One of my favorite books has been Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.  It’s incredibly inspiring to truly see deep into the thoughts and inner workings of one of the most brilliant minds of our lifetime.  Steve honestly felt that anything was possible and that there were no limitations to his creations.  His ability to identify solutions for problems that consumers didn’t even know they had is incredible.  Most companies will improve upon existing products, whereas Steve and his team of engineers developed products that were only imagined in sci-fi type cinema.

The book will absolutely give you a unique perspective on how one of the most successful business men lived his life and built several companies from nothing to something.  It’s inspiring, shocking, informative, and blatantly true.  I’ve always learned so much from quotes and here is a compilation of some of my favorite from the book.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

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. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.   ~ Steve Jobs

Here’s a collection of other incredible Steve Jobsquotes to live by (originally posted by Big Is The New Small).

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Friends, colleagues, and twitter followers hear me daily boast about the different mobile apps I use on a regular basis that I’m excited about.  Mobile technologies and applications are growing at exponential rates making it easier to interact, shop, search, discover, play, research, read, and the list goes on and on.  The number of companies and applications that have been born specifically targeting mobile usage is practically impossible to track.  As connected as I am to digital media blogs and tech update streams, I’m still finding companies that have been operating for a year that are innovating in ways never seen before.  The best of these applications look to change the way we interact with and navigate through the world we live in.  Foursquare‘s mission is simple: to build software to make the world easier to use, and already over 10 million people have tried this mission out.  Over 17 million merchant locations are also on the foursquare platform.  Many users have preconceived notions of what foursquare is and isn’t – and with the continued aggressive developments and enhancements it’s almost a totally new and different application now than when you may have used it last.  Since the launch at SXSW in 2009 I’ve seen an evolution of foursquare, and hope to simplify it here so you begin to leverage one of the best applications available today.  It has changed the way I interact with the world and hope it helps you as well.  I wish I had the time or the design skills to create a cool Infographic – maybe another time.

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In light of recent events, I’ve been thinking constantly about my goals, life ambitions, accomplishments I will achieve, companies I will help build and the stories I’ll tell to my children and grandchildren.  I think about what drives and motivates me on a regular basis, and evaluate if my current actions reflect those future goals.  Just as a clerk at grocery store will take inventory on products missing from the shelf, we should all encourage one another to do to same with our lives.  If you identify that you’re missing something, make immediate changes to receive more of that specific need.  A very cool tech startup in NYC  wants to help you develop, track, and achieve your goals in 365 days or less is called Accompl.sh.  This is something that I feel everyone could benefit from; and you should signup for an account today and try it out.  It’s like having your own personal life coach!

When I speak about goals I’m reminded of one of my favorite keynote speeches from Steve Jobs at the Stanford Commencement Ceremony in 2005.  My absolute favorite excerpt is when he speaks so passionately about death and our purpose while we’re alive.  I wrote a blog post once about living out your Dash and still to this day incorporate Steve’s ideologies into my daily routine.

At the end of February, twenty friends and I will embark on a journey that some would think is ridiculous, physically exhausting, and insane.  Tough Mudder is known as the “Toughest Event on the Planet” consisting of a hardcore 10-12 mile obstacle course designed by British Special Forces to test all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie.  Over the past few years I’ve raced in over 20 events, but the most rewarding are those that give back to charitable organizations.  It makes the race more meaningful and helps those less fortunate than others.  What’s great about Tough Mudder is more than $2.5 million dollars has been raised for the Wounded Warrior Project. Here’s a quick preview video of the race coming up. I hope to video parts of the race and report back on the fun adventure.

I wanted to write a quick post about something that I personally believe could positively change the world we live in.  It’s something that each of us can consciously do in our day to day activities.   As we all saunter through life it’s always easy to point out the bad things about certain situations.  From bad service at a restaurant to limited features of a product and improvements that could be made to an event – you know the feeling that you get when you get frustrated.  Instead of blowing off steam and complaining about it – have you ever just sat back and openly discussed with a friend how you could make the situation better?  Actually tried to make a difference.

I don’t intend to take you on a ride on the ‘positive thinking bandwagon’, but have you ever actually discussed how you could make the situation better.  I find myself commonly saying to a friend or colleague “what if there was something that….”  or “what if they did this instead.”  I often try to reach out to the owner or manager of the product or service to let them know about my idea to help them with the opportunity for improvement that I stumbled upon.

If you really find a great way to improve the product or service write it down – it could be the next big idea that turns into the next big company that is created.  Every company starts by answering the question “what problem does this solve.”  Today, I have a list growing now of probably 30 ideas (some very bad, some better than others) that I’ll research each to see if there’s a viable business opportunity there.  You never know what idea could be the next big IPO or acquisition that you read about on BusinessInsider.com.

If you train your mind to work in a way that constantly tries to improve situations, products, services, or anything in life for that matter I feel you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results you see.

Try it out…what’s the worst that could happen?