Inspirational quotes from Steve Jobs for entrepreneurs

Almost everyone in the world related to tech industry have heard about Steve Jobs or know him by the companies he founded (think Apple, NeXT and Pixar). With a life as storied as he had, it’s no wonder that Steve Jobs is remembered not only for running an incredibly successful company, but also for being tremendously outspoken.

The journey of Steve was amazing. He created Apple Inc. (it was his baby and his effort), and then got fired from Apple by the CEO he hired! He then went to create Next, Inc. which was eventually purchased by none other than Apple for $429 million and 1.5 million shares of Apple stock. He also created Pixar Animation studios and then sold it to Disney for $4.4 billion. In short, Steve created 3 distinct and separate companies, with them each worth several billions, no other entrepreneur came close to that – to my knowledge.

Steve Jobs was one of the greatest tech entrepreneurs. He had an opinion on almost everything, and his thoughts often echoed his obsessive commitment to quality at Apple. Whether it was on his approach to mistakes:

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.

Or his attention to detail:

Design is not what it looks and feels like. Design is how it works.

Here’s a roundup of some of his more thought-provoking words, collected from various interviews and speeches.

Inspirational quotes from Steve Jobs for entrepreneurs on entrepreneurship

• “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”
• “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”
• “Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”
• “Your 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’’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’’ll know when you find it.”
• “I’’m as proud of many of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things.”
• “I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’’s next.”
• “I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”
• “Your time is limited. Don’t waste it living someone else’s life”
• “Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.”
• “To turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of discipline.”
• “Stay hungry, stay foolish.”

Inspirational quotes from Steve jobs for entrepreneurs on creativity:

• “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.”
• “You can’’t 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 –- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”
• “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.”