There is a video on YouTube in which Steve Jobs talks about the insanely easy way of getting things done. He reveals a secret of how he became successful in his craft. Now here, I wish to give you a disclaimer: He didn’t become successful overnight. It took hard work, determination and a series of failures.  In this video, he talks about the power of asking. There have been enough instances in my life where I thought about the outcome first, even before taking an action that causes that outcome. “Yet, in many of those instances, because I asked, the outcome turned out to be positive.”,  Steve Jobs says.

“So think about what it is that you really want. Go ahead and put in the time and energy to learn new skills, acquire new knowledge, and experience new things. Invest in building the relationships you will need to call upon when you’re ready. And then, when you feel the time is right, be sure to do the one thing that will help you get what you want: Ask.”

There are many things to learn from Steve Jobs and luckily, we have lectures and speeches to inspire us to achieve goals. Here are 15 Steve Jobs inspiring quotes that will help you architect your life and goals.

1. My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.
2. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.
3. I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.
4. That’s been one of my mantras—focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. 
5. 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
6. 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.
7. You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
8. 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.
9. Bottom line is, I didn’t return to Apple to make a fortune. I’ve been very lucky in my life and already have one. When I was 25, my net worth was $100 million or so. I decided then that I wasn’t going to let it ruin my life. There’s no way you could ever spend it all, and I don’t view wealth as something that validates my intelligence.
10. My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each others’ negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts.
11. Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
12. 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.
13. People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.
14. Remembering 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’s no reason not to follow your heart.
15. Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes…the ones who see things differently – they’re not fond of rules…You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify them or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things…they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones that do.

You can read the entire transcript of the video here.

What is your favorite Steve Jobs quote? Who inspires you the most? Comment and let me know what you think about “Art of Asking”.

Lots of Love!

xoxo