Inspiration and Life Lessons from Steve Jobs

"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected!" - Steve Jobs 

By Patrick Driessen
Unfortunately - at the age of 56 - Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has lost his battle with cancer. To me and to many other people he was one of the greatest visionary maverick technology entrepreneurs of our time. A true inspirator!

Thanks to his passionate entrepreneurship, leadership and his innovative focus on excellence, both Pixar Animation Studios and Apple became very successful global companies. They both contributed to enormous innovation in entertainment, design, technology, communications and usability; rapidly adopted, used and enjoyed by millions of consumers and businesses around the globe.

As a tribute I would like to share my selection of his most inspirational quotes - full of life lessons - with you below.

"We all have a short period of time on this earth. We probably only have the opportunity to do a few things really great and do them well. None of us has any idea how long we’re gong to be here nor do I, but my feeling is I’ve got to accomplish a lot of these things while I’m young."

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. 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.... Stay hungry. Stay foolish!" (Stanford University commencement address, June 2005)

"Innovation has no limits. The only limitation lies in one’s imagination. Innovation is the key to change and growth. One needs to begin thinking out of the box and create ideas to expand whichever work one is involved in. However, in the drive for improvement one must not overlook the fact that there are no shortcuts to excellence. One’s personality should be a yardstick of quality. A person can get right ahead of others by using one’s talents, abilities, skills and above all keeping excellence as priority. Each person should give his or her work the best shot and pay attention to the minutest details that really do make the difference!"

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary!"

"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!”

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

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower!"

"One of my role models is Bob Dylan. As I grew up, I learned the lyrics to all his songs and watched him never stand still. If you look at the artists, if they get really good, it always occurs to them at some point that they can do this one thing for the rest of their lives, and they can be really successful to the outside world but not really be successful to themselves. That’s the moment that an artist really decides who he or she is. If they keep on risking failure, they’re still artists. Dylan and Picasso were always risking failure. This Apple thing is that way for me. I don’t want to fail, of course. But even though I didn’t know how bad things really were, I still had a lot to think about before I said yes. I had to consider the implications for Pixar, for my family, for my reputation. I decided that I didn’t really care, because this is what I want to do. If I try my best and fail, well, I’ve tried my best." (CNNMoney/Fortune Magazine, November 9th 1998)

A young Steve Jobs