Steve Jobs What’s the Most Important Thing He Learned

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A MIT student asked Apple’s founder and CEO: Steve Jobs what’s the most important thing he learned at Apple that you’re doing at NeXT?

Jobs thought for a moment.

“I now take a longer-term view on people.”

“When I see something not being done right, my first reaction isn’t to go fix it. It’s to say, we’re building a team here. And we’re going to do great stuff for the next decade, not just the next year.”

“So what do I need to do to help so that the person that’s screwing up learns, versus how do I fix the problem?”

“And that’s painful sometimes. And I still have that first instinct to go fix the problem.”

“But taking a longer-term view on people is probably the biggest thing that’s changed.”

On not knowing your own competitive advantage:

“A lot of times you don’t know what your competitive advantage is when you launch a new product.”

“When we did the Macintosh, we never anticipated desktop publishing. Sounds funny, because that turned out to be the Mac’s compelling advantage.”

“We anticipated bitmap displays and laser printers. But we never thought about PageMaker, that whole industry really coming down to the desktop.”

“But we were smart enough to see it start to happen nine to twelve months later. And we changed our entire marketing and business strategy to focus on desktop publishing.”

“And it became the Trojan horse that eventually got the Mac into corporate America.”

The same thing happened at NeXT.

They built software to help developers create apps faster. Their target customers were Lotus, Adobe, WordPerfect.

Then big companies started showing up and saying: “You don’t understand what you’ve got. The same software that allows Lotus to create their apps faster is letting us build our in-house apps five to ten times faster.”

“And you dummies don’t even know it.”

Jobs admitted: “It took them about three months before we finally heard it.”

Steve Jobs About Management

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“We don’t pay people to do things. That’s easy, to find people to do things. What’s harder is to find people to tell you what should be done. That’s what we look for.” ~ Steve Jobs

Apple’s founder and CEO Steve Jobs talked to MIT students about management:

“I’ve never believed in the theory that if we’re on the same management team and a decision has to be made, and I decide in a way that you don’t like, and I say, come on, buy into the decision.”

“Because what happens is, sooner or later, you’re paying somebody to do what they think is right, but then you’re trying to get them to do what they think isn’t right. And sooner or later, it outs.”

His approach:

“The best way is to get everybody in a room and talk it through until you agree.”

Then this:

“We don’t pay people to do things. That’s easy, to find people to do things.”

“What’s harder is to find people to tell you what should be done. That’s what we look for.”

“So we pay people a lot of money, and we expect them to tell us what to do. And when that’s your attitude, you shouldn’t run off and do things if people don’t all feel good about them.”

Steve Jobs On Competitive Advantage

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In 1992, Apple’s founder and CEO Steve Jobs talks to MIT students about competitive advantage:

“Hardware churns every 18 months. It’s pretty impossible to get a sustainable competitive advantage from hardware. If you’re lucky, you can make something one and a half or two times as good as your competitor. And it only lasts for six months.”

“But software seems to take a lot longer for people to catch up with.”

“I watched Microsoft take eight or nine years to catch up with the Mac, and it’s arguable whether they’ve even caught up.”

On technology windows:

“You can use the concept of technology windows opening and then eventually closing.”

“Enough technology from fairly diverse places comes together and makes something that’s a quantum leap forward possible. And a window opens up.”

“It usually takes around five years to create a commercial product that takes advantage of that technical window opening up.”

“And then it seems to take about another five years to really exploit it in the marketplace.”

He gave examples from his own life:

Apple II lasted 15 years. DOS lasted 15 years. Mac was eight years old at the time and would easily last another five.

“These things are hard. They don’t last because it’s convenient, or even because it’s economic. They last because this is hard stuff to do.”

Steve Jobs on Getting Fired from Apple

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In 1992, an MIT student asked Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs the following question: where would Apple be if you hadn’t left?

Jobs paused.

“I’ve obviously thought about this a lot. I think everybody lost. I think I lost. I think Apple lost. I think customers lost.”

“And having said all that, so what? You go on. It’s not as bad as a lot of things. Not as bad as losing your arm.”

That’s Steve Jobs. Getting fired from the company he built, comparing it to losing a limb, and shrugging.

He spent the rest of the talk explaining what he learned about building companies.

Steve Jobs on Consulting

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“Consulting is like a picture of a banana. You might get a very accurate picture, but it’s only two dimensional. Without the experience of actually doing it, you never get three dimensional.” ~ Steve Jobs

Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs walked into a room full of MIT MBA students and asked how many were going into consulting business.

Many hands went up.

He said their careers would be “like a picture of a banana.”

“You might get a very accurate picture. But you never really taste it.”

He spent the next 60 minutes explaining what actually builds careers:

“Without owning something over an extended period of time, where one has a chance to take responsibility for one’s recommendations, where one has to see one’s recommendations through all action stages and accumulate scar tissue for the mistakes and pick oneself up off the ground and dust oneself off, one learns a fraction of what one can.”

