costs but also employ many people in countries where they are willing to work for food. Oh and not to mention, if the prisoner escapes, they still do not end up in US.

Yes it would be a political nightmare but an economic possibility.