When it comes to creating and becoming successful, Steve Jobs is one of the most influential figures in modern civilization.
So many adjectives to describe him: a leader, a pioneer, an inventor, a perfectionist, a genius, an inspiration, a man who was so successful in numerous industries such as personal computers, animated movies, music industry, phones, tablets, and so on.
But how did Steve Jobs grow to be so well-known?
How did he become such a great entrepreneur in so many different fields?
Interviews with Apple employees as well as Steve Jobs himself provided the basis for this article.
1. Follow your Passion.
It's passion that gets you started, and it's passion that keeps you going.
Success isn't simple.
You'll face several challenges and must not give up; this is where your passion comes into play; it will keep you going when no one else will.
Also, if you are enthusiastic about what you do, work isn't a difficult task for you.
It is simply doing what you enjoy, so you don't work; instead, you do what you love and eventually get rewarded for it.
2. Take Advice from Others.
Jobs attended lectures at Hewlett-Packard, a minor computer technology company, when he was in high school.
Steve had previously worked for HP and Atari before turning 21.
He observed what these businesses were doing and understood what he wanted Apple to do differently.
3. Get a Head Start.
Steve learned rapidly since he was still a sponge-brained youngster when he began dealing with computers.
It also helped that Steve founded Apple in his early twenties, when he was still young, full of energy, and unencumbered by a family or a work.
4. College is Crucial.
Higher education, at its best, pushes us to make connections and solve issues.
Jobs attributes part of the Macintosh's development to a college calligraphy course:
"If I hadn't dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had many typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts."
5. College However, It Isn't Necessary.
Jobs didn't want to deplete his parents' savings by attending Reed University.
Jobs would have been a junior in 1975 if he hadn't dropped out.
Instead, he co-founded Apple Computer in the same year.
6. Refuse to Do 1.000 Things.
Steve Jobs, a perfectionist, was extremely exacting when it came to providing the greatest possible experience for Apple customers.
Of course, when you're talking about a major corporation like Apple, you have to say no to a lot of shoddy goods and features that engineers come up with all the time.
What we can conclude from this is that if you want to be successful, you must also be choosy, expecting the highest possible quality for your initiatives.
7. Surround yourself with people that are positive.
Steve Jobs wasn't really a computer genius. If Jobs was the only one building the computers, Apple would have had no chance.
That is why he enlisted Steve Wozniak's help.
Jobs' enterprises have grown over the years because to the outstanding people he's hired, such as Apple CEO Tim Cook and Pixar CCO (Chief Creative Officer) John Lasseter.
8. Difficulties That Must Be Overcome
During the development of the first Apple computer, Jobs and Wozniak ran out of money.
Jobs sold his van and Wozniak sold his graphing calculator rather than give in. There's always a way when there's a will.
9. Be Prepared for Greatness.
People have a tendency to live up to their expectations.
Expect the unexpected!
Don't be shocked if you achieve success.
10. Make your Brain Active.
Have the ability to learn a lot of things while also being humble enough to admit you don't know everything.
You must be receptive to new experiences; inspiration might strike at any time.
Looking back on Steve Jobs' life, it's clear that several sources of inspiration influenced his creations.
It's never too late to learn something new, or to gain that one missing piece of the puzzle that will get your mind working.
11. Take Unnecessary Risks.
In the interest of development, Jobs was willing to cannibalise his company's products.
Many CEOs would have been hesitant to build the iPhone, knowing full well that it would contribute to the iPod's demise.
Yet Jobs went ahead and did it anyway (and took a big bite out of the lucrative mobile market).
Take risks and don't be afraid to fail. Especially intelligent ones.
12. Develop a Personal Branding Strategy.
In the Internet age, Steve Jobs was one of the first to grasp the growing value of personal brands. His black turtleneck, like the Apple logo, is instantly identifiable.
13. Don't Make decisions Based on Money.
Jobs was paid $1 per year as the CEO of Apple.
Jobs was motivated by his own unwavering pursuit of perfection, not by his income.
On the other hand, his sizable stock portfolio could have been a factor.
14. Invest in People.
At both Apple and Pixar, Jobs hired enthusiastic people and built excellent business cultures, and their work speaks for itself.
15. Have a Greater Goal.
"We are what we think," Buddha remarked. Our thoughts are the source of everything we are.
