Steve Jobs Once Said Making Something Great Doesn’t Require ‘More Energy’ Or ‘More Money,’ But Does Require This One Skill In Abundance

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs insisted that the secret to turning a good idea into a great one isn’t money or energy but the willingness to strive for it.

What Happened: In May 1984, speaking to Time reporter Michael Moritz in his Apple office, Jobs said excellence “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… and a willingness to persevere until it’s really great.”

He prefaced the remark with humility, “Things get more refined as you make mistakes… Your aesthetics get better as you make mistakes.” The lesson, he argued, is that greatness comes from one more revision when others are ready to ship.

Jobs lived by the rule. Biographer Walter Isaacson recalled the co-founder spending “hour after hour” polishing components no customer would see, convinced by the belief that God is in the details.

Such was his obsession with his sense of perfection that he once rang Google on a Sunday to complain that the yellow in one “o” of its iPhone icon was off-hue. Even Apple packaging went through hundreds of prototypes, so unboxing felt wonderful, reflecting his belief in the power of “impute.”

See Also: Steve Jobs Once Spent Two Weeks Choosing A Washing Machine For His Palo Alto Home And He Got More ‘Thrill’ Out Of It Than Any Piece Of High Tech In Ages

According to an op-ed penned by Simon Garfield for CNN in 2011, the fixation traced back to calligraphy classes that later gave the Macintosh its graceful fonts. After Apple forced him out in 1985, Jobs applied the same persistence at NeXT and Pixar, an experience that fueled Apple’s renaissance when he returned in 1997.

Why It Matters: Colleagues likened brainstorming with Jobs to stones tumbling in a rock polisher. Loud, abrasive, but brilliant when the grit cleared. Even on vacation, he pivoted from whale-watching to sketching product ideas, unable to shut off the quest for better, states a Wired article.

That bar still looms over Cupertino. When critics blasted this year’s “Liquid Glass” iOS redesign, one X user declared Jobs “would have fired everyone,” a nod to the willingness he demanded from every engineer.

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