Steve Jobs, my ultimate crush, resigned from Apple Computers, the company he co-founded with Steve Wozniak, yesterday, and today, I came upon a list of some of his best quotes, starting with his speech at Stanford:
ttp://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/08/24/steve-jobss-best-quotes/
“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. 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.”
“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, 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.
“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. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
“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. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
“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. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]
Then there are his discussions on wealth. Truly, what a brilliant and wonderful human being he is...I thank God all the time that he helped create the computer I'm writing this on, the iMac G4.
“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.” [The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 1993]
***
Q: There’s a lot of symbolism to your return. Is that going to be enough to reinvigorate the company with a sense of magic?
“You’re missing it. This is not a one-man show. What’s reinvigorating this company is two things: One, there’s a lot of really talented people in this company who listened to the world tell them they were losers for a couple of years, and some of them were on the verge of starting to believe it themselves. But they’re not losers. What they didn’t have was a good set of coaches, a good plan. A good senior management team. But they have that now.” [BusinessWeek, May 25, 1998]
***
“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” [Fortune, Nov. 9, 1998]
***
“The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.” [Apple Confidential: The Real Story of Apple Computer Inc., May 1999]
I get the feeling that Steve Jobs knows that his battle with cancer isn't going to end well, and that his time is running out. So he's left the company he helped to create so that he can spend his last days, weeks or hopefully years, doing things he wants and needs to do before he passes away. Godspeed to the man, who will always be that smart, sexy, innovative Apple Computer god in my heart, worthy of a pin-up on my dorm room wall in college.
Meanwhile, my favorite legendary critter (the tops are made of the rubber, the tails are made of the spring!) now has a playlist:
Flavorwire was also in an A.A. Milne mood, offering a literary mixtape
for Tigger http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz11616945 and
noting that "someone who bounces all day long would have to listen to
the most spastic, bounding modern indie rock and pop songs he can get
his paws on. After all, all that bouncing is hard work, and even a
Tigger needs a little musical boost once in a while. Or, if we know him,
all the time. Tigger is certainly not one for moderation. His iPod is
filled with nothing but fun-fun-fun! Here's what we think he would
boast, bounce, and eat extract of malt to."
In Dr Who news, here's some interesting tidbits about that sexy David Tennant and Matt Smith, who is adorable, but not nearly as hot:
http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/s7/doctor-who/interviews/a336374/matt-smith-interview-doctor-who-should-be-scary.html
http://www.digitalspy.com/celebrity/s7/doctor-who/news/a336699/david-tennant-denies-
doctor-who-romances.html
I would very much like to have my other lifetime crush's library, Sting, or Mark Twains library, or William Randolf Hearsts would do in a pinch:
Celebrities who are also readers have a slight advantage over the rest
of us, in that they "often making tens of thousands of dollars for just
showing up somewhere, have no such financial restraints and may indulge
themselves with those epic home libraries the rest of us can only dream
about." Presented as evidence by AccreditedOnlineColleges.com are "20
celebrities with stunning home libraries
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz11603974."
This is the TRUTH about independent bookstores, said very eloquently:
"The intimacy and personality of independent bookstores provides a
high-touch environment complementing the rich experience of the book--an
antidote to the relentless technological acceleration in our lives; a
counterbalance to the local-disconnect felt by the globally connected."
--Ed Morrow, co-founder of the Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center,
Vt., in his introduction http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz11603957 to therevised, updated edition of Rebel Bookseller: Why Indie Bookstores
Represent Everything You Want to Fight for from Free Speech to Buying
Local to Building Communities (Seven Stories Press).
Finally, a magazine I've written for informs us of the happy event of Seattle getting a new bookstore...Hurrah!
Delicious news from Seattle: the Book Larder, a bookstore devoted to
"all things culinary," will open in October
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz11616938,
according to Seattle Met. The owner is Lara Hamilton, who used to work
for the late Kim Ricketts, founder of Kim Ricketts Book Events. The
store is taking shape at 4252 Fremont St. N. See photos on Seattle Met.
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