With the passing of Steve Jobs – there has been almost an endless stream of great commentary about his life and the impact he had on business and culture and the seismic shifts that have occurred because of Apple’s inventions.  Mr. Jobs was a game changer.  To say iTunes and iPods changed the music industry would be a great understatement.  The original Macintosh personal computers Apple developed in the early 80’s not only changed the trajectory of the PC business but put the wheels in motion for computing products that that cater to normal everyday individuals not just tech nerds.  The simplicity of apple products allow 2 year olds and 90 year olds to pick up an iPod, iPhone, iPad… and intuitively figure it out, with little or no instruction.  The list goes on and on… and simple Google search reveals hundreds of quality stories about Steve Jobs. I’ve highlighted a few of my favorite Steve Jobs quotes and embedded the famous 2005 Stanford commencement address, which like the products Steve Jobs created, brilliant in it’s stripped down simplicity!

A few great Steve Jobs quotes:

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. – Steve Jobs

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. – Steve Jobs

I have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I’ve done that sort of thing in my life, but I’ve always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don’t know why. Because they’re harder. They’re much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you’ve completely failed. – Steve Jobs

In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. -Steve Jobs

My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time. – Steve Jobs

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. -Steve Jobs

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. – Steve Jobs

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. And 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. – Steve Jobs