Steve Jobs
With the dead of Steve Jobs, most newspapers have lengthy obituaries, personal essays and business stories about the man who changed the world. Steve Jobs has distinguished himself from other leaders because of his “personal style” that not many people know. He did not like to talk much, except a few short sentences and in the speech that he gave to students at StanfordUniversity. I have collected some of his short sentences that you may find interesting:
“I have a vision that if we can build a small computer, we can put it in every household in the world”
“We went to Atari and said: “We have created this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we give it to you, we just want to have it built. Pay us some salary, we will come to work for you. And they said: “You are foolish, nobody want to have a computer in their home”. So we went to HP, and they said: “We do not need people like you. You have not even graduate from college yet.”
“I was worth over $1 million dollars when I was 23, and over $10 million when I was 24, and over $100 million when I was 25, but it was not that important because I never did it for the money. I love what I do.”
“Bill Gates would be a better guy, if he smoke “something” and go to India to search for enlightenment when he was younger”
“Why a talented person like you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water and sweet candies to children? Why don’t you join me and change the world?”
“Technical is not enough, you need to know about the business too. Without it, bad things can happen”.
“I feel like somebody just punched me in the stomach … I am only 30 years old and I want to have a chance to continue to create things. I know that I have got at least one more great computer design in me. But Apple is not going to give me a chance to do that. They fired me”.
“I did not see it then, but it turned out that 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 allow me to enter the most creative period of my life.”
“I am the only person that I know who lost a billion dollars in one year. It really build my character.”
“I have a plan that could rescue Apple but nobody there will listen to me. Apple has some tremendous assets and I believe without some attention, the company could die”.
“The personal computer wars are over. Done. Finished. Microsoft won a long time ago.”
“When you make mistake, it is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your innovations.”
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower”
“Innovation has nothing to do with how much dollars you spend. When Apple create the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on research. It is not about the money. It is about the people that you have, how they are led, and how much they love their jobs”.
“To most people, design means veneer, cosmetic. It is decorating like the fabric of the curtains or the sofa. But to me, design is the soul of a human-made creation that expressing itself in the outer layers of the product or service.”
“When I hire someone, competence is the key. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself. If they have passion for what they do. They will want to do what is best for Apple, not what is best for them or what is best for Steve Jobs, or anybody else.”
“The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind Apple. My job is to create space for them so they can do what they love and clear out the rest of distraction away”
“My job is not to be nice with people. My job is to take these people we have and push them and make them better”
“You cannot just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they will want something new.”
“You cannot do the same thing over and over again. You must be hungry for something new. Be creative”
“Almost everything, pride, fear, embarrassment, winning, losing, success, failure will fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way to avoid the trap of thinking about myself or about I have something to lose. There is no reason not to follow your heart. Stay hungry, stay foolish”
“Connect the dots and follow your dream.”
“Your time is limited so do not waste on something else. Do not let the noise of other’s opinion drown out your inner voice. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition because they know what you truly want to become. Everything else is not important. Follow you passion.”
“We do not get a chance to do many things, so everyone should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die. And we all have to chose what to do with our lives. So it better be very good. It better be worth it.”
“Being the richest man in the cemetery does not bother me. Going to bed at night and knowing that you are doing something wonderful. That is what matter to me”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
