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21 Life Lessons from Steve Jobs By: Nick Scheidies

Entrepreneurship Steve Jobs will be remembered as a digital visionary — the man who brought poetry to the microchip. But before he was a legend, he was a person. We can’t all be Steve Jobs, but we can all learn from his extraordinary life.

#1 Skate to Where the Puck is Going to

Be In 2007, Steve Jobs said, “There’s an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. ‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.’ And we’ve always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very, very beginning. And we always will.” Steve’s ability to anticipate future trends helped Apple dominate now-burgeoning markets like digital music sales (through the iPod and iTunes Store).

#2 Accentuate the Positive

Steve started life out on the wrong foot. He was given up for adoption at birth. Tough break? Young Jobs didn’t think so: he was thankful for his loving adoptive parents — who happened to live in Palo Alto, California (which would eventually become Silicon Valley).

#3 Learn from Others In high school

Jobs attended lectures at a small computer technology company called Hewlett- Packard. Before turning 21, Steve had worked for both HP and Atari. He saw what these companies were doing and learned what he wanted to do differently with Apple.

#4 Start Early Because

Steve was still a sponge-brained teenager when he started working with computers, he learned quickly. It also helps that he started Apple in his early 20’s: when he was still full of energy, fresh ideas, and not yet restrained by a family or career.

#5 College is Important…

At its best, higher education challenges us to make connections and solve problems. Jobs credits a college calligraphy course for part of the Macintosh’s development: “If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.”

#6 …But it’s Not Necessary Reed University was expensive and Jobs didn’t want to drain his parents’ savings. If Jobs hadn’t dropped out, he would have been a junior in 1975. He co- founded Apple Computer that year instead.

#7 Travel the World

The year before he founded Apple, Jobs journeyed to India. Travel has a way of broadening a person’s perspective and expanding their sense of what’s possible – good traits in an entrepreneur.

#8 Surround Yourself with Good People

Steve Jobs wasn’t a great computer engineer. Apple would have had no chance if Jobs was the only one building the computers. That’s why he recruited Steve Wozniak. Through the years, Jobs’ companies have blossomed thanks to the brilliant people he’s brought on board – like Apple CEO Tim Cook and Pixar CCO (Chief Creative Officer) John Lasseter.

#9 Expect Greatness

People tend to rise to expectations.

#10 Fake it Before You Make it

In Apple’s early days, Steve recognized that Palo Alto, California was the epicenter of innovative computer technology. Steve wanted his company to be associated with this place – but Apple was still headquartered out of a garage in nearby Los Altos. Jobs’ solution was to set up a PO Box in Palo Alto and hire a voice answering service. A potential client would get the impression that Apple was a big company in the heart of Silicon Valley – even though the truth was that it was still just two sweaty guys in a garage across town.

#11 Obstacles are meant to be Overcome

Jobs and Wozniak ran out of money while developing the first Apple computer. Instead of giving in, Jobs sold his van and Wozniak sold his graphing calculator. When there’s a will, there’s a way.

#12 Don’t Value Money

As CEO of Apple, Jobs earned $1 a year. Jobs wasn’t incentivized by his salary, but by his own unrelenting pursuit of excellence. (Then again, his expansive stock holdings may have been some incentive.)

#13 Value People

Jobs hired passionate people and cultivated exceptional company cultures at both Apple and Pixar – and their work speaks for itself.

#14 Take Risks

Jobs was willing to cannibalize his company’s products in the name of progress. Many CEOs would have been hesitant to develop the iPhone, knowing full well that it would help to make the iPod obsolete – but Jobs did it anyway (and took a big bite out of the lucrative mobile market). Don’t be afraid to take risks. Especially smart ones.

#15 Create a Personal Brand

Steve Jobs was one of the first people to recognize the growing importance of personal brands in the Internet age. His black turtleneck is as instantly recognizable as the Apple logo.

#16 Have a Higher Purpose

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.” Jobs has turned his vision into reality.

#17 Find the Right Partner

There is no more important decision in your life than the person you decide to share it with. Choose wisely (as Steve did), and you have a partner who will help see you through daily challenges.

#18 Fail Forward

Everybody fails. It’s how you respond to those failures that makes all the difference. In 1984, Steve Jobs was fired from Apple.
At Stanford’s 2005 commencement address, he had this to say about it:

“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”

#19 Learn How to Take a Brick to the Head

More inspiring words from the Stanford speech: “Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.”

#20 Remember You’ll be Dead Soon

“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.” Our time on this earth is short. Let’s make it count.

#21 Put a Dent in the Universe

Jobs once said, “We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise, why else even be here?” Having a higher purpose doesn’t just help you find success. It redefines the meaning of the word. Ready to Redefine Success?

