Success Quote by Steve Jobs

Apple isn’t just refusing to copy the market leader; it’s rejecting the premise that leadership is something you inherit by imitation. Jobs’s line works because it turns a seemingly modest comparison into a quiet declaration of sovereignty. “Beats to a different drummer” is old Americana, but in his mouth it’s brand strategy: the rhythm is design, the tempo is taste, and the song is controlled end-to-end.

The first clause is the tell. “I used to say that Apple should be the Sony of this business” acknowledges the era when Sony represented the gold standard of consumer electronics: sleek hardware, cultural cachet, premium pricing. It’s also a confession that even Apple, then still fighting for relevance, once needed a mirror to see itself. Jobs uses that setup to make the pivot feel earned rather than arrogant.

Then he snaps the frame shut: “Apple should be the Apple of this business.” The repetition is the point. It’s not a tautology; it’s an argument that identity can be a competitive moat. Subtext: standards and categories are distractions. Apple won’t win by being the best PC company or the best gadget company, but by redefining what those products are and dragging customers along with the new definition.

Context matters: Jobs returned to Apple in the late ’90s and rebuilt it around focus, integration, and taste-making. This quote is that philosophy distilled into a single move: borrowing Sony’s aura long enough to outgrow it, then insisting that the only benchmark worth chasing is your own myth.