Those who use iPod, iPhone and iPad may know Steve Jobs very well because these products are from the stables of Apple for which he was the CEO. He was the co-founder of Apple also. If you do an in-depth study of how he could achieve success in all his endeavors, you will realize that throughout his life, he stayed true not only to himself but to his visions also. His visions used to be different from those of others. That is precisely the reason for the phenomenal success he could achieve. While the sales of his iPad have crossed several millions, his iPod was also a huge hit.

The life of Steve Jobs inspires many people. His life proves that passion is the main factor that makes all the difference between success and failure. “You should love what you do” is what he used to say. When he took over the company, there were 350 products and he reduced them to 10. This move was intended to have more focus. He always attached a lot of importance to customer service. He used to advise his employees also that to win over customers, they should help them to reach their dreams. “They should sell dreams and not products” he used to say. Since he believed in himself, his vision and in his dreams, he could achieve such a stupendous success. His advice to those who aspire to succeed in life is that they should be different and should think differently. According to him, the key to success is to “start small and think big”.

Steve Jobs had the habit of making a list of his strengths and weaknesses and he used to ask for feed backs from various quarters. He knew that there might be failures due to his weaknesses and so, he was very particular about learning from failures. He was against tenets also. He never allowed others’ opinions to influence his decisions, though he used to seek opinions from others.

Jobs always aimed to position his products at the forefront of his industry but for doing so, he was closely watching the trends and developments that were taking place. He could foresee the trends also and accordingly, he blended innovation and style in all his products. He once used the quote of the ice hockey player, Wayne Gretzky in one of his orations: “There’s an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. ‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.’ And we have always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very beginning. And we always will.”

Steve Jobs was considered an aggressive, demanding and a tough boss. Perhaps, these qualities were responsible for getting him many accolades. The Time Magazine published a long profile about him as “the most famous maestro of the micro”. He was also awarded the National Medal of Technology by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. In 2007, he was named the most powerful person in business by Fortune magazine. In the same year, he was inducted into the California Hall of Fame. In 2009, he was chosen as the most admired entrepreneur among teenagers in a survey conducted by Junior Achievement. Fortune Magazine called him the CEO of the decade in 2009. Even after his death, he is hailed as a visionary. His life proves beyond doubt the old, ever new secret of success that “if the mind thinks with a believing attitude, one can do amazing things”.