Steve Jobs on Entrepreneurial Risk: Why Silicon Valley Works
What Jobs talks about
In this short TV interview, Jobs describes Silicon Valley as a place where young people can take risks and start companies with little fear of failure. He frames that culture as a key reason people are able to build new businesses there.
The piece also traces Apple’s origin story, from a garage project with a high school classmate to a quarter-billion-dollar company. Jobs is presented as an example of the valley’s entrepreneurial philosophy in action.
Why it matters: Jobs argues that even failure can make someone more valuable because of the experience gained. It’s a concise statement of the risk-taking mindset behind early Silicon Valley and Apple’s rise.
A TV narrator/host introduces Jobs; Jobs speaks in the quoted segment.
In his words
“Take a chance, you've got nothing to lose.”
“The penalty for failure for going and trying to start a company in this valley is non-existent.”
“There really isn't a penalty for failure either psychologically or economically”
“Even if you fail, you're generally considered worth more to the company you left”
“Because you've gained all this valuable experience.”
Key points
- Silicon Valley rewards people who take a chance.
- There is little penalty for starting and failing at a company.
- Failure can still increase your value through experience.
- Apple began as a garage project built with tiny silicon chips.
- Risk-taking and entrepreneurship are central to the valley’s culture.
Full transcript
Like many young Californians, Steven Jobs has a penchant for the western casual and a love of the scenic outdoors. And in the Silicon Valley, Jobs is the classic example of the computer industry's philosophy, which says, take a chance, you've got nothing to lose. Six years ago, working in this garage, Jobs and a high school classmate quit their positions at large electronic companies and using tiny silicon chips, built this small computer board. It became the technical core of the Apple computer and led to a quarter billion dollar business and the most popular typewriter-sized computer on the market today. Jobs is now only 26 years old, is Apple's chairman of the board, and is successful, he says, because of the Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial risk culture.
The penalty for failure for going and trying to start a company in this valley is non-existent. There really isn't a penalty for failure either psychologically or economically in the sense that if you have a good idea and you go out to start your own company, even if you fail, you're generally considered worth more to the company you left because you've gained all this valuable experience.
Transcribed from the audio with OpenAI Whisper. Timestamps link to the video above. Errors are possible.