23 Steve Jobs Quotes Gen Z Needs to Hear
By Aaron Webber,
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- Steve Jobs has helped shape the world we live in today, so it's important we understand him as a human being.
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Steve Jobs was born in 1955. He helped develop three technology companies: Apple ( NASDAQ:AAPL ), NeXT, and Pixar. His fingerprints are all over the technology that has become commonplace in our society. Through $250,000 of funding provided by Mike Markkula, Steve Jobs and his business partner Steve Wozniak, were really able to get Apple on its feet so it could eventually turn into one of the most profitable and valuable companies in the world.
Forced out of Apple in 1985, Jobs sold all of his Apple shares except for one and created NeXT. In 1986, he acquired what is now Pixar. Jobs returned to Apple as the CEO in 1997 and regained 38 million shares in the company. In this era, Apple produced some of its most iconic products: the iPod, iPhone, iTunes, and iPad. It became the first company valued at $1 trillion in 2018.
Due to pancreatic cancer complications, he stepped down as CEO in August of 2011 and passed away in October of 2011. Here are some of his most famous quotes. For young adults looking to get a leg up in the world, these quotes might help you out. Keep in mind, though, that Steve Jobs had a lot of help along his path and was worth $10.2 billion at the time of his death. So, don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t end up managing a trillion-dollar company.
We are entering an age where many young adults won’t have any first-hand memory of Jobs or what he did and will have to rely on what others tell them. If that’s the case, what are the quotes that can best illustrate one of the most influential people of our modern age?
Why Are We Talking About This?
For better or for worse, Jobs has had a heavy hand in the shaping of our modern world. If we’re going to continue to revere the man who created one of the most valuable companies in the history of the world, we should understand the character of that person. What better way to do that than through quotes he said himself ?
#1 Come Work For Me
“Everything you’ve ever done in your life is shit! So why don’t you come work for me?”
This was said to Beb Belleville, who was a designer of the Xerox Star. The Xerox Star was a computer that was to hit the market in 1981 but was a tremendous flop. Bob Belleville, did in fact, start working for Apple shortly after this encounter. So, I suppose the lesson is to berate people to make them do what you want.
#2 Retroactive Notice
“Okay, the notice is retroactive from two weeks ago.”
Jobs made cutbacks at Pixar at some point in his tenure there. He made these cutbacks suddenly, without notice, and without any severance pay. He said this when one of his employees, Pamela Kerwin, advocated for at least two weeks’ notice for the cut employees.
Not a very nice move, in my opinion. He admitted, later in his career, that he had kind of started to have empathy for employees that he had laid off and tried to imagine how it would feel to be in their shoes. I don’t think it stopped him from performing mass layoffs, but you know, at least he started to feel bad.
#3 Are You a Virgin?
“How old were you when you lost your virginity? Are you a virgin? Have you ever taken LSD?”
From an account from a biography by Walter Isaacson. Jobs said this during a job interview with a candidate who was so flustered by the inappropriate line of questioning that caused the candidate to be so flustered that he walked out. Apparently, Jobs was allegedly trying to get a laugh out of the other two interviewers in the room.
#4 Skeletons in my Closet
“I don’t have any skeletons in my closet that can’t be allowed out. Anyone who doesn’t like me is probably a bozo.”
Jobs said this to Walter Isaacson when being interviewed for his biography. I suppose the lesson here is to just be as delusional as possible, don’t keep secrets, and fiercely believe in yourself no matter what. Apparently, that worked for Jobs.
#5 Follow Your Intuition
“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
This is something that Steve Jobs said and did. This might not always work, and it didn’t always work for Jobs, but when it worked, it really worked out for him. I’m impressed with people who know themselves well enough to act on their inner voices.
#6 Time is Limited
“Your time is limited. Don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of another’s opinion drown your inner voice.”
This quote was said in 2005 in a commencement speech at Stanford University. I think this advice is truer than ever before. Since it was given, we have become a people who are influenced (some would say controlled) by an algorithm that only feeds us content like what we are already interested in, or what we already think. We’ve seen people we know become radicalized by the far right or the far left and be taken over by conspiracy theories. So, let’s counteract the algorithms by being mindful of our inner voice, and taking the time to put down our phones and listen to it.
#7 Remember You Will Die
“Remembering 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.”
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become severely less interested in what other people think about me, and a much less self-conscious version of myself than I was when I was a teen and young adult. Maybe the lesson of this quote is that wisdom is growing into versions of ourselves that follow our hearts.
#8 We Love Music
“We did iTunes because we all love music. We made what we thought was the best jukebox in iTunes. Then we all wanted to carry our whole music libraries around with us. The team worked really hard. And the reason that they worked so hard is because we all wanted one. You know? I mean, the first few hundred customers were us.”
Our interpretation of this quote is the importance of creating things and doing things that personally affect you. If you are an innovator, solve a problem that you have. If you see a deficit somewhere in your community, home, or life, you should work to fill that deficit.
#9 Apple of this Business
“I used to say that Apple should be the Sony of this business, but in reality, I think Apple should be the Apple of this business.”
