This man needs no introduction. Steve Jobs’ work in the fields of personal computers, animated movies, music, phones and tablets have put him in a league of his own. His products are still considered the benchmark with which other products all around the world are tested. Many believe that he had a Midas touch when it came to building his own company. There were numerous reasons behind the Midas touch: the foremost being an imaginative thinking. But this post isn’t about what Steve Jobs accomplished; it’s about what a budding entrepreneur can learn from the best that the world produced.
Be Bold: Be Imaginative
This is the foremost thing an entrepreneur needs to learn. You have to be imaginative or the competition will crush you. Why is Apple one of the most successful companies in today’s world? The simple reason is Steve Jobs’ imagination. Year after year, he made drastic changes to his product. Some may call it a risk but he was bold enough to make the changes and those made Apple stay ahead of its competition at ever point of time and become what it is today. So, always try to innovate and remember to be imaginative in your innovation because what you can’t imagine, you cannot produce.
Also Read: Lessons From The Entrepreneurial Iron Man, Elon Musk
Have Faith in Your Beliefs
Everyone knows the story about how the Apple I computer was made a mockery of at the Homebrew Computer Club meet. But that didn’t deter Steve Jobs’ belief. Instead, he worked hard and found a buyer in Byte Computer. There’s absolutely no reason to lose faith in your product just because you were rejected by one of the potential investors. Even Steve Jobs couldn’t get everyone to like the Apple Computers at his first meet. It’s their loss that they can’t see the potential in your product. You just need to move on and meet with another investor which may be tough but not impossible.
In the maestro’s words: “I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”
Life isn’t a bed of roses
This is one of the most fundamental teachings of life and is also true for an entrepreneur. Who hasn’t heard this quote, “Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t give up.” And he was the best example of a person who just never gave up. We all know the story of how he was thrown out of his own company and how he worked to get it back. Enough said!
Be smart with your investments
Steve Jobs’ net worth at the time of his death was evaluated at about 10.2 billion dollars. The question is what made him this rich? It wasn’t just Apple. He invested very wisely in Pixar Animation Studios which gave him a lot of money when it went IPO and when it was bought by Disney. His company NeXT too gave him a lot of money when Apple acquired it. Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak is estimated at just about a 100.2 million dollars. So now you know that for being the one of the most successful entrepreneurs you need to be a shrewd investor too.
Make full use of the available time
Time is the most precious resource we have. Steve Jobs used all the time available to him to make his company grow bigger. He firmly believed that one should complete the job as quickly and as efficiently as possible so that one can begin with another task sooner. There’s no point waiting for a deadline to finish your work. If you can complete it today, do it and wait for a new challenge the next day.
Also Read: Jack Ma still went up the hill. Success! How?
Be passionate about your work
The real reason behind Steve’s success is that he was passionate about his innovations. If you love your work, the output of your work will be great. How many times have we seen people not doing what they like and being good at it? The key to success lies in wholehearted devotion to your startup.
Be far sighted
This is my personal favorite: “You can’t just ask customers what they want and try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.” When the Apple I was launched, most people didn’t know what a personal computer was. And today it has become one of the most common things in our lives. If Steve Jobs had asked everyone what they wanted and then tried to build it, it would have been impossible. The same rule applies today. The product/service is launched first and it is improved later based on feedback but the product is never made on public demand.
In the end, remember that you are not going to be able to take your wealth with you once you are dead, but your work will always be there even after your death. Signing off with a philosophical quote by the great man, “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying that we’ve done something wonderful – that’s what matters to me.”
