You Can’t Create A Steve Jobs

You can create Steve Jobs figurings, though.

Last weekend at Qinghua University, Lee Kai-Fu shared some interesting thoughts on mobile and entrepreneurship in China. The conversation with the moderator (who is also a professor) and audience, like it or not, somehow focused too much on creating a Steve Jobs.

As Lee asserted that fresh graduates are unlikely to make it into his incubator program, Innovation Works, the moderator, probably for the fun of it, argued and said that there are so many talented young people in Qinghua and China who could be the next Steve Jobs.

But he later also confessed that it is tough as he hasn’t met students with the right ingredients yet. And of course, there’s also the usual criticism about Chinese culture and education, which are believed to be hindering entrepreneurship here.

Sure, that’s personal opinion. But I find it a little disturbing that Steve Jobs became the central reference point throughout a session discussing entrepreneurship in China. How about successful entrepreneurs like Pony Ma, Jack Ma, and Robin Li? Why aren’t they the “Steve Jobs of China” or at least recognized/referenced as Chinese who have built great products that serve the China market well?

Perhaps this is just an Asia thing. An interesting thing about this continent is the amount of respect we have for the westerners. And sometimes I find we have far too much respect, to the point that it borders on a lack of self-confidence on our part.

There’s no problem with idolizing or learning from the best, but it is disturbing to listen to an entire discussion about creating a Steve Jobs in China. There’s no way China (or any other country out there) can do that because Jobs came from a very different culture and had gone through certain experiences that made him who he was.

As ridiculous as it may sound, at one point, the moderator even asked Lee how he has dealt with his kids’ education and questioned if they could be the next Steve Jobs. Lee laughed and said that they are not entrepreneurial sort of characters.

Exactly.

From my interpretation, I believe Lee is essentially communicating that a Steve Jobs can’t be bred, made, or trained. You can’t create or anticipate a genius entrepreneur.

No one would have the balls to say, “Okay, we can just throw in some U.S. education, put in some cash for entrepreneurs, and inject entrepreneurship courses to create/train a Steve Jobs.”

Everything has to be organic because it is the passion that drives an entrepreneur hard; and passion is developed naturally.

Steve Jobs said the following at his 2005 Stanford commencement which pretty much sums up everything: