Low on motivation or need find a way to look at life from a different angle? Then Steve Jobs leadership quotes is a must read.
The philosophy you cultivate for yourself determines the kind of success you will eventually have.
For Steve Jobs, excellence and passion are the principles that make life valuable and extraordinary.
Hence, here are Steve Jobs quotes on Leadership, Business, Innovation and other aspects of live from the entrepreneurial legend to give you your needed perspective realignment and motivation boost:
Steve Jobs Quotes On Leadership
As the ex-chief executive and chairman of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs certainly knows valuable wisdom about management and good leadership. He knows that these factors are the key to success. Here are 20 quotes that could help you shape your personal actions towards organizing, supervising, and directing.
“The greatest people are self-managing – they don’t need to be managed. Once they know what to do, they’ll go figure out how to do it. What they need is a common vision. And that’s what leadership is: [h]aving a vision; being able to articulate that so the people around you can understand it; and getting a consensus on a common vision.”
Steve Jobs
Leadership requires good communicative skills. So, brush up your ways of talking to others. Make it better.
“My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to make them better.”
Steve Jobs
Good leaders make good diamonds because of their knack in applying significant but necessary pressure.
“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”
Steve Jobs
Good leaders make mistakes and learn from it. That’s how it’s supposed to be.
“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
Steve Jobs
Part of being a leader is managing your energy and time well so you can allocate them to more important and big tasks. With this, a leader should be smart in delegating work.
Steve Jobs
“Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.”
Two is better than one. Collective action does more great things.
“Gather 10 smart people into a room, and one or two will be creative, two are great at solving problems, the rest are critics. Keep the creatives away from the critics.”
Steve Jobs
Criticisms sometimes cease the function of imagination because it limits it. To be a leader is to be knowledgeable about this.
“I’m an optimist in the sense that I believe humans are noble and honorable, and some of them are really smart. I have a very optimistic view of individuals. As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups.”
Steve Jobs
The key to leadership and personal success is having a good faith towards other people.
“Innovation distinguishes between a follower and a leader.”
Steve Jobs
Being smart and creative then actually making it happen – those define a good leader.
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
Steve Jobs
Thinking outside of the box is essential in providing something new to the table. That’s how we’re supposed to change the world.
“When a good idea comes, you know, part of my job is to move it around, just see what different people think, get people talking about it, argue with people about it, get ideas moving among that group of 100 people, get different people together to explore different aspects of it quietly, and, you know – just explore things.”
Steve Jobs
Cultivation of ideas makes way for good outputs to come. So, explore.
“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”
Steve Jobs
Quality over quantity. Cliché, but still holds very true.
The same as Jeff Bezos, Steve paid massive attention to detail and customer satisfaction. Even now, that can be felt with every thing Apple makes.
“That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.“
Steve Jobs
Discipline and hard work all play its essential function especially in handling the most basic things because they form the foundations of the more complex. To be good with the little things is to be great at all things.
“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.”
Steve Jobs
What makes a good leader is his ability to rise up after a downfall.
“If you want to make everyone happy, don’t be a leader, sell ice cream.”
Steve Jobs
Being a leader requires courage to communicate difficult things. Achieving success is not supposed to be easy, and it’s not within the responsibility of the leader to guarantee comfort every time. Good leadership involves determination amidst the difficulties.
“Somebody once told me, ‘Manage the top line, and the bottom line will follow.’ What’s the top line? It’s things like, why are we doing this in the first place? What’s our strategy? What are customers saying? How responsive are we? Do we have the best products and the best people? Those are the kind of questions you have to focus on.”
Steve Jobs
Awareness is a habit most leaders should learn to practice. When you’re conscious on the organization of things, you become better, you do better.
“Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your inner voice.”
Steve Jobs
Focus on the vision that kept you going in the first place. Stay driven. Remind yourself of what you can do. Confidence is ignoring others’ opinion of you because you have faith in yourself.
“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
Steve Jobs
There’s no good in water that is stagnant. What drives progress and innovation is dissatisfaction with the bare minimum. So, strive harder. Always look to find something better to do.
“It’s not a faith in technology. It’s faith in people.”
Steve Jobs
A good leader knows that he’s no one without others.
“What’s done is done! Go forward and involve yourself in something new and more productive.”
Steve Jobs
A day spent sulking and just pitying yourself is a day wasted. Pick up your failure, learn from it, then move on.
“Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.”
Steve Jobs
The ability to recognize bad choices can save us from future failures.
Steve Jobs Quotes on Life
Steve Jobs had also a knack for giving out worthy life quotations. Below is a compilation on some of them to inspire you, wherever you currently are in life, to just keep going and always passionately strive for hard work.
Similarly to Warren Buffett’s wisdom for all walks of life, also Steve is a guy who’s wise words can inspire everyone.
“Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future.”
Steve Jobs
Our efforts in the present will always translate something in the future. So, make sure you do something worthy to influence it good.
“The greatest thing is when you do put your heart and soul into something over an extended period of time, and it is worth it.”
Steve Jobs
There’s nothing more beautiful than seeing the product of your own sweat and passion to be worthy and valuable, not only to you, but also for others.
“My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.”
Steve Jobs
Time is the most precious thing in the world, so make sure you use it wisely.
“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.”
Steve Jobs
To live is to become who we have genuinely wanted. Our heart never fails to remind us of this.
“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and everyone should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.”
Steve Jobs
Life is short, so live great. Do great. Messing with life choices is only for the scared and confused.
“I don’t really care about being right, I just care about success. You’ll find a lot of people that will tell you I had a very strong opinion, and they presented evidence to the contrary and five minutes later I changed my mind. I don’t mind being wrong, and I’ll admit that I’m wrong a lot. It doesn’t really matter to me too much. What matters to me is that we do the right thing.”
Steve Jobs
What makes a man noble is his ability to admit he’s wrong. He knows the value of learning. This is far greater admirable than keeping one’s big ego unbruised.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
Steve Jobs
It can be very hard to live without something to hold onto that’s why it is always best to at least have faith in whatever or whoever. It keeps you sane, grounded, and inspired.
“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
There is no other chance you are going to get than the current opportunities life give you. So, follow what you want and do great to achieve it. The sky is only the limit.
“Things don’t have to change the world to be important.”
Steve Jobs
Life is pretty amazing when magnified. When we look at our world, then closer into a house, then into a family, we realize that there’s no such thing so small, it becomes insignificant. Everything plays a role in our personal lives, and it brings us change every time.
“If you don’t love it, you’re going to fail.”
Steve Jobs
Passion drives success. So, love what you’re doing, always.
Summing up on Steve Jobs Leadership Quotes
Steve Jobs knew how life can be so complicated but still, he powered through.
He knew that a man driven by passion, extreme discipline, and excellence is unstoppable.
Hopefully, these quotes have helped you make sense of your cloudy doubts and thoughts.
Take this time to reflect.
Ask yourself the questions: Have I been doing great in my field of work? Have I been living well?
Then go back to these quotes to help you realign your answers.
Success is within your reach, you just have to put more effort and time in it. Always remind yourself of that.
For more inspiration, feel free to check nuggets of wisdom from other successful people and entrepreneurs.