He continued:

“Coming in and making recommendations and not owning the results, not owning the implementation, I think is a fraction of the value and a fraction of the opportunity to learn and get better.”

“You do get a broad cut at companies, but it’s very thin.”

Then the line that made the room go silent:

“It’s like a picture of a banana. You might get a very accurate picture, but it’s only two dimensional. Without the experience of actually doing it, you never get three dimensional.”

“So you might have a lot of pictures on your walls. You can show it off to your friends. You can say, look, I’ve worked in bananas, I’ve worked in peaches, I’ve worked in grapes.”

“But you never really taste it.”

This was 1992. Jobs had been fired from Apple seven years earlier. He was running NeXT. He had scar tissue.

Fear of Missing Out

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“The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.” — Warren Buffett

The concept of “FOMO” (Fear of Missing Out), in the world of high-conviction investing, is a proven mathematical hazard for long term investing success. FOMO is the force that tempts you to abandon your “buy box” for a story.

Here is a breakdown of why FOMO is a structural risk to a long-term portfolio:

FOMO: The “Silent Killer” of Compounding**
In a market driven by AI narratives and momentum, FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is the most expensive emotion an investor can feel. It is the psychological pull that convinces you to buy a “Tier 1” company at a “Tier 10” price.

For the disciplined investor, FOMO creates three distinct mechanical failures:

1. The Eradication of the Margin of Safety**
When you chase a stock like hot stocks at their 52-week highs, you aren’t just buying growth; you are paying a massive premium for the *privilege* of being late.

The Math: Buying at a **40-50% premium** to intrinsic value means the business has to over-perform for years just for your investment to break even. FOMO turns a great company into a terrible investment.

2. The “Quality Dilution” Trap**
FOMO often strikes when a specific sector (like Semiconductors) is rallying. If the high-ROIC leaders are too expensive, FOMO whispers that you should buy the “laggards” just to get exposure.

The Reality: You end up holding companies with weak cash flow and no competitive moat. When the cycle turns, these “sympathy plays” drop 70% while the leaders only drop 20%.

3. The Reset of the Compounding Clock**
Compounding is a game of endurance. FOMO causes high portfolio turnover—selling a “boring” high-quality compounder to chase a “fast” momentum stock.

The Result:** You trigger capital gains taxes, pay transaction costs, and reset your holding period. You are effectively cutting down a growing oak tree to plant a dandelion because the dandelion grew six inches in a week.

How to Fight Back: The antidote to FOMO is JOMO (The Joy of Missing Out).

Stick to the 200-Day MA: If a stock is trading significantly above its 200-day moving average, it’s not “leaving without you”—it’s overextended.

Patience is waiting for the mean reversion.

Focus on the Yield, Not the Price: If the FCF Yield is below your hurdle rate, the stock is a “Pass,” no matter how many green days it has in a row.

Filter the Noise: Financial media highlights what *happened* (the past). Your technical analysis (ROIC, CAGR, Debt-to-FCF) predicts what will last (the future).

Bottom Line: The market is a machine designed to transfer wealth from the impatient to the patient. If you miss a rally because the valuation didn’t make sense, you haven’t “lost”—you’ve successfully defended your capital.

Are you currently feeling the “pull” of a specific stock that’s running away, or are you finding it easier to stay disciplined by looking at those names currently sitting below their 200-day moving averages?**

Habits and Behaviors of Building Wealth

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Want to stay poor? Want to continue living paycheck-to-paycheck? Want to continue struggling financially?

  • Spend first.
  • Save later.
  • Invest never.

These simple habits and behaviors keep many people stuck for years. Money comes in, and it goes out just as fast. There is no plan, no discipline, and no future in sight. It feels normal because everyone around you is doing the same thing.

But the truth is clear. Wealth is built in a different order. You earn, you save a portion, and you invest it with patience. That small habit, done consistently, changes everything over time.

It is not about how much you make. It is about what you keep and what you grow. Even a little amount, handled wisely, can become something meaningful.

If you keep rewarding every urge to spend, your future will always pay the price.

So take a moment and think about your own financial habits and behaviors. Are they keeping you poor or are they building wealth for the future.

Autophagy Health Benefits

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Autophagy has many health benefits! It is your body’s normal way of carrying out cellular renewal processes. In fact, autophagy is so beneficial for your health that it’s now being called a “key in preventing diseases such as cancer, neurodegeneration, cardiomyopathy, diabetes, liver disease, autoimmune diseases and infections.”

Autophagy has many anti-aging benefits because it helps destroy and reuse damaged components occurring in vacuoles (spaces) within cells. In other words, the autophagy process basically works by using waste produced inside cells to create new “building materials” that aid in repair and regeneration.

Recent studies demonstrate that autophagy is important for “cleaning up” the body and defending against the negative effects of stress. However, the exact way that autophagy processes work are just beginning to be understood.

There are several steps involved in autophagic processes. Lysosomes are a part or cells that can destroy large damaged structures, like mitochondria, and then help to transport these damaged parts so they are used to generate fuel. To sum up a complex process: damaged material must first be transported to a lysosome, then deconstructed, then spit back out to be repurposed.

