Wealth & Money Quote by Steve Jobs

Jobs is doing what he did best: turning a moral argument into a product spec for a life. The target is “selling out,” but the real anxiety underneath is what happens when money arrives before meaning. He’s not wagging a finger at wealth; he’s warning that wealth can become a solvent, dissolving the very inner framework you need to handle it.

The phrasing is revealing. “These people” creates distance and a hint of disdain, as if capitulation is a contagious social type. “Fabulously rich” is almost fairy-tale language, and that’s the point: riches can feel like a story you’re starring in, until you realize you didn’t write the script. The punch is “gypping themselves out of” a “rewarding experience” - not failure, not struggle, but the private education that comes from building something you actually believe in. Jobs frames integrity as an experience you can miss, like skipping the one class that would have made the rest of the curriculum make sense.

Context matters: this is the Silicon Valley founder myth, where authenticity doubles as competitive advantage. Jobs’ own career (booted from Apple, returning as a savior) primes him to romanticize the long arc: values aren’t declared, they’re forged under pressure. The subtext is both aspirational and self-justifying: if you don’t do the hard, clarifying work first, your “newfound wealth” won’t just distort your perspective; it will replace it.