I was pondering this weekend on Steve Jobs near saint-like status. As tablets and smartphones become more normal, his “deity” shine grows a little dimmer, but he did change our day to day world to a big degree. Not only was he a great inventor, there are some pretty awesome Steve Jobs quotes to ponder.

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I would trade all my technology for an afternoon with Socrates.

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Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

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If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you’ve done and whoever you were and throw them away.

Hmph. When it comes to Steve Jobs quotes I’ve got to chew on this one. I believe in looking back at history for a lot of things. We learn from it. Is it true to be a creator, an artist, that you should look back less?

What resonates with this is in Hollywood. As more remakes and reboots are being made more actors are actually not watching the original film or sometimes reading the source material (book) so they don’t repeat the portrayal of another artist.

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My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to make them better.

This may be a loaded statement. I can agree with it from one view–that is a leaders role isn’t to make friends but to cultivate them. In another regard, a leaders job isn’t to inherently be “hard” on people.

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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.

I love this Steve Jobs quote. I ponder often how living this life for gain is meaningless. What’s the point? We weren’t born bringing treasures into the world, and we can’t exit with them. I agree with Jobs here.

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I think death is the most wonderful invention of life. It purges the system of these old models that are obsolete.

What’s interesting about this is it’s a quote he gave to Playboy in the 80’s. I’ve never read Playboy, but I didn’t know people read it to muse on the deeper things of life!

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People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.

Now this is worth chewing on.

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I end up not buying a lot of things, because I find them ridiculous.

Surprising to hear from a really, really, really rich guy. It makes me wonder what he did own…

I don’t know what he spent his money on. And I think for how much money his salespeople sell on the Apple Store floor they are underpaid. But I do like to think that Steve was a person driven to add to the world, not just take from it.

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These Steve Jobs quotes mean a lot to me as someone who wants to become a better man and leader. What do you think about what he said?