Steve Jobs was one of the most creative minds of all time. Many documentaries about Jobs revolve around his innovations, leadership, productivity, and marketing skills which earned him success throughout his stellar career at Apple, Pixar, and NeXT. Jobs revolutionized six different industries in just 40 years, including personal computers, phones, animated movies, music, digital publishing, and computing.
Needless to say, Jobs was more intelligent than average individual, and was blessed with immense ambition, creativity, and drive. But the fact is—Jobs didn’t earn his success overnight. He achieved his success through years of hard work, commitment, and determination.
Jobs was always willing to share his deepest thoughts with the public, so he left behind many legendary quotes that we can learn from. The following are some of the coolest Steve Jobs words to live by.
One of my mantras is focus and simplicity
Jobs focused on the essence of his products and eliminated non-essential components to make them as simple as possible. He focused on creating products that would give users elegant solutions in a friendly manner, rather than posing a challenge to them. Jobs believed so much in simplicity as the ultimate sophistication.
What separates a leader from a follower is innovation
Having great ideas without implementing them will amount to nothing but regrets. Many people have amazing ideas, which is great. However, people tend to stop acting on their beautiful ideas due to hesitation and fear of uncertainty.
It’s important to act on an idea whether it’s big or small. Jobs acted on his business ideas and he became successful. Obviously, fear of failure and fear of the unknown will always be there, but don’t let them stop you. Jobs probably had these uncertainties too, but he overcame them and gave his ideas a shot anyway.
Say no to a thousand things
Jobs instilled a whole new design ethic at Apple that helped the company become very successful. His process of designing products was completely different. Simply put, the process involved figuring out what was important, simplifying the delivery, and eliminating all other unnecessary jargon.
Saying “no” to a thousand things implies getting rid of those things that would distract from the final product. Steve’s methodology was different in the sense that he believed the most vital decisions aren’t the things you do, but those you choose not to do.
My favorite things cost no money.
The most precious resource in life is time. Time frames and deadlines establish parameters, but in a rather awry way. People have this bad habit of setting deadlines to complete a task. Yes, deadlines are awesome, but can’t you adjust your time frame and put a little more effort to complete a task earlier?
Jobs recommends forgetting deadlines as a way to manage a task. Tasks need to take a reasonable amount of time, depending on their nature. Work as quickly and effectively as you can, which could mean cutting your leisure time short to get the task done instead of wasting it.
You are bound to make mistakes as you try to innovate
Ask successful people and they’ll be glad to tell you that it’s possible to make mistakes when you innovate. Occasionally, things beyond our control happen and we fail in the process. But it’s mostly our own mistakes that cause us to fail.
Every successful person has made terrible mistakes numerous times. Those who accept and learn from their mistakes will become successful. So embrace your failure, learn from it, and make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.
