Steve Jobs was considered as the master of business innovation and a design perfectionist. He had a net worth of $8 Bn in 2010. Although he is no more, his thoughts are still ruling the entrepreneur world.
Here are top 10 of the list:
Don’t Live A Limited Life
When you grow up, you are told to fit in the world as the way it is working. You will work, save money, get married, and try to have a happy family life. However, this is a very limited life. Once you discover one simple fact that everything around you, what you called as life is made up by people, who were no smarter than you, your perception will change. You will understand that you can change it, you can influence it and you can mould it to make it even better. “Once you learn that, you will never be the same again.”
Have Passion
You have to have a lot of passion for what you are doing because it’s so hard that if you don’t, any rational person would give up. You have to do it over a sustained period of time. If you don’t love what you are doing, you would give up in sometime, and that’s what happens to most people actually.
Design For Yourself
You should not let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your inner voice. It’s cliché, but you are the captain of your own ship; don’t let anyone else take the wheel. Design life for yourself, you won’t receive a second opportunity to do so, so you either do it now, or you regret it on later in life.
Don’t Sell Crap
Sell only high quality products, because this will fetch you loyal customers who are willing to buy always. They would be the ones who will trust you when you bring something new on board.
Build A Great Team
The most important job one need to do as an entrepreneur is recruitment. ”We wanted people that were insanely great at what they did, not necessarily the seasoned professionals.” The greatest people are self-made, they don’t need any management. If once they know what to do, they could figure out how to do that on their own. What they need is a common vision and that’s what leadership is. Leadership is having a vision, being able to articulate so that people around you can understand and getting a consensus on common vision.
Don’t Do It For Money
“I was over a million dollars when I was 23, and over $10 Mn when I was 24, and over a $100 Mn dollars when I was 25. And, it wasn’t that important, because I didn’t do it for money” Money is a wonderful thing because it enables you to do things. It enables you to invest in ideas that don’t have short term payback and things like that. “But for me, it wasn’t important over my company, people, and the products we were making.”
Be Proud Of Your Products
Your goal should be to make the best product possible that you can be proud to sell and would recommend to your family and friends. In every industry there are some products that you can’t be proud to ship. So, do not sell junk.
Build Around Customers
You can make some demos, a small commercial app, to demonstrate your products. The hardest thing is to identify what will allow you to sell $8 Bn products a year. “You gotta work with customer experience back to the technology. What benefits you can give to them and not what great technology you can put in front of a few. Gaining customers trust is the ultimate key,”
Marketing Is About Values
This is a very noisy world and we are not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. So we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us. Even a great brand needs investment and caring, if it’s going to retain its relevance and vitality. One great example in this space is Nike. Nike sells a commodity- They sell shoes. And yet when you think about Nike, you feel something different then a shoe company, In their ads, they never talk about products, but they honour great athletes and they honour great athletics.
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
Never be satisfied, and always push yourself. Do or be willing to keep trying the things people say cannot be done.