As time has passed, the Apple brand has become the gold standard of business and monopoly corporations. The stores, logo, product names, and almost everything the company does have become cultural events every year and benchmarks by which we judge design, success, and innovation. Mission accomplished, Jobs!
#10 Great Artists Steal
“Picasso had a saying. He said ‘Good artists copy, great artists steal.’ And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
I feel that this quote is exactly the building blocks of what is deeply flawed in our species. Unfortunately, capitalism has propelled humanity further than just stealing ideas. Now we steal labor, money, and resources. You can see the evidence of that if you look at any large corporation’s supply and production chain.
#11 Boredom is Wonderful
“I’m a big believer in boredom. Boredom allows one to indulge in curiosity and out of curiosity comes everything. All the [technology] stuff is wonderful, but having nothing to do can be wonderful, too.”
Has Jobs even used his own technology? The ironic thing to me is that because of mobile phones, the internet, algorithms, etc., it has conditioned us to never be bored.
The point remains, however, that boredom is good for us, especially as we grow up and especially for those in creative professions. The more we run away from boredom, the more we limit the growth and imagination our brains naturally wants to engage in.
#12 They Are Ridiculous
“I end up not buying a lot of things. Because I find them ridiculous.”
I find it deeply interesting that billionaires “don’t care” about the resources that they hoard. But, sure, let’s not buy a lot of things, fellow peasants. I know most of us can’t anyway because no one has any money, but don’t worry! All of those things are ridiculous anyway.
#13 A Simple Life
“I have a very simple life. I have my family and I have Apple and Pixar. And I don’t do much else.”
I personally wouldn’t call two multi-billion-dollar companies and a family life “simple,” but I’m not surprised he doesn’t have time for anything else. Compared to some of the "hustle culture" influencers of today, however, Jobs probably did have a simple life. It's not healthy to be constantly busy and constantly working. Jobs found his passion and followed it without needing to maximize his productivity in every possible aspect in every possible second.
#14 Nation of Bloggers
“I don’t want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers. I think we need editorial oversight now more than ever. Anything we can do to help newspapers find new ways of expression that will help them get paid, I am all for.”
If this isn’t a case of seeing the future, we don’t know what is. I suppose this is a case of, “you can’t have your cake and eat it, too?” It feels like all the internet has become is a nation of content creators these days.
#15 Technology is Nothing
"Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them. It’s not the tools that you have faith in- tools are just tools. They work, or they don’t work. It’s people you have faith in or not.”
I think this quote can stand alone without any commentary, but I think this is my favorite quote from the bunch. His optimistic view of humanity is admirable… or possibly delusional. It’s hard to tell sometimes.
#16 Bicycle for our Minds
“What a computer is to me is it’s the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.”
Unfortunately, we have let computers of every type become the commander of our lives, telling us what to think, what to do, and who to be, instead of being a tool we can use to improve ourselves. If only we let bicycles be the equivalent of bicycles again.
#17 I Didn’t do it for the Money
“I was worth about over a million dollars when I was 23 and over ten million dollars when I was 24, and over a hundred million dollars when I was 25 and… it wasn’t that important- because I never did it for the money.”
Why do people with vast amounts of money and resources always claim that their wealth isn’t important? Put your money where your mouth is, billionaires. Give it away if it's not important.
#18 Character Building
“I’m the only person I know that’s lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year… It’s very character-building.”
The gulf between the wealthy and the poor in our society is often beyond the comprehension of the rich. Those who build their entire existence and value system on money often have a hard time when they lose it all. On the other hand, those who base their life on something else don’t have such a strong reaction when they lose money. This is a contradiction to Jobs’ previous quote, which highlights that money is as useful as we make it.
#19 Live Your Life
“When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”
I really appreciate this perspective, actually. He is admitting that billionaires, like himself, aren’t any smarter than the rest of us. That’s a really hopeful thought. We can all be agents of change in our own lives.
#20 Money is Humorous
“You know, my main reaction to this money thing is that it’s humorous, all the attention to it, because it’s hardly the most insightful or valuable thing that’s happened to me.”
Surprisingly, a lot of Jobs' quotes are about money, even though it’s “not important.” Is it projecting? If we all had this mindset then the world would definitely be a better place, but it seems the only advice people hear comes from billionaires who couldn't care less about the impact of their wealth and work on society.
#21 I Want it to be Us
“If anybody’s going to make our products obsolete, I want it to be us.”
Say what you will about Steve Jobs, but he was highly driven and did make his products obsolete. Sometimes it’s by transitioning to only new power cables, or taking away headphone ports, or creating software updates that make old models less effective. Apple has definitely followed through on this idea, and not necessarily always for the better.
#22 That’s What Matters
“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me… Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful... that’s what matters to me.”
The age-old question remains: would Jobs have done what he did if there was no money in it? If he didn’t make billions of dollars from his work? We may never know.
The irony is, that despite all his talk about not caring about money, he ended up being the richest man in every cemetery.
#23 Stay Foolish
“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
Here it is, the perfect summarization of Steve Jobs’ personality, method, and advice. Take it with a grain of salt, though. Before you act too foolishly, consider how much money, power, and political persuasion you personally have to back up your actions.
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