Steve Jobs is one of my inspirations. I read his biography and learned his way of dealing with business and I can tell you that it is simply fascinating.
I strongly encourage you to read his biography written by Walter Isaacson. It is a thick book, but the insights and ideas contain within the book are priceless.
Like all other extraordinary people, Steve Jobs lived an extraordinary life too.
He has been a strict vegetarian, been to Indian to search for the meaning of life, created Apple, been fired in Apple, brought Pixar to the next level through Toy Story, and got back to Apple and revolutionized the whole technology industry.
When you think about it, he has achieved amazing success in life. And there are a lot we all can learn from his thinking and his principles.
Here are the 10 life-changing quotes from Steve Jobs that will make you successful.
There are many powerful quotes you can learn from him, but I believe these are the 10 that will resonate with most people.
“We’re here to put a dent in the universe.”
When it comes to achieving outstanding success, you can tell from people who think big. Jobs is the person who thinks big and he wants to leave his mark in the world.
This is why he said he wanted to put a dent in the universe. He believed and always wanted to do something extraordinary, something unique, something revolution and something that will change the world.
And he did.
Here’s another saying from Steve Jobs that is related:
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
You must first believe in your own dreams. If you do not believe that you can achieve what you want, there’s no way you can make it.
Thus, dare to dream and dare to think crazily. It is alright if other people say that you are crazy and it is impossible, let them be.
You are you and this is your life. So you get to choose how you want to live and what you want to accomplish.
No one believes that Arnold Schwarzenegger is able to make it the bodybuilding and acting career, but he ignored the naysayer and went for it anyway. So he succeeded.
You have to be the same. Trust yourself and believe in your dreams.
So are you ready to put a dent in the universe?
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
You have to keep innovating yourself and your business. Keep on improving and keep on moving forward.
If you are not innovating, others will overtake you and put you out of business. There are billions of other people who are doing exactly what you do, so what makes you different from them?
You have to think of a way to be creative and innovative.
When it comes to business, Steve Jobs never did any market research. He believed in his own innovation and invention.
When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, he never did any market research either. And to Steve Jobs, people can never know if they need a product until they have seen one.
And this is what distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
“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.”
Most people focus on the money and the profits, but it is not the money that will make you rich, it is your passion and the progress you have been through that truly count.
“Bottom line is, I didn’t return to Apple to make a fortune. I’ve been very lucky in my life and already have one. When I was 25, my net-worth was $100 million or so. I decided then that I wasn’t going to let it ruin my life. There’s no way you could ever spend it all, and I don’t view wealth as something that validates my intelligence.”
Your wealth is not determined by how much money you have, but rather, it is determined by how much you have done for the world and other people.
Donald Trump did make a very good remark about money:
“Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.”
Well, you can say that Donald Trump can say so because he is rich.
Now think about it for a moment, is it because these great people think so because they are rich, or is it they are rich because they think so?
Your thinking will shape your life.
So choose to adopt the right thinking that will make you rich and successful.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. 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. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”
Life is short and you should not waste it living other people’s life. Do not let other people’s opinion become your reality.
If you don’t have a dream, find one. If you don’t have a goal, set one.
Find your calling and discover your destiny. You came into this world with something big in you.
Dare to dream and dare to follow your heart. Never let others tell you what you can or cannot do.
All the people who have accomplished amazing feat follow their dreams. Look at Michael Jordan, Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, etc, they all follow their hearts and their dreams.
They work on their passion and master their work. And eventually, they become the best in their field.
So are you doing that right now?
“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.”
We all have 24 hours a day and we spend almost half of it into our work. And we work for years since we stepped out of school until we grow old.
Therefore, choose to do something that will make you satisfy and fulfill.
Since your work is going to fill a large part of your life, you’d rather spend your time to work on something worthwhile and something that you are passionate about.
I love this quote a lot because it keeps on reminding me that I must love what I do if I want to do great work.
Most people are working on things that they hate. They complain that their work is boring, their company is lifeless and their boss is lousy.
