Steve Jobs on Perseverance: Making It Really Great
What Jobs talks about
In this short interview excerpt, Jobs argues that making mistakes is part of getting better. He says your aesthetics improve as you learn what not to do.
His larger point is that greatness usually does not require much more money or energy. What it does require is extra time and the willingness to persevere until the work is really great.
The excerpt captures an early Macintosh-era Jobs worldview: quality is a choice, and refinement comes from persistence.
Michael Moritz asks the questions; Jobs speaks in the excerpt.
In his words
“Things get more refined as you make mistakes”
“Your aesthetics get better as you make mistakes”
“It doesn't take any more energy and rarely does it take more money to make it really great”
“All it takes is a little more time”
“A willingness to persevere until it's really great”
Key points
- Mistakes are part of the process of refinement.
- Aesthetics improve as you learn through doing.
- Making something great usually does not cost much more money.
- What greatness really takes is time.
- Perseverance is essential if you want the result to be truly great.
Full transcript
Things get more refined as you make mistakes and do them, so I've had a chance to make a lot of mistakes. Your aesthetics get better as you make mistakes, but a real big thing is, the way I've always felt is that if you're going to make something, it doesn't take any more energy and rarely does it take more money to make it really great. All it takes is a little more time, not that much more, and a willingness to do so, a willingness to persevere until it's really great.
Transcribed from the audio with OpenAI Whisper. Timestamps link to the video above. Errors are possible.