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Steve Jobs And Apple Taught Us That Profit Is Not The Ultimate Goal, But Rather A Consequence Of Something Greater.
-Clayton Christensen
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Steve Jobs And Apple

Clayton Christensen
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Steve Jobs And Apple Taught Us That Profit Is Not The Ultimate Goal, But Rather A Consequence Of Something Greater.

Understanding the Quote: "steve jobs and apple taught us that profit is not the ultimate..."

This quote by Clayton Christensen reflects deeply on the theme of jobs. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Jobs, Apples, Taught Us, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Clayton Christensen interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Clayton Christensen

Clayton Christensen is celebrated for insightful thoughts on jobs and apples. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Jobs
Apples
Taught Us
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We Don't Hire Ministers Or Priests To Teach And Care For Us. This Forces Us To Teach And Care For Each Other - And In My View, This Is The Core Of Christian Living As Christ Taught It.
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Focus Is Scary—until You Realize That It Only Means Turning Your Back On Markets You Could Never Have Anyway. Sharp Focus On Jobs That Customers Are Trying To Get Done Holds The Promise Of Greatly Improving The Odds Of Success In New-product Development.
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In The Study Of Management, Unfortunately, Many Writers Have Been So Anxious To Articulate A Theory In The Form Of, "if You Do This, This Will Result," That They Never Go Through This Careful Effort.
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The Important Thing Is That Over Time, Scientific Progress Transforms Things That Used To Have To Be Dealt With In A Problem-solving Mode Down To The Pattern-recognition Space; And From Pattern Recognition Into The Rules-based Mode. This Is The Mechanism By Which Less-trained People Are Enabled To Do More Sophisticated Things. This Is Always The Way Disruption Happens. It Enables A Larger Population Of Less-experienced People To Do More Sophisticated Things.
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There Are Other Dimensions Of Biotechnology. If You Think Of Biotechnology Like The Internet, It's Not A Category - It's An Infrastructure That Can Be Deployed To Sustain Or Disrupt. In Health Care, The Most Complex Problems At The High End Have To Be Dealt With In A Problem-solving Mode By The Best, Most Experienced Physicians You Can Find.
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And If Your Attitude Is That Only Smarter People Have Something To Teach You, Your Learning Opportunities Will Be Very Limited. ... When We See People Acting In An Abusive, Arrogant, Or Demeaning Manner Toward Others, Their Behavior Almost Always Is A Symptom Of Their Lack Of Self-esteem. They Need To Put Someone Else Down To Feel Good About Themselves.
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I've Concluded That The Metric By Which God Will Assess My Life Isn't Dollars, But The Individual People Whose Lives I've Touched. I Think That's The Way It Will Work For Us All. Don't Worry About The Level Of Individual Prominence You Have Achieved; Worry About The Individuals You Have Helped Become Better People.
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Most Companies Think Of Disruption As A Threat. But Disruptive Innovations Have Tremendous Growth Potential. If Incumbent Companies Can Learn How To Harness The Forces Of Disruption, They Too Can Improve Their Ability To Create New-growth Businesses.
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Design
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Guy
Quite Often Startups Were First Out Of The Gate With A Sustaining Technology. But Somehow The Leaders Got The Technology And Stayed Atop Their Industries. Sometimes They Acquired The Startup; Sometimes They Just Developed The Technology As A Follower And Used Their Muscle And Mass To Win. But They Always Won.
Winning
Technology
Leader
Often They [writers On The Study Of Management] Have A Point Of View Based Upon Intuition And Experience. They Then Offer A Cadence Of Two-paragraph Examples Carefully Selected To "prove" Their Theory, And Then They Write "one Size Fits All" Books. The Message Is, "if You'd Do What These Companies Did, You'd Be Successful Too."
Book
Writing
Successful
Christine And I Haven't Raised Our Children. A Whole Community Of Selfless Christians Has Contributed To Helping Them Become Faithful, Competent Adults.
Christian
Children
Community
Whenever We Have Thanked These Men And Women For What They Have Done For Us, Without Exception They Have Expressed Gratitude For Having The Chance To Help - Because They Grew As They Served.
Gratitude
Grateful
Men
By The Time It Becomes Obvious That A Technology Will Have Truly Disruptive Impact, It Is Often Too Late To Take Action. This Is One Reason Why We Are Such Advocates Of Using Theory To Try To Analyze Industry Change. Conclusive Evidence That Proves That A Company Needs To Take Action Almost Never Exists. In Fact, The Data Can Fool Management, Lulling Them Into A False Sense Of Security.
Technology
Trying
Fool
When I Have My Interview With My God, Our Conversation Will Focus On The Individuals Whose Self-esteem I Was Able To Strengthen, Whose Faith I Was Able To Reinforce, And Whose Discomfort I Was Able To Assuage—a Doer Of Good, Regardless Of What Assignment I Had. These Are The Metrics Of That Matter In Measuring My Life. This Realization, Which Occurred Nearly Fifteen Years Ago, Guided Me Every Day To Seek Opportunities To Help People In Ways Tailored To Their Individual Circumstances. My Happiness And My Sense Of Worth Has Been Immeasurably Improved As A Result.
Self Esteem
Opportunity
Years