Benefits

Research suggests that some of the most important autophagy health benefits include:

  • Providing cells with molecular building blocks and energy
  • Recycling damaged proteins, organelles and aggregates
  • Regulating functions of cells’ mitochondria, which help produce energy but can be damaged by oxidative stress
  • Clearing damaged endoplasmic reticulum and peroxisomes
  • Protecting the nervous system and encouraging growth of brain and nerve cells. Autophagy seems to improve cognitive function, brain structure and neuroplasticity.
  • Supporting growth of heart cells and protecting against heart disease
  • Enhancing the immune systemby eliminating intracellular pathogens
  • Defending against misfolded, toxic proteins that contribute to a number of amyloid diseases
  • Protecting stability of DNA
  • Preventing damage to healthy tissues and organs (known as necrosis)
  • Potentially fighting cancer, neurodegenerative disease and other illnesses

Source: https://draxe.com/health/benefits-of-autophagy

Autophagy

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“Autophagy allows your body to break down and reuse old cell parts so your cells can operate more efficiently. It’s a natural cleaning out process that begins when your cells are stressed or deprived of nutrients.“ ~ Cleveland Clinic

Autophagy (pronounced “ah-TAH-fah-gee”) is your body’s process of reusing old and damaged cell parts. This “self-eating” mechanism (from Greek “auto” meaning self and “phagy” meaning eating) helps maintain cellular health, especially during stress like nutrient deprivation.

Cells are the basic building blocks of every tissue and organ in your body. Each cell contains multiple parts that keep it functioning. Over time, these parts can become defective or stop working. They become litter, or junk, inside an otherwise healthy cell.

Autophagy is your body’s cellular recycling system. It allows a cell to disassemble its junk parts and repurpose the salvageable bits and pieces into new, usable cell parts. A cell can discard the parts it doesn’t need.

Autophagy is also quality control for your cells. Too many junk components in a cell take up space and can slow or prevent a cell from functioning correctly. Autophagy remakes the clutter into the selected cell components you need, optimizing your cells’ performance.

Autophagy ramps up during fasting or calorie restriction, aiding survival by conserving resources.

The Autophagy process clears cellular debris, fights infections by destroying pathogens, and may slow aging by preventing junk buildup in cells. Research links enhanced autophagy to reduced risks of neurodegeneration, cancer prevention (early stages), and metabolic health.

Fasting, exercise, or low energy states activate it, but excessive autophagy can lead to cell death in extreme cases. As we age, autophagy efficiency declines, contributing to disease.

Source: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24058-autophagy

Wars Create Market Volatility

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Wars create immediate market volatility and the long-term economic reaction is almost always inflationary, which erodes the value of money. ~ Warren Buffett 

Billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway founder, Warren Buffett, strongly believes investing during wartime is crucial since it’s essential to transition from currency-based financial assets to productive assets like stocks. His core argument is that while war creates immediate market volatility, the long-term economic reaction is almost always inflationary, which erodes the value of money.

1. The Erosion of Purchasing Power

During major conflicts, governments often face massive, immediate expenses. To fund military operations, they frequently resort to deficit spending and increasing the money supply.

• Inflationary Pressure: As the supply of money increases faster than the production of consumer goods, the value of each individual unit of currency drops.

• The “Cash is a Risk” Theory: Buffett famously noted that during World War II, the worst thing someone could have held was cash. If you started the war with $100 in a coffee can, that $100 bought significantly fewer groceries and goods by the time the war ended.

2. Why Productive Assets Rise

Buffett distinguishes between “paper” wealth and “real” wealth. He argues that a business that makes a product people need—like bread, shoes, or energy—will simply price its goods in whatever the current currency happens to be.

• Adaptability: If inflation rises by 10%, a strong company can raise its prices by 10%. The intrinsic value of the factory, the brand, and the machinery remains, regardless of the fluctuating value of the dollar.

• Compounding Growth: Unlike a fixed-income bond, which pays a set amount of “deteriorating” dollars, equity in a company represents a claim on future earnings that will be paid in “new,” inflated dollars.

• The Stock Market as a Mirror: While the stock market often panics at the outbreak of war, Buffett points out that it historically recovers and exceeds pre-war levels because the underlying companies continue to produce value and adapt to the new price environment.

3. The “Productive Capacity” Concept

Buffett’s favorite example is the farm. If you own a farm that produces 1,000 bushels of corn, you still have those 1,000 bushels whether the world is at peace or at war. If the currency is devalued, you simply charge more for the corn. The asset (the land and its ability to grow crops) retains its utility and value, while the money (the medium of exchange) loses its strength.

Bottomline…long-term investors must continue investing in productive assets during time of geopolitical conflicts and war. Historically, productive assets have maintained and increased their intrinsic value during times of conflict. Comparatively, paper assets, such as money and bonds, have loss value and purchasing power.

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