Steve Jobs was a visionary and cult figure who inspired millions. His quotes almost attained the attributes of a scripture. Here are some to live by:
“People don’t know what they want until you show it to them”
You are right Steve; we didn’t know what we wanted until we experienced your vision of Apple. As you have rightfully said, “Don’t sell your products, sell people their dreams, they will follow you”. You empowered us with the power we barely knew and helped in achieving our dreams.
“You’ve got to find what you love”
You proved that, Steve. You loved simplifying the technology for masses. Falling in love with work is essential; because it is going to fill a large part of our life. The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what we believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what we do. Period.
“Connecting the dots”
I believe you, Steve. You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. Since then, I have stopped worrying about the harsh times; somehow these dots would definitely connect in the future. So whatever happens in your life, just be calm and believe that in every adversity, there would be a blessing in disguise that we may not understand now.
“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose”
Truly said, Steve; everyone is going to die but no one believes it. There is no reason not to follow your heart. We are already naked; there is no point in not following our dreams. Our life has got some purpose and we have to define it by ourselves; nobody is going to lead you towards the path of enlightenment except you.
“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”
It took time for me to understand. But believe me, it’s a revelation. It says, “Don’t settle down until you find what you love to do”. Until then “STAY HUNGRY, STAY FOOLISH”; everything else is secondary. Even if we fail, we fail daring greatly so that we can never be like cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
“Keep evolving always”
Darwin said, “Survival of the fittest, not the survival of strongest”. Those who are adaptable to change will survive at the end of the day. Apple never stopped with the success of Macintosh, it continually pushed the limits to create new line of products that people would die to own them. Bob Dylan famously puts, “If you are not busy being born, you are busy dying”. So never stop with the success because success is never final.
“Less is more”
Declutter, declutter, and declutter because less is always more. Implementing this philosophy in Apple created wonders in Steve’s life. Having been inspired from Zen’s philosophy of Minimalism, Apple is revolutionary in creating products with such a simple design that people would cherish grabbing on the first day. No wonder that all the Apple products come without a manual, they are too simple to understand and operate. So remember always, less is more.
“I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates”
Steve, being an avid follower of Socrates, evidently knew the importance of philosophy in his life. Many of us would think that Philosophy is an elite subject that is confusing. However, philosophy is a manual of our lives and Steve rightfully knew it or else it would have been highly difficult for him to create the market for computers that actually didn’t exist when he started “APPLE”. Philosophy tames you to accept the paradoxes of life. Hence nothing bothers, except your vision as Steve once had.
Many come and go but only a few leave lasting impressions in the history of mankind. We owe you in many ways, Steve. As long as innovations keep flowing you are alive because you are the one who inspired innovation.
APPLE may not be APPLE without you. We love APPLE because of you.