Management Has To Provide The Coordinating Mechanism Between What The Supplier Provides And What The User Needs In Not-good-enough Situations Where Product Architecture Is Consequently Interdependent. Management Always Beats Markets When There Is Not Sufficient Information.
Not Good Enough
Information
Needs
A Lot Has Been Written About The Internet Bust. From My Point Of View, It's Quite Clear The Internet Isn't A Category; The Internet Is A Technological Infrastructure That Can Be Deployed To Facilitate A Disruptive Business Model Or A Sustaining Business Model.
Views
Internet
Categories
In Most Instances, Biotechnology, Though A Radically Different Approach, Is A Sustaining Technology: It's A Dramatically Improved Way Of Targeting Problems That We Hadn't Been Able To Solve With The Conventional Approach Of Mainstream Pharmaceutical Companies.
Technology
Able
Way
Generally, The Technology That Enables Disruption Is Developed In The Companies That Are The Practitioners Of The Original Technology. That's Where The Understanding Of The Technology First Comes Together. They Usually Can't Commercialize The Technology Because They Have To Couple It With The Business Model Innovation, And Because They Tend To Try To Take All Of Their Technologies To Market Through Their Original Business Model, Somebody Else Just Picks Up The Technology And Changes The World Through The Business Model Innovation.
Couple
Technology
Understanding
Another Thing I've Observed Is How Critical The Role Of The Ceo Is When A Technology Truly Is Disruptive. In Looking Back On Companies That Have Successfully Launched Independent Disruptive Business Units, The Ceo Always Had A Foot In Both Camps. Never Have They Succeeded When They Spin Something Off In Order To Get It Off The Ceo's Agenda. The Ceos That Did This Had Extraordinary Personal Self-confidence, And Almost Always They Were The Founders Of The Companies.
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Technology
Disruptive Technology Is A Theory. It Says This Will Happen And This Is Why; It's A Statement Of Cause And Effect. In Our Teaching We Have So Exalted The Virtues Of Data-driven Decision Making That In Many Ways We Condemn Managers Only To Be Able To Take Action After The Data Is Clear And The Game Is Over. In Many Ways A Good Theory Is More Accurate Than Data. It Allows You To See Into The Future More Clearly.
Teaching
Technology
Data
History Is Littered With Great Firms That Got Killed By Disruption. Of Course, The Personal Computer, A Technology That First Took Root As A Toy, Got Digital Equipment Corporation. Kodak Missed The Boat For A Long Time On Digital Imaging. Sony Was Slow To Get Mp3 Technology. Microsoft Doesn't Know What To Do With Open Source Software. And So On.
Technology
Long
Computer
...it's Easier To Hold To Your Principles 100% Of The Time Than It Is To Hold To Them 98% Of The Time.
Character
Principles
Easier
You Can Talk All You Want About Having A Clear Purpose And Strategy For Your Life, But Ultimately This Means Nothing If You Are Not Investing The Resources You Have In A Way That Is Consistent With Your Strategy. In The End, A Strategy Is Nothing But Good Intentions Unless It's Effectively Implemented.
Mean
Purpose
Investing
Because Of The Disruption Phenomenon - Technological Progress Outstripping The Ability Of Customers To Utilize It - The General Tendency Is For The Money To Migrate Toward The Subsystems.
Progress
Disruption
Tendencies
If The Theory Accurately Predicts What They [scientists] See, It Confirms That It's A Good Theory. If They See Something That The Theory Didn't Lead Them To Believe, That's What Thomas Kuhn Calls An Anomaly. The Anomaly Requires A Revised Theory - And You Just Keep Going Through The Cycle, Making A Better Theory.
Believe
Anomalies
Scientist
Purpose Must Be Deliberately Conceived And Chosen, And Then Pursued.
Purpose
Chosen
Pursued
I Have Continued Systematically To Study The Book Of Mormon And Bible To Understand Even More Deeply What God Expects Of Me And My Family While On This Earth.
Book
Earth
Study
An Innovation Will Get Traction Only If It Helps People Get Something That They're Already Doing In Their Lives Done Better.
People
Innovation
Done
I Have Healed The Sick By The Power Of The God. I Have Spoken With The Gift Of Tongues.
Sick
Tongue
Healed
There's Usually Some Process By Which A Potentially Great Idea Gets Prostituted Into Something Lacklustre, Or By Which The Wrong Idea Gets Put Forward.
Business
Ideas
Process
When Product Performance Outstrips The Ability Of Customers To Use That Performance In An Industry, The Competitive Game Changes. Under Those Circumstances You Have To Decouple Components Businesses From Assembly Businesses.
Games
Use
Assembly
If You Want To Make Better Theory, You've Got To Use The Best That's Available And Look Through The Lens Of Another Discipline To See If You Can Uncover More Anomalies. By Looking At The Phenomena Of Failure From The Perspective Of Sales, Marketing, Finance, General Management, And The Equity Markets, I Was Able To See Things That Rebecca [henderson] Hadn't.
Perspective
Discipline
Marketing
In General, The Questions That Are On Our Mind Are The Same Questions That Have Been Driving Our Work Over The Past Decade. How Do We Bring Order To This Messy, Unpredictable World Of Innovation? How Can We Dramatically Improve The Chances Of Creating A Successful New-growth Business? How Can We Do This Again And Again? More Specifically, It Has Become Very Clear That The Fundamental Paradigms Of Market Segmentation And Branding Are Badly Broken - And We're Working On Developing More Useful Theories For These Dimensions Of Innovation.
Successful
Past
Broken
The Path I Am Trying So Hard To Follow Is In Fact The One That God My Father And His Son Jesus Christ Want Me To Pursue. It Has Brought Me Deep Happiness.
Jesus
Father
Son
Justification For Infidelity And Dishonesty In All Their Manifestations Lies In The Marginal Cost Economics Of “just This Once.
Lying
Infidelity
Cost
Children Build Self-esteem By Doing Things That Are Hard And Learning What Works.
Children
Self Esteem
Things That Are Hard
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