"We create the world with our thoughts."
Since he began practising Buddhism in the 1970s, Jobs has made his vision a reality.
16. Select the Appropriate Partner.
The person you choose to live your life with is the most important decision you will ever make.
If you choose wisely (as Steve did), you will have a partner who will assist you in overcoming daily obstacles.
17. Sell your Dreams, Not your Products.
You need a big picture of how you want to make an effect.
Steve Jobs wasn't selling computers; he was offering the world the opportunity to become better and simpler.
That was every customer's fantasy, and that's exactly what you should start doing.
Customers aren't interested in technical details or geeky information about your products.
They want to know how they can improve their lives, and that's what you have to offer them, so concentrate on that.
18. Make Experiences that are Incredibly Different.
As a result, create your own unique experience by thinking differently as well.
It's all about establishing a unique connection with customers by offering them with what they require.
When it comes to success, you must be creative and innovative.
Remember, you are not the only one doing it; you have competitors.
Create something that doesn't exist to set yourself apart from the competition.
19. Be Aware of the Message.
You can have a fantastic product, but if you fail to engage with customers, the product will not sell.
You'll have flaws and shortcomings, but if you work on them, you'll be able to overcome them!
Steve Jobs didn't become a brilliant presenter by accident; he worked hard to improve his presentation skills.
If you set your mind to it and work hard enough, you can achieve anything you want.
When it comes to success, that's huge.
In some ways, enjoying your profession is more essential than having a large cash account.
Steve Jobs is regarded as a pioneer in the field of entrepreneurship.
After dropping out of college, he co-founded Apple in a garage with co-founder Steve Wozniak in 1976.
The IT company is valued at $870 billion dollars on the stock exchange.
Jobs, who died in 2011 at the age of 56 from pancreatic cancer, was admired for his vision in making computer technology attractive and user-friendly.
The Mac computer, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad are all part of his legacy.
He was also notoriously acerbic, and when he battled with management, he was driven out of the company he established.
In 1997, he returned to the corporation he founded to lead it once more.
Jobs believes that building a successful company requires two things: passion and people.
Jobs stated this in a 2007 interview with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.
Gates concurred. He claims he wasn't after money when he started Microsoft.
(Perhaps ironic, given that Gates is now one of the world's wealthiest individuals, with a net worth of about $90 billion, according to Forbes.)
“It wasn't really recognising the economic value that piqued my interest.
"You know, even when we wrote 'a computer on every desk and in every home' in 1975 at Microsoft, we didn't expect we'd have to be a major corporation," Gates added.
"Being on the cutting edge and seeing new things and things we wanted to do, as well as being able to bring in various people who were interesting to work with. It's all about the people and their passion, in my opinion.”
20. Make a Mark on the World.
"We're here to make a dent in the cosmos," Jobs once declared. "If that's the case, why are you even here?"
Having a greater purpose is beneficial in more ways than one.
It changes the definition of the word.
Are you prepared to redefine success?
I'll leave the final word to Jobs:
"Love for what you do is the only way to achieve outstanding job."
Keep looking if you haven't discovered it yet.
Don't be satisfied with second best. You'll know when you find it, as with all issues of the heart.
And, like any great relationship, it only gets better with time.
So keep searching till you come across it. "Don't give up."
How has Steve Jobs' life inspired you?
Please share your thoughts in the comments box below.
I was lucky, I found what I love to do, early in life.
And I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20.
We worked hard and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in garage, into a 2 billion dollar company with over 4000 employees.
We just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier and I just turned 30.
And then I got fired.
How can you get fired from a company you started?
What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for few months, I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down.
I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the valley.
But something slowly began to dawn on me.
I still loved what I did.
We are gonna make it or break it, based on whether we can provide products, to higher education and services and relationships to higher education, that no one else provides.
And I think we got to spend a 100 percent of our time thinking about that and if we can't do that then we ought to go broke.
And so I decided to start over, I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could ever happen to me.
The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness, of being a beginner again, less sure about everything.
It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named Next, another company named Pixar.
And fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife.
I am pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple.
It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life is gonna hit you in the head with a brick.
Don't lose faith.
I am convinced that the only thing that kept me going was I loved what I did.
You have got to find what you love and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers.
Your work is gonna 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 and don't settle.
So keep looking do not settle.
Steve Jobs