I’ll let Jobs have the last word: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

How has the life of Steve Jobs inspired you? Let us know in the comment section below.

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There’s no one among us who does not like to have more money. If you sometimes wonder about how the rich and successful have so much of it though, you need to read on. We have compiled a list of hacks that you can apply in your daily life to save money the way wealthy people do.

1. Be careful about small expenses

All of us are usually careful about making big investments and huge purchases. However, we tend to spend recklessly on seemingly small expenses.

But of course, these small expenses can amass to a big amount. As Suze Orman rightly pointed out,

“Look everywhere you can to cut a little bit from your expenses. It will all add up to a meaningful sum.”

2. Focus on the future

It is very easy to spend money for getting something that we like but at the end of the day, you will end up spending everything no matter how well you earn. Shift your focus to the future instead of getting satisfaction in the present.

“You can be young without money, but you can’t be old without it.” – Tennessee Williams

3. Don’t buy unnecessary things to make an impression on people

Although we all like to have good feedback from our peers and friends regarding the things we own, we need to set a limit for us. You should buy things that you need but don’t just buy those to impress others. Otherwise the sky isn’t the limit for buying things!

“Stop buying things you don’t need, to impress people you don’t even like.” – Suze Orman

4. Put things in black and white

There are so many expenditures in today’s world that you would end up without any savings if you don’t plan and budget your money; the inflows and the outflows.

Wealthy people know where their money comes from and where it goes. An Excel sheet can really help you in this regard.

“A budget is telling your money where to go, instead of wondering where it went.”- John C. Maxwell

Continue reading>>>> https://tobecomegreat./2015/09/21/wealthy-people-save-moneylike-this/

Top 10 Business Lessons from Bill Gates

Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard in 1974.

In I975, he co-founded Microsoft – a computer software company that would eventually make Gates the world’s wealthiest man. He earned the money by masterfully guiding the world into the era of networked personal computers.

Today, Gates is no longer the world’s wealthiest, but he’s still worth a healthy US$ 59 billion. He’s retired from his role as Microsoft’s CEO and instead devotes himself full-time to philanthropy through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

#1 Get Lucky

Gates is a very smart man, but he’s benefitted from more than his fair share of dumb luck.

In 1968, Gates was an eighth grader, attending a private middle school in Seattle called Lakeside. That year, the school invested $3,000 in a state-of-the-art computer.

13-year-old Bill joined computer club and was instantly hooked. He and a handful of other enthusiastic students racked up hours and hours on the machine, learning how to program through trial and error. It was the beginning of a journey that would propel Gates to astronomical success.

Here’s where the dumb luck comes in: in the 1960s, very few colleges had computer labs and a middle school with a computer was unheard of. The chances of a 13-year-old having access to a computer were pretty much one-in-a-million.

If Lakeside hadn’t purchased a computer, then young Bill might never have discovered his love for computer programming and he never would have started Microsoft.

#2 Make the Most of the Luck You’re Given

Bill may have been ridiculously lucky, but all the computer time in the world wouldn’t have meant anything if he hadn’t dedicated himself so fully to master it. Ultimately, it was the thousands of hours of focused labor that made Gates into the type of computer genius who could start a successful software company.

We don’t always recognize it, but each of us is uniquely lucky. Whether through our natural talents, our circumstances, or our relationships with others, we’re all fortunate to have many paths to success in front of us.

Take in your luck for a moment – and then capitalize on it.

#3 Bite Off More than You Can Chew

Microsoft’s big break came from Bill Gates telling a fib. Gates called up a computer company called MITS and told them that they had developed a BASIC interpreter for their microcomputer, the Altair 8800.

In 1975, Gates and his childhood programming buddy, Paul Allen, were looking for a way to turn their shared computer hobby into a career. MITS was interested in seeing a demonstration of the software. This presented a problem, since the software Bill had promised didn’t actually exist. Gates and Allen developed it in a hurry, presented it to MITS, and made the sale.

They officially founded Microsoft one month later, in April 1975.

“ “An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it.” – Roy Ash, co-founder of Litton Industries

By always pushing yourself to deliver a little bit more than you’ve proven yourself capable of, you’ll go further, faster in your business ventures. That said, I don’t recommend that you follow Bill’s lead and actually lie to your potential clients.

#4 Quality Control is Crucial

As Microsoft grew, it began hiring more and more programmers. Gates had taken on the role of CEO and his job didn’t call for any programming. But that didn’t stop him from reviewing – and often rewriting – every single line of code that the company released. Bill’s keen eye for detail ensured that Microsoft always shipped quality software.
It also made sure that he never lost track of his team and that he was always intimately familiar with Microsoft’s products.
Continue Reading>>> https://tobecomegreat./2015/08/30/top-10-business-lessons-from-bill-gates/