'But the most lucrative and amusing part was the blue box. Wozniak showed its virtues to his friends. Wozniak made some calls to his sister who was working on a kibbutz in Israel. On Jobs's urging the pair turned a pastime into a small business and began selling the devices. "He wanted money," Wozniak said of his partner.'
One could start with their financials: Apple has 40% gross margins (5 year average). Since 2007, they have more than doubled these margins. In that same time, they've also introduced several new products. They are making more and making more from what they make. This all tends suggest that Steve Jobs not only valued profits but gave them the kind of treatment the OP suggests.
It's probably a good idea unless you're OK with your opinion appearing uninformed. In general, an opinion is not some magical thing which is exempt from evaluation. "IMO the Earth is flat" may be qualified as an opinion, but it would probably lessen your opinion of the speaker just the same.
It needs no citation. There is de facto proof. In an industry that has historically been driven to commoditization, Steve Jobs, at the helm of Apple, built a company that enjoyed margins many times that of their competitors.
actually i remember a video from a conference when he first returned to apple: he was doing an entire riff on "think profit" which was based on "think different". part of this was killing sacred cows when he got there: everything from hypercard to the newton was thrown away. he also learned his lessons from NeXT and didn't build a factory.
In his biography he talks about the importance of Apple generating a profit in order to re-invest into producing new products. That healthy profits were not only necessary but desirable to that end. I believe he has also said as much in interviews in talking in general about the nature of business (I will try to dig those up). It's why he recognized that a company was the best vehicle to use to marry his love of the arts with technology, as he is quoted in his book.
It's perfectly logical, as it's not cheap to do what Apple does when it comes to creating. There's a reason they just hit $100 billion in cash - Jobs knew full well the value of profit and what it should properly be used for. They know the value and safety in being able to build what you want to, and not being constrained for oxygen due to low cash or debt or lack of profits.
The way I see it is that because he wants to be profitable by innovating and delivering great products, he was aware that he should not let innovation be hampered by profit motives. This is especially important in the market he was operating in, and working around this problem gave them an edge.
People can form opinions themselves you know, we are not all content to be "secondary sources".
He doesn't have to have "learned" it in some specific source, besides observing Steve Jobs actions and words.
So, I find this "citation needed" meme, when the thing discussed is some personal opinion or a value judgement or an estimation or some sort, to be ridiculous.
> I find this "citation needed" meme, when the thing discussed is some personal opinion or a value judgement or an estimation or some sort, to be ridiculous.
It's important to note that these sorts of people are often not interested in a discussion; they merely want to be proved right on the Internet by hiding behind the perceived invincibility of empirical facts.
You are right: it is toxic, pedantic, and not something that most people would have the gall to say in real life. Thus, not worthy of being addressed. (edit: though the grandparent post was nowhere near as bad as others I've seen.)
Seriously, what could the citation be? A quote from Jobs saying "I love profit. I understand that the best products, marketed properly, can produce extraordinary profits."?
Asking for citations for fact-based claims is absolutely a good practice, but citations for opinions/conclusions are, in many cases, not feasible.
That said, I think the GP probably meant "what do you base this conclusion on?".
