It is hard to deny the brilliance of Steve Jobs. Not only did he pioneer Apple to become a revolutionary company, but also to be the most valued brand of its time. Steve Jobs thrived on many different philosophies to make him as successful as he was. If we can tap into his mindset and explore these thoughts, the inspiration may trigger positive action towards becoming the best definition of ourselves in our careers. To help you get inspired, here are some of his quotes.
1. “I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”
2. “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? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.”
3. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
4. “My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.”
5.“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
6. “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 haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”
7. “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”
8. “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.”
9. “That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.”
10. “We’re just enthusiastic about what we do.”
11. “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
12. “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.”
13. “My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.”
14. “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”
15. “When you’re doing something for yourself, or your best friend or family, you’re not going to cheese out. If you don’t love something, you’re not going to go the extra mile, work the extra weekend, challenge the status quo as much.”
16. “I was worth about over a million dollars when I was 23 and over ten million dollars when I was 24, and over a hundred million dollars when I was 25 and… it wasn’t that important — because I never did it for the money.”
17. “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 what’s next.”
18. “Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”
19. “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”
20. “Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.”
Featured photo credit: OiMax via flickr.com