Never let this happen to you. You are going to spend a huge chunk of time working, so choose to work on things that you love.
Try to find the passion in your work, and if you can’t, change your job.
Complaining will not solve anything and it will do you no good. Follow your heart and follow your intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to be in life.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. 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.”
When Steve Jobs got fired from the company that he started, he felt like he is the biggest failure of all time.
However, after some time down the road, he felt otherwise. He thought that getting fired from Apple was one of the biggest opportunities he ever had in life.
After he got fired, he went on to start anther computer company called Next and bought Pixar. If he had not been fired, there will never be Toy Story and Apple will never have the amazing result today.
Sometimes you just cannot see where the future leads you. All you have to do to trust that thing will somehow connect in the future.
You will never know your biggest setbacks might be the main reasons you succeed in the future. You just cannot tell if you look into the future.
You can only tell when you look back at your life and try to connect all the dots together.
So don’t give up on your dreams and keep chasing. Keep working on it and believe that things will somehow work out for you.
“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.”
You simply cannot succeed without going through failure. In fact, you will face a lot of rejections, setbacks, and failures in your journey.
But do not lose faith. Keep going and keep swimming.
When you study the story of successful people, you will see that every one of them went through some failures in their lives.
Yes, every one of them.
Failures are just mistakes and you have to learn from it. You cannot avoid making mistakes in life. All you can do is to embrace them and take them as lessons.
The more mistakes you make, the more you will learn. The more you learn the further you can do.
If you are not making any mistake in life, probably you are not taking enough actions or maybe you are not trying hard enough.
“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.”
In order to be successful, you must do the right thing that will yield you the most result. And the only way to achieve this is by reviewing your results every day.
This is what Steve Jobs did every day; asking the same question every single morning.
How would you live your life if today is the last day you are going to live?
“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.”
When it comes to death, money will not be an issue for you anymore. You will then put your focus on things that you value the most, your family, your loved ones, your passion, etc.
Material items and shiny objects become obsolete and you will care more about things that truly matter to you.
And that is how life should work.
You focus on creating value and changing lives through your business; you put in your passion and work your best. You spend time with people you love and whom you truly care for.
So ask yourself every day, how would you live if today is your last day?
“I’m as proud of many of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things.”
When we talk about business and management, Steve Jobs is the person who knows how to focus. His focus is legendary.
After he got back to Apple, he rejected most products and focus on the vital few.
Look at other brands of smartphones, look at Nokia, Samsung, Sony, etc. They have tons of phones line up to cater for all kinds of markets.
Now take a good look at iPhone, how many are they?
Just one. Apple created just one phone and Apple captured most of the market. This is the power of focus.
You are able to produce the remarkable result only when you focus and put all your attention into one thing.
Stop thinking about building multiple streams of income, instead, focus on building just one first, and once you have done it, only then you build the others.
Don’t read two books at the same time, read one until you finish only starting the other.
Stop working on a few websites or projects at the same time, put your focus and pour in 100% attention into just one until you get the result you want, only then you spread your focus to others.
How hungry are you for success? Everyone wants to be successful, but most of them are not hungry for it.
They are not willing to do work. They are not willing to take more action. They are not willing to wake up early and stay later. They are not willing to give up their leisure time.
If you are not hungry for what you want, you will never get it.
Stay foolish and always be ready to learn. Making mistakes are absolutely alright as long as you learn from them.
Keep innovating and keep improving.
Mike Markkula, one of the very first investors to invest in Apple told Steve Jobs after he came back to Apple, that business is like a butterfly, it has to go through metamorphosis to continue growing.
You have to be the same, like a butterfly.
Go through metamorphosis, transforming you from a caterpillar to butterfly.
This is why you need to constantly improve and innovate your business and yourself.
So stay hungry and stay foolish.
To me, Steve Jobs is one of the people who inspired me to go for my dreams. What about you? And out of the 10 success quotes above, which one resonate the most with you?
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