Parting advice given to Mark Zuckerberg from Steve Jobs

Before Steve Jobs passed away the rumour mill was going into overdrive with talk of an acquisition between Facebook and Apple. But did Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg ever discuss that? Mark Zuckerberg vehemently denies the rumour but does admit he and Steve Jobs talked a lot about great products and building great teams.

During an interview Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg and PBS’s Charlie Rose say these revelations came to light.  The interview was an open and honest one and covered almost all previously never discussed topics such as will Facebook ever build games and what did Mark Zuckerberg really think about Google+. Mark responded by saying Facebook would never entertain the idea of building games and with regards to Google+ he referred to it as Google’s mini me of Facebook.

However, the turning point of the interview came when the trio started to discuss the real relationship Mark Zuckerberg had with Steve Jobs. The interviewer asked a particular question to Mark and his response was ‘I had a lot of questions for him on how to build a team around you, that’s focused on building as high quality and good things as you are. How to keep an organization focused, right, when I think the tendency for larger companies is to try to fray and go into all these different areas.’

One thing Zuckerberg made clear was that he had the utmost respect for Apple. The reason for this is because just like Apple, Facebook has one goal in mind – to build a brand and company that will contribute to changing the world rather than fattening the bottom line. When asked whether the rumour about an acquisition between the two companies was true, Zuckerberg responded by saying “No. I don’t think it ever really got there,” he says. “I mean, nor would I have wanted to sell it.”

The conversation moved to Zuckerberg and Sandberg discussing the fact that the question was never raised by Jobs because in his heart he knew clearly that Zuckerberg was not interested in selling Facebook. Despite what people in the industry say, there will always be a rumour that Zuckerberg and Jobs did talk about an acquisition whether is passing conversation or at a board room table.

Here are 15 Inspirational Steve Jobs quotes:

1. Stay hungry, stay foolish
2. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.
3. When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right. It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been No for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
4. We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and everyone should be really excellent. Because this is our life.
5. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
6. You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
7. Design is not just what it looks like. Design is how it works.
8. I want to put a ding in the universe.
9. No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new you is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
10. Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.
11. You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.
12. My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other’s negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts.
13. That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
14. I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.
15. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by Dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other people’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.