American entrepreneur, inventor, founder of Apple, Steven Paul Jobs, and his thoughts on:
Life
I want to put a ding in the universe.
Key Differences
Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
Pretty much, Apple and Dell are the only ones in this industry making money. They make it by being Wal-Mart. We make it by innovation.
It is piracy, not overt online music stores, which is our main competitor.
Customers
You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.
It took us three years to build the NeXT computer. If we’d given customers what they said they wanted, we’d have built a computer they’d have been happy with a year after we spoke to them – not something they’d want now.
A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.
Excellence
Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.
Definition of Design
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
Market Share
Apple’s market share is bigger than BMW’s or Mercedes’s or Porsche’s in the automotive market. What’s wrong with being BMW or Mercedes?
Innovation
To turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of disciplines.
Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.
Work
The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.
I think we’re having fun. I think our customers really like our products. And we’re always trying to do better.
The Critical Thinker(tm) 