Tim Cook quotes: Apple CEO discusses focus, passion, bein’ best in class, coming out, and more.
“The sidelines are not where you want to live your life. The world needs you in the arena.”
“If you embrace that the things that you can do are limitless, you can put your ding in the universe. You can change the world.”
“No matter what you do next, the world needs your energy, your passion, your impatience for progress. Don’t shrink from risk. And tune out those critics and cynics. History rarely yields to one person, but think and never forget what happens when it does. That can be you. That should be you. That must be you.”
“It’s about finding your values, and committing to them. It’s about finding your North Star. It’s about making choices. Some are easy. Some are hard. And some will make you question everything.”
“Let your joy be in your journey – not in some distant goal.”
“You are more powerful than you think.”
“You want to be the pebble in the pond that creates the ripple for change.”
“To whom much is given, much is expected. I do believe this. It’s embedded in me.”
“Those who try to achieve success without hard work ultimately deceive themselves – or worse – deceive others.”
“I learned that focus is key. Not just in your running a company, but in your personal life as well.”
“You can only do so many things great, and you should cast aside everything else.”
“Think about what you’re passionate about. I did not learn something early enough: if I could go back, I’d tell the younger me that there’s a big difference between loving to work and loving the work.”
“You have to find the intersection of doing something you’re passionate about and that, at the same time, is in the service of other people. I would argue if you don’t find that intersection, you’re not going to be very happy.”
“Work takes on new meaning when you feel you are pointed in the right direction. Otherwise, it’s just a job, and life is too short for that.”
“You can focus on things that are barriers or you can focus on scaling the wall or redefining the problem.”
“There are times in all of our lives when a reliance on gut or intuition just seems more appropriate – when a particular course of action just feels right. And interestingly I’ve discovered it’s in facing life’s most important decisions that intuition seems the most indispensable to getting it right.”
“For the most important decisions in your life, trust your intuition, and then work with everything you have, to prove it right.”
“I think each person, if you’re a CEO, the most important thing is to have – to me, is to pick people around you that aren’t like you, that complement you. Because you want to build a puzzle; you don’t want to stack Chiclets up and have everyone be the same. And so I believe in diversity with a capital D.”
“If you believe, as we believe, that diversity leads to better products, and we’re all about making products that enrich people’s lives, then you obviously put a ton of energy behind diversity the same way you would put a ton of energy behind anything else that is truly important.”
“I think the most diverse group will produce the best product; I firmly believe that.”
“Creativity and innovation are something you can’t flowchart out.”
“Some people see innovation as change, but we have never really seen it like that. It’s making things better.”
“We do a lot of things for reasons besides profit motive. We want to leave the world better than we found it.”
“Excellence has become a habit.”
“We collectively, to get things done, work together as a team. Because the work really happens horizontally in our company, not vertically. Products are horizontal. It takes hardware plus software plus services to make a killer product.”
“When you care about people’s happiness and productivity, you give them what brings out the best in them and their creativity. And if you give them a choice, they’ll say, ‘I want an iPhone,’ or ‘I want a Mac.’ We think we can win a lot of corporate decisions at that level.”
“I don’t subscribe to the view some people have in the industry that you should purposefully design products that do not last that long. I don’t think it is good for anyone.”
“It gives me a lot of energy to talk to developers or meet students in classrooms who are using our technology to help learn faster and better – watching them pursue their passion.”
“We think coding should be required in every school because it’s as important as any kind of second language.”
“Apple has a culture of excellence that is, I think, so unique and so special. I’m not going to witness or permit the change of it.”
“People love our products. They love using our services. All of this, to me, equals great opportunity.”
“We generally acquire a company every three to four weeks on average. And so it’s a rare month that there’s not a company being bought. We typically buy for technology and really great people.”
“For us, the most important thing we can do is raise people up – that is, either by giving the ability to do things they could not otherwise do, allow them to create things they couldn’t otherwise create. It’s about giving them tools; it is about empowering people.”
“Our goal has never been to make the most. It’s always been to make the best.”
“That has always been the objective of Apple: to do things that really enrich people’s lives. That you look back on and you wonder, ‘How did I live without this?'”
“The most important thing is, do you have the courage to admit that you’re wrong? And do you change? The most important thing to me as a CEO is that we keep the courage.”
“There’s this thing in technology, almost a disease, where the definition of success is making the most. How many clicks did you get, how many active users do you have, how many units did you sell? Everybody in technology seems to want big numbers. Steve never got carried away with that. He focused on making the best.”
“This is Steve’s company. This is still Steve’s company. It was born that way; it’s still that way. And so his spirit, I think, will always be the DNA of this company.”
“I don’t view Apple or myself as an activist. What we do is for some things where we think we have deep knowledge, or think we do, or a strong point of view, we’re not shy. We’ll stand up, speak out – even when our voice shakes.”
“If hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it’s worth the trade-off with my own privacy.”
“It’s been tough and uncomfortable at times, but it has given me the confidence to be myself, to follow my own path, and to rise above adversity and bigotry. It’s also given me the skin of a rhinoceros, which comes in handy when you’re the CEO of Apple.”
“I’m not a person that puts value in being recognized. This doesn’t drive me. I am driven by great work and seeing people do incredible things and having a part in that.”
“I love museums but I don’t want to live in one.”
“I despise politics. There is no room for it in a company. My life is going to be way too short to deal with that.”
“My own personal philosophy on giving is best stated in a John F. Kennedy quote, ‘To whom much is given, much is expected.’ I have always believed this. Always.”
“I am who I am, and I’m focused on that, and being a great CEO of Apple.”
“I hope people remember me as a good and decent man. And if they do, then that’s success.”
“Life is fragile. We’re not guaranteed a tomorrow so give it everything you’ve got.”
