Steve Jobs is one of the greatest tech entrepreneurs if not the greatest!
I am not a big Apple fan, actually, the only apple product that i personally own is an iPhone, but from noticing how well done this mobile device is, i can understand why there’s a huge cult around Apple products.
I imagine those who do not know the story of Steve Jobs, would doubt my above statement, but as an entrepreneur myself, i have the utmost respect for this guy and for what he have accomplished! The Journey of Steve is amazing, he created Apple (it was his baby and his effort), he got fired from Apple by the CEO he hired! He then went to create Next, Inc. purchased by none other than Apple for $429 million and 1.5 million shares of Apple stock, and he also created Pixar Animation studios and then sold it to Disney for $4.4 billion.
So, in short Steve created 3 distinct and separate companies each worth several billions, no other entrepreneur came close to that – to my knowledge.
Products wise, almost every single product presented by Jobs was a hit, from mac, to ipod, to ipad to iphone, itunes ….
Steve Jobs was generously teaching entrepreneurs sharing with them his experience and life lessons, here’s few of his best quotes:
On Entrepreneurship
- “have the courage to follow your heart and intuition”
- “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”
- “Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”
- “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you havent found it yet, keep looking. Dont settle. As with all matters of the heart, youll know when you find it.”
- “Im as proud of many of the things we havent done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things.”
- “I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out whats next.”
- “I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”
- “Your time is limited. Don’t waste it living someone else’s life”
- “Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.”
- “To turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of disciplines.”
- “Stay hungry, stay foolish.”
On creativity:
- “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.”
- “You cant connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”
- “Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”
On motivation:
- “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
- “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesnt matter to me Going to bed at night saying weve done something wonderful thats what matters to me.”
- “We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we’ve chosen to do with our life.”
Personal experience:
- “Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”
- “When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
- “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”
