The world is sad with the passing of Steve Jobs. He was a smart business man and a role model to many entrepreneurs today. Every year, thousands of people would attend his keynotes and millions more would watch them on the internet because of his charisma and influence.

The words of the man who co-founded Apple and made it the company it is today should be taken seriously by business lovers and entrepreneurs.

Here are ten (15) quotes Steve Jobs left us with:

1)  “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”

2) “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design IS how it works.”

3) “You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

4) “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…because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

5) “So when a good idea comes, you know, part of my job is to move it around, just see what different people think, get people talking about it, argue with people about it, get ideas moving among that group of 100 people, get different people together to explore different aspects of it quietly, and, you know – just explore things”

6) “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. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains. ”

7) “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.”

8 ) “Innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realised something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem. It’s ad-hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea.

And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.”

9) “In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”

10) “You’ve got to find what you love and that is as true for work as it is for lovers. 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 what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you’ve found it.”

11) “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 other’s opinions drown out your inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

12) “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

13) “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

14) “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. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path.”

15) “Almost everything: all external expectations, all pride all fear of embarrassment or failure. These tings just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

Thank you Steve! We will miss you greatly.

So many people have the mindset of getting some experience before starting a business. When I first told my friends about my idea for Sociatic (which is still evolving ), they said I had to have some writing experience and get published before I started my own blog; ridiculous right?

I told them I had all the experience necessary to start my Sociatic. I mean, I have been writing essays and comprehension all my life at school so what other experience do I need? 

I know most of you also have gotten that kind of “get some experience first” comments from your friends. We are going to straighten things out today, me and you.

What job experience did Mark Zuckerberg use to start Facebook? He was still at Harvard when he started Facebook right? Yes he was!

What job experience did Larry Page and Sergey Brin use to start Backrub (now GOOGLE)? Larry had already started working on Back Rub when he met Sergey. They met at Stanford University and decided to partner up to work on Back Rub.

What job experience did Matt Mullenweg use to start WordPress? He was still in school when he started working on WordPress. He later went to work for Cnet where he was allowed to work more on WordPress. Now, it is the most popular publishing software in the world.

So what did all these people have in common before starting out their ventures? They all had knowledge, a plan and a strong passion to succeed. Yes, I can hear some people say, “they also had funding”.

Well, that is true but it is not true for all entrepreneurs. There are certain entrepreneurs who have bootstrapped their way to success. The most important thing is not the funding. Some people get funded but still their businesses go into bankruptcy in no time.

What you need to have is a very strong knowledge of what you want to do and also have a plan and a passion to succeed.

This doesn’t mean you should be ready to do everything by yourself. Kevin Rose hired a programmer to work on a core area of Digg and he paid the programmer $200. Imagine that! Most of us know Digg’s success after its development.

Many entrepreneurs started business without any experience in their chosen business field. They just had strong business strategies that proved to be effective. 

Sometimes, you will need help. You will need to integrate this part of business into your idea’s plan. You should be ready to seek help when you need it. Sometimes, you can ask your friends who have knowledge in what you are doing to help you.

If you don’t have anybody to help you, you need to be ready to use some money to outsource that part of the project to another professional. Sites like Elance and Odesk have great freelancers who can help you with your project.

I have worked as an import and export outsource agent for about a year and I didn’t have to import or export anything. I just read lots of books and asked other outsourcing agents what worked for them.

I have also given marketing and technical advice to some entrepreneurs and they always thanked me for working with them because my advice worked for them.

All I am saying is that, nobody should stop you from what you want to do. If I listened to people, I would not have been able to start this blog to share my experiences with you.

If you have a business idea, learn more about it, start it and don’t forget to continue learning. Educate yourself anyway you can; whether it involves certification or not. Education is the key to success whether it is academic or self-study.

You deserve success so just go for it. Like Nike says, “Just do it!”.