Steve Jobs

"A collection of direct quotes from Steve Jobs on topics related to business, technology, Apple, and life"--Provided by publisher.

Steve Jobs in His Own Words

I, Steve

Sanat Gersappa

have read most of the quotes before, but it was nice to have them all in one place.

Lance Willett

Re-read of a compilation of Steve Jobs quotes (gift from Automattic, holidays 2011).

My favorites:

People judge you by your performance, so focus on the outcome. Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected. (1987)

People think focus is 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. (1997)

You need a very product-oriented culture, even in a technology company. Lots of companies have tons of great engineers and smart people. But ultimately, there needs to be some gravitational force that pulls it all together. Otherwise, you can get great pieces of technology all floating around the universe. But it doesn't add up to much. (2004)

In 1997 I got back here and found a room full of old Macs and other stuff. I shipped all that off to Stanford. If you look backward in this business, you'll be crushed. You have to look forward. (2008)

We just wanted to build the best thing we could build. When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even thought it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You'll know it's there, so you're going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through. (1985)

> We've reviewed the road map of new products and axed more than 70 percent of them, keeping the 30 percent that were gems. The product teams at Apple are very excited. There's so much low-hanging fruit, it's easy to turn around. (1998)

> 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 important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. (2005)

I, Steve Steve Jobs in His Own Words

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