Whether you found him polarizing or prophetic, Apple鈥檚 late co-founder, , was certainly eloquent. He touched many with his passion and creativity for making beautiful things, and his legacy lives on through his company and the many motivational thoughts he shared with the world. Here are 25 of Steve Jobs鈥 most popular quotes on life, leadership, and doing really good work.
1. 鈥淭he people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.鈥
2. 鈥淔or the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 鈥業f today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?鈥 And whenever the answer has been 鈥楴o鈥 for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.鈥
3. 鈥淵our 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. If you haven鈥檛 found it yet, keep looking. Don鈥檛 settle. As with all matters of the heart, you鈥檒l know when you find it.鈥
4. 鈥淚鈥檝e always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don鈥檛 know why. Because they鈥檙e harder. They鈥檙e much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you鈥檝e completely failed.鈥
5. 鈥淩emembering 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.鈥
6. 鈥淕etting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.鈥
7. 鈥淚t'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.鈥
8. 鈥淚鈥檓 as proud of many of the things we haven鈥檛 done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things.鈥
9. 鈥淵our 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. If you haven鈥檛 found it yet, keep looking. Don鈥檛 settle. As with all matters of the heart, you鈥檒l know when you find it.鈥
10. 鈥淨uality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.鈥
11. 鈥淏e a yardstick of quality. Some people aren鈥檛 used to an environment where excellence is expected.鈥
12. 鈥淢y model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each others鈥 negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts.鈥
13. 鈥淪ometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations.鈥
14. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 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鈥攜our gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.鈥
15. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 been one of my mantras鈥攆ocus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.鈥
16. 鈥淏eing the richest man in the cemetery doesn鈥檛 matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we鈥檝e done something wonderful...that鈥檚 what matters to me.鈥
17. 鈥淚'm convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.鈥
18. 鈥淭echnology is nothing. What鈥檚 important is that you have a faith in people, that they鈥檙e basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they鈥檒l do wonderful things with them.鈥
19. 鈥淚nnovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.鈥
20. 鈥淢y favorite things in life don鈥檛 cost any money. It鈥檚 really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.鈥
21. 鈥淗ave the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.鈥
22. 鈥淪ometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don鈥檛 lose faith.鈥
23. 鈥淵our time is limited, so don鈥檛 waste it living someone else鈥檚 life. Don鈥檛 be trapped by dogma鈥攚hich is living with the results of other people鈥檚 thinking. Don鈥檛 let the noise of others鈥 opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.鈥
24. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we鈥檝e all chosen to do this with our lives. So, it better be damn good. It better be worth it.鈥
25. 鈥淚 want to put a ding in the universe.鈥
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