Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?
Interpretation
This quote encourages individuals to pursue meaningful work instead of settling for mundane tasks.
Steve Jobs challenges the listener to reflect on their life choices, emphasizing the importance of striving for significant achievements rather than merely conforming to societal expectations or engaging in trivial pursuits. The quote suggests that one's life should be aimed at making impactful contributions that could potentially change the world rather than being limited to ordinary tasks, such as selling a simple product.
In practice
This quote could be used to inspire students at a graduation ceremony to pursue careers that make a difference.
Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service. The iMac is not just the color or translucence or the shape of the shell. The essence of the iMac is to be the finest possible consumer computer in which each element plays together.
It is piracy, not overt online music stores, which is our main competitor.
The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.
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.
Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it.
For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
I get up early in the morning, 4 o'clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that's enough. In the afternoon, I run.
Surround yourself with people who add the fuel of advice and encouragement to your fire.
Decide what it is you want, write it down, review it constantly, and each day do something that moves you toward those goals.
I'll leave you with one that I have hanging on my office wall, compliments of Nike: Impossible is nothing.
There's something really empowering about going, 'Hell, I can do this! I can do this all!' That's the wonderful thing about mothers, you can because you must, and you just DO.
Are you going to let the obstacles in your life be stumbling blocks or stepping stones? Choose the positive. You are the master of your attitude.
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