Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.
Interpretation
Strive to embody excellence, as it can elevate the standards around you.
This quote emphasizes the importance of setting high standards of quality and excellence, as not everyone is accustomed to such expectations. It serves as a reminder that by exemplifying excellence, you can inspire others to raise their own standards and foster an environment that values and strives for quality.
In practice
In a team meeting to encourage higher performance standards.
Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service. The iMac is not just the color or translucence or the shape of the shell. The essence of the iMac is to be the finest possible consumer computer in which each element plays together.
It is piracy, not overt online music stores, which is our main competitor.
The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.
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.
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.
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.
The will to succeed is important, but what's more important is the will to prepare.
We can change our lives. We can do, have, and be exactly what we wish.
Don't grow accustomed to living with less, doing less, and being less to the point that you eventually sit back and accept it.
Do not aim low, you will miss the mark. Aim high and you will be on a threshold of bliss.
Keep your heel, head and standards high.
Ever since I was a kid, I knew I could play in the NFL because I had a knack for the game. But I can't play this game forever. When I'm finished, maybe I'll become a motivational speaker, maybe a preacher. But children need to know that life may be hard, but you can always overcome.
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