Steve Jobs, arguably one of the most influential businesspeople of the past 100 years, was as celebrated for his Zenlike musings as for the generation-defining products he helped create.
A new book, “Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in His Own Words,” brings together the late Apple Inc. AAPL, +3.40% co-founder and former chief executive’s thoughts about life, work and death. The free 194-page e-book is available on the Steve Jobs Archive’s new book page, from Apple Books and as a downloadable file.
The Steve Jobs Archive was launched by Jobs’s widow, Laurene Powell Jobs; Apple CEO Tim Cook; and legendary Apple designer Jony Ive in September 2022.
A recurring theme of the book is Jobs’s aim to encourage people to make things that push the world forward. “There’s lots of ways to be, as a person,” the book quotes him as saying. “And some people express their deep appreciation in different ways. But one of the ways that I believe people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something wonderful and put it out there.”
Jobs, who died of pancreatic cancer at age 56 in October 2011, often referred to himself as a toolmaker. “I don’t think my taste in aesthetics is that much different than a lot of other people’s. The difference is that I just get to be really stubborn about making things as good as we all know they can be. That’s the only difference,” the notorious perfectionist once said.
The book divides Jobs’s life into eras, complete with quotes on a wide variety of topics.
On his spiritual journey early in life:
“The idealistic wind of the sixties was still at our back, and most of the people that I know that are my age have that ingrained in them forever.”
On his transformative trip to India:
“I’m stupefied to sort of summarize [my trip to India]. Anyone would have a hard time summarizing a meaningful experience of their life in a page. I mean, if I was William Faulkner, I might be able to do it for you, but I’m not.”
On the creation of the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone and iPad:
“A lot of people put a lot of love into these products.”
“And each of these revolutionary user interfaces has made possible a revolutionary product — the Mac, the iPod, and now the iPhone.”
On failure, from his ouster from Apple to the disappointment of Next Software Inc., his follow-up to Apple:
“You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times.”
After the sale of Next to Apple for $ 400 million in 1996, Jobs fretted about the toxic, defeatist culture that existed within Apple under the divisive leadership of then-CEO Gil Amelio:
“The net is the really bad Apple culture we’ve heard about still lurks out there.”
On a major influence in his career:
“Walt Disney used to say to his team: ‘We’re only as good as our next picture.’ Well, we’re only as good as our next amazing new product.”
On mortality:
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.”
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.”
On his life philosophy:
“Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact — and that is: everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you.”
“And you can change it. You can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use.”