Steve Jobs
I picked up the biography of Jobs during a pivotal period of transition for myself, of leaving the first company I built as it grew further apart from me. In the book Isaacson paints a deeply human portrait of Jobs as an intensely emotional, passionate, and sociopathic perfectionist who was driven by a singular desire to create great products, and who truly believed in his own exceptionalism to the point that he made the world believe it too. The book is comprehensive and long but I found it to be easy to read, and although my company’s previously gone against Apple regarding App Store policies, it’s made me grow a tremendous respect for the swashbuckling Apple of the early days not being afraid to pick fights with the biggest players of their time. In the biography, I found some refreshing vindication for the things that I want to make mine in a company truly my own: of not withholding negative feedback, of expecting great work and not tolerating anything less, and of crafting a personal vision for myself which can influence a company’s vision.
In the short half month that I’ve read it, it’s made a profound impact on me and most importantly has given me this impetus to form a personal vision around what kind of entrepreneur I want to be. Jobs had a clear personal vision: to create great products at the intersection of the humanities and technology. Leaving my last company has given me a refreshing opportunity to germinate on something similar, and for me as of now, I want to make things that add to the world’s beauty, and in doing so add to as many people's happiness as possible. I grew up with so much of my life immersed in the arts and also so much immersed in the sciences, and many times beauty is made in their coming together; I feel there’s no greater good than to make something that can inspire some universal awe, warmth, and even transcendence in people. I didn’t quite have a personal vision going into my first company, other than to solve a problem and make a big impact, which isn’t really that strong nor tailored to my own identity. The book along with my own reflections have made me see some of the myopia in my past motivations and given me a renewed desire to not just make a company that has high revenue or high impact or one I’d like to take to its IPO, but rather a company whose legacy I’d be proud of 10, 15, and 20 years after its IPO, an enduring one that I can believe in.
% grep -i "steve jobs" quotes.txt4 matches
on wealth
“I watched people at Apple who made a lot of money and felt they had to live differently. Some of them bought a Rolls-Royce and various houses, each with a house manager and then someone to manage the house managers. Their wives got plastic surgery and turned into these bizarre people. This was not how I wanted to live. It’s crazy. I made a promise to myself that I’m not going to let this money ruin my life”
— Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs
on standards
“I’ve learned over the years that when you have really good people you don’t have to baby them. By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things. The original Mac team taught me that A-plus players like to work together, and they don’t like it if you tolerate B work. Ask any member of that Mac team. They will tell you it was worth the pain”
— Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs
on motivation
“The older I get, the more I see how much motivations matter. The Zune was crappy because the people at Microsoft don’t really love music or art the way we do. We won because we personally love music. We made the iPod for ourselves, and when you’re doing something for yourself, or your best friend or family, you’re not going to cheese out. If you don’t love something, you’re not going to go the extra mile, work the extra weekend, challenge the status quo as much”
— Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs
on creativity
“There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat, that’s crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into someone, you ask what they’re doing, you say ‘Wow,’ and soon you’re cooking up all sorts of ideas”
— Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs