Today it became known that Steve Jobs is no longer with us – probably one of the most prominent people not only on the IT scene, but also in all parts of modern life. He did things that changed things that seemed unchangeable, he inspired millions of people. Under his leadership, products were created that someone adored, and someone condemned, but everyone admired them. There were no indifferent ones, as there are none today.
In my mind, this person was the only idol that I can remember, and this makes it even more insulting.
Below we offer the most notable statements and principles that Jobs followed.
• Computers are like a bicycle. Only for our consciousness. [Memory and Imagination : New Pathways to the Library of Congress, 1991]
• I didn't have my own room, I slept on the floor of friends' houses, handed over coke bottles for 5 cents to buy food, and walked 7 miles every Sunday to have a good dinner once a week at the Hare Krishna temple. It was wonderful! [Speech to Stanford graduates, 2005]
• The main reason why people will buy a computer at home will be the opportunity to be connected to the national communication network. We are now at the very beginning of this stage, but this will be a real breakthrough. About like a phone. [Playboy, 1985]
• It's better to be a pirate than to serve in the Navy. [Quote in the book Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple, 1982].
• If for some reason we stumble, let's say we make some irreparable mistakes and lose the competition between IBM and Microsoft, then dark days will come for the entire computer industry. [from the book Steve Jobs: The Journey is the Reward, 1984].
• He (computer) it executes very simple instructions — take a number, add it to another number, compare the result with the third, but it executes them at a speed of 1,000,000 per second. And at a speed of 1,000,000 per second, the result already seems like magic. [Playboy, 1985]
• Do you want to sell sweetened water all your life, or do you want to come with me and try to change the world? [To PepsiCo President John Schooley, poaching him as CEO of Apple, 1983. In two years, Skuli will get Jobs fired from Apple]
• John Schooley destroyed Apple by filling the minds of the company's employees with false values. He replaced people with the right principles with people with the wrong ones. And together they earned tens of millions of dollars, caring about their own fame and well-being more than about Apple and, most importantly, the users of its products [speech at the Smithsonian Institution, 1995].
• It was as if I was punched in the stomach and the soul was knocked out of me. I'm only thirty and I want to keep creating things. I know that I can create at least one more great computer. But Apple won't give me that chance. [Playboy, 1987]
• I have a plan to save Apple. Perfect products and the perfect strategy that suits the company. But no one there will listen to me. [Fortune, 1995]
Looking back, I can say that my dismissal from Apple was the best event in my life. I got rid of the burden of a successful person and regained the lightness and doubts of a beginner. It freed me up and marked the beginning of my most creative period. [Speech to Stanford graduates, 2005]• Stay hungry, stay reckless. [Speech to Stanford graduates, 2005]
• Microsoft's problem is that they have no taste. None at all. They don't think creatively. Their products have no culture. [1996, Triumph of The Nerds]
• The desktop market is dead. Microsoft completely dominates, without bringing any innovation to the industry. This is the end. Apple lost, and the Middle Ages came in the history of personal computers. And this will continue for about another ten years. [Wired, 1996]
• I wish him all the best, really. I just think he and Microsoft are all too narrow—minded. It would have been good for him if, in his youth, he had indulged in LSD or lived with hippies. [About Bill Gates. The New York Times, 1997].
• Creativity is simply creating connections between things. When creative people are asked how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't actually do anything, but just noticed. This becomes clear to them over time. They were able to connect different pieces of their experience and synthesize something new. This is because they have experienced and seen more than others, or because they think about it more. [Wired, 1996]
• When you're young and you watch TV, you think that TV companies have conspired and want to make people stupid. But then you grow up and the understanding comes: people want it themselves. And that's a much more frightening thought. Conspiracy is not scary. You can shoot the bastards, start a revolution! But there is no conspiracy, the TV companies just satisfy the demand. Unfortunately, this is true. [Wired, 1996]
• Modern Apple products suck. They're not sexy [Before returning to Apple. BusinessWeek, 1997]
• It's not just my personal show. There are a lot of talented people in the company, and for several years in a row they had to listen to the whole world telling them that they were losers. Some of them even started to believe it themselves. But they are not losers. They need a good plan and a good team in top management. Now they have it. [About his return to Apple, BusinessWeek, 1998]
• It is very difficult to create a product using focus groups. Often people don't know what they want until you show it to them. [BusinessWeek, 1998]
• We have made the icons on the screen so beautiful that you will want to lick them. [About Mac OS X. Fortune, 2000]
• Some sneakers are more expensive than an iPod. [Explaining the price of the iPod $300. Newsweek, 2003]
• If creating great products was as easy as writing checks, then Microsoft would have great products. [2007]
• It's like a glass of ice water in hell [About the popularity of iTunes among Windows users. Joint speech with Bill Gates at the AllThingsD conference, 2007]
• Today we are presenting three new products in one. This is a revolutionary mobile phone, an iPod with a touch screen and a device for accessing the Internet. [At the iPhone presentation. 2007]
• We don't go into the search, but they decided to do phones. Make no mistake, they want to destroy the iPhone. We won't let them [About the new Google Android mobile operating system. 2010]
• "Don't be evil" is complete nonsense [About Google's corporate slogan "Don't be evil", 2010]
• It's amazing [At the iPad presentation, 2010]
• I've already said this, but I repeat: it's in Apple's DNA that technology alone is not enough. Only technology in alliance with the humanities gives a result that makes our hearts sing. Now many are entering the tablet market and look at them as new PCs. Hardware and software are made by different companies. They talk about speeds as if they were ordinary PCs. And all our experience and every bone in our body says that this is the wrong approach. [At the presentation of iPad 2, 2011]
• It just works. [At the iCloud presentation, 2011]
• For the last 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today is the last day of my life, will I do what I have planned for today?" [Speech to Stanford graduates, 2005]
• I don't want to be the richest man in the cemetery. [The Wall Street Journal, 1993]
The problem is that I got older and realized that technological innovations are not able to really change the world. I'm sorry, but it's true. This understanding comes with the appearance of children. You are born, you grow old, and then you die. And this has been happening for many years. And nothing will change that [Wired, 1996].• I am sure that Apple's brightest days and innovative inventions are still ahead [Message to Apple employees dated August 24, 2011]
• Remembering that I'm going to die soon is a great tool that helped me make all the most important decisions in life. The thought of an imminent death is the best way to get rid of the illusion that you have something to lose. It's like you're already naked, and there's no reason not to follow your heart. Death is the best invention of life." [Speech to students at Stanford, 2005]
