“The problem with the Internet startup craze isn’t that too many people are starting companies; it’s that too many people aren’t sticking with it. That’s somewhat understandable, because there are many moments that are filled with despair and agony, when you have to fire people and cancel things and deal with very difficult situations. That’s when you find out who you are and what your values are.<p>“So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they’re gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their new-found wealth in perspective.” [Fortune, Jan. 24, 2000]
Steve Jobs’ Message To Internet Startups<p>Luck- Jobs believed that the longer time you spend developing a product or company, the luckier you become. Asked by Fortune Magazine (in 2000) what he thought of the younger generation of internet startups, Jobs’ response was<p><pre><code> It’s hard to tell with these Internet startups if they’re really interested in building companies or if they’re just interested in the money. I can tell you, though: if they don’t really build a company, they won’t luck into it. That’s because it’s so hard that if you don’t have a passion, you’ll give up. There were times in the first two years when we could have given up and sold Apple, and it probably would’ve died.
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Steal great ideas - "We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas," said Jobs in a 1996 PBS Documentary, Triumph of the Nerds. In fact, in Michael Malone’s, Infinite Loop: How Apple, The World’s Most Insanely Great Computer Company Went Insane, it was after a visit to Xerox in the summer of 1973, when a programmer from Apple laid the foundation for the Macintosh.<p>In a 2005 Stanford commencement speech, he said this about change-<p><pre><code> Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown of your 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.</code></pre>