10 Remarkable Lessons Steve Jobs Taught on Work Motivation
When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. An excellent quote from Wayne Dwyer. Do you like to occasionally review lessons Steve Jobs taught on work motivation? I certainly do. Nothing
Do you do a lot of reading? I love to read … why? To be entertained, to learn new things, and to stimulate thinking. Steve Jobs was a favorite author of mine, especially when his writing dealt with his thoughts on technology and product development. I have learned a great deal from lessons Steve Jobs taught.
I have a set of five authors that I selected over a decade ago to be my silent mentors … they mentor through their writings and presentations. Steve Jobs was one of those five mentors.
Yes … they all do stimulate a lot of thinking and learning, but they all have a great knack for entertaining while they teach and silently mentor. What all awesome mentors should be doing. They also share many other common attributes that makes them such successful mentors for me.
Related: Should a Business Send Customers to Competitors?
It probably is not necessary to tell you about Steve Jobs, is it? But here are a few words to put us on the same page. He was an American icon entrepreneur, marketer,and inventor, who was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc. Through Apple, he is widely recognized as a design-driven pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields, transforming many industries through digital disruption.
Steve Jobs.
Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC‘s mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Apple Lisa and, a year later, the Macintosh.
In this blog, I have selected my 10 favorite topics of Jobs and used quotations and a compendium of ideas from many of Jobs ‘ books, articles, and presentations to focus on what he taught on each. We use these thoughts regularly in our work with our client teams.
Lessons Steve Jobs taught … passion for life
We all know about his passion, don’t we? He exhibited it in everything he did. And he had a great way to express his feelings also. When I need a reminder on living with passion, I’ll watch one of my favorite presentation videos that Jobs created.
Lessons in motivation … trust yourself
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.
He knew how to give great advice.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
Work motivation psychology … simplicity focus
Steve Jobs believed in simplicity above most other things. Think simple was a key thought.
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.
Lessons Steve Jobs taught … steal great ideas
Jobs always was shameless about stealing great ideas. Everything is life is really just a remix, isn’t it?
Don’t lose faith
Sometimes life just doesn’t go as planned. Don’t ever give up and don’t lose faith.
Choose carefully
Most people think focus means saying yes and then settling in on the issue. It really means saying no to hundreds of good ideas. So you really have to choose carefully.
Work motivation.
Creativity and innovation
Steve was a firm believer that dreams and not products were the end state customer utility that counted the most.And that held true in his own life also.
Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.
Thoughts on creative innovation were his first priority.
The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament …
Lessons in motivation … love what you do
Your work is a very large part of your life. The only way to be satisfied is to do your best. And to do that you must love the work, yes?
Always be a measure of quality. People like environments where quality is expected. Make the homerun quality happen.
Take your brain but follow your heart.
Follow your heart
Remembering that nobody leaves the earth alive is a great way to avoid the trap that you have something to lose. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
What is the most memorable motivation you remember from Steve Jobs? Please share your thoughts.
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Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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