Steve Jobs

Inner Keys to Success:

• SUCCESS REWARDS BOLD VISIONARIES: Steve Jobs was a very bold and strong minded individual. So much so, that others even viewed him as an “arrogant” business man. Regardless of his arrogance, Jobs was a bold-minded visionary in every sense of the word. In fact, when he was in high school he asked William Hewlett, the owner of Hewlett Packard for parts for a school project, he got offered a summer internship by Mr. Hewlett because he was so impressed. The term “reality distortion field” was created by Apple employees to describe his ability to convince himself, and others using charm, charisma, marketing, and persistence of believing the impossible was possible. As the CEO and founder of Apple, when Jobs didn’t see eye to eye with the board of directors, he resigned, and was eventually fired from his own company. However, his bold mentality was what made all the difference, he states that it was the best thing that ever happened to him, “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.” He was strong enough to start over, which led him to creating another company, NeXT which was ironically bought out by Apple. Only the bold visionaries can make it thus far.

• “FOLLOW YOUR HEART AND INTUITION. THEY SOMEHOW ALREADY KNOW WHAT IT IS YOU TRULY WANT TO BECOME”: As Jobs once stated at a Harvard graduation speech, he followed his heart. Jobs first showed an early interest in electronics and gadgetry as he spent a lot of time working in the garage workshop of a neighbor who worked at Hewlett-Packard. Jobs also enrolled in the Hewlett-Packard Explorer Club when he was in high school where he saw engineers demonstrate new products. This is also where he got the privilege to see his first computer at the young age of twelve. He was very inspired, and felt intuition calling, he knew right away that he wanted to work with computers. Jobs eventually dropped out of college, worked part-time designing video games for Atari to save up for a trip to India. It is said that on a seven-month spiritual journey in India, Jobs believed Buddhism influenced his mentality, and the spiritual people he studied heightened his sense of intuition. He came back with a sense of purpose, and finally did what he knew felt right, he joined with Steve Wozniak o build a small computer. Although Wozniak saw the project as a hobby, Jobs saw the venture as a major business opportunity, which through a windy journey turned into one of the biggest computer companies in the world, Apple. As you can see, he let his intuition, not his ego, guide him.

• HAVE ENORMOUS AMBITION TO ‘CHANGE THE WORLD’: Jobs had a never ending ambition to succeed and did whatever it took to make it happen. In fact, he solely focused on making his dream a reality which he truly believed would change the world. In a vintage commercial (click here to watch), he state’s “the ones who are crazy enough to change the world, are the one’s who do” and he fit the category. Jobs goal was to create the most user-friendly computers that every person could easily use, this little idea drove him so intensely to create what is now known as one of the most innovative companies in the world, Apple. His innovative ideas all came from one purpose in mind, changing the world by making electronics more convenient whether it’d be creating iPod’s, iPhones, iPads, iTunes and more. “We started out to get a computer in the hands of everyday people, and we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.” His ambition was never short-lived, after creating Apple, he didn’t feel as though his job was done, he went on to create Pixar, one of the biggest 3D animated movie companies in the world. Jobs was quoted to have the management style of a demanding perfectionist, who always wanted to be on the forefront of technology, and he was willing to do whatever it took to make that happen.  He also once stated that “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.”

Little Known Success Fact:

Some inspiring facts about Steve Jobs include that he was able to accomplish so much, even though he was actually dyslexic (this visionary is also dyslexic). The innovative genius had over 300 patents. The name Apple came from two different inspirations, Steve Jobs had been picking apples that summer and therefore it reminded him of that happy time, and also Steve Wozniak and Jobs were both major Beatles fans, of whom were signed under Apple Records. Jobs also credits the Beatles to his way of business stating “my model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other’s negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are never done by one person, they are done by a team of people.”

“Remembering that 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.”

– Steve Jobs

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