“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.” — Steve Jobs
From his Stanford Commencement speech, 2005. Many people see this as one of the most inspirational speeches ever, so it’s worth checking out.
“Stay hungry, stay foolish.” — Steve Jobs
What’s the meaning of this quote? “Stay hungry” means to always remain eager to learn, grow, and strive for more. “Stay foolish” means to embrace risk-taking and be open to new ideas and perspectives, even if it requires looking “foolish” to others. This was a closing remark Steve Jobs made in his Stanford Commencement speech, but the original quote comes from the final issue of The Whole Earth Catalog.
“There’s genius in acting like a fool and experimenting and exploring opportunities that others may overlook.” — Steve Jobs
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” — Steve Jobs
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” — Steve Jobs
From Apple’s “Think Different” campaign—Jobs’ philosophy in a nutshell.
“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.” — Steve Jobs
“Your time is limited. Don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” — Steve Jobs
And the longer version of this quote…
“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 other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” — Steve Jobs
“Everything around you that you call life, was made up by people who were no smarter than you. And you can change it. And you can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use.” — Steve Jobs
“Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.” — Steve Jobs
“You can’t 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. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” — Steve Jobs
“I want to put a ding in the universe.” — Steve Jobs
“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.” — Steve Jobs
“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” — Steve Jobs
“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.” — Steve Jobs
“Creativity is just connecting things.” — Steve Jobs
“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” — Steve Jobs
“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” — Steve Jobs
“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.” — Steve Jobs
“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” — Steve Jobs
“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” — Steve Jobs
“My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to make them better.” — Steve Jobs
“Details matter, it’s worth waiting to get it right.” — Steve Jobs
“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.” — Steve Jobs
“Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.” — Steve Jobs
“Focus is about saying no.” — Steve Jobs
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.” — Steve Jobs
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” — Steve Jobs
“My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.” — Steve Jobs
“Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin…” — Steve Jobs
“The juice goes out of Christianity when it becomes too based on faith rather than on living like Jesus or seeing the world as Jesus saw it. I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s the great mystery.” — Steve Jobs
“If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much.” — Steve Jobs
“It’s better to be a pirate than to join the Navy.” — Steve Jobs
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