‘Total crock’: The career motto Apple’s Tim Cook hates
“Find a job you enjoy doing and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
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The saying, attributed to Mark Twain, is often passed around as career advice. However, according to Apple CEO, the saying is a “total crock”.
“There is a saying that if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life,” Cook said in 2019 at his commencement speech at Tulane University in New Orleans.
“At Apple, I learned that is a total crock.”
Thank you @tim_cook for your powerful words to our #tulane19 graduates! https://t.co/y7ycMLY1kv
— Tulane University (@Tulane) May 18, 2019
Instead, Cook said, if you find a job you’re passionate about, you’ll work hard but will enjoy doing so.
“You will work harder than you ever thought possible, but the tools will feel light in your hands.”
And Cook certainly does work hard.
Speaking to Axios, Cook said he wakes up at the crack of dawn to get his day on track.
In fact, the self-proclaimed “workaholic” wakes up a little earlier than 4am.
“I like to take the first hour and go through user comments and things like this that sort of focus on the external people that are so important to us. And then I go to the gym and work out for an hour because it keeps my stress at bay."
Cook has also boasted about being one of the last workers to leave the office, and reportedly emails staff at 4:30am in the morning, expecting a similar commitment from others.
In 1998, he had one staffer leave work to fly to China without a change of clothes. Convening a meeting, the discussion had turned to a particular challenge in Asia.
“This is really bad," Cook said. "Someone should be in China driving this."
Thirty minutes later, he turned to operations executive Sabih Khan and asked, "Why are you still here?"
Khan drove straight to the airport and booked a flight to China without a return date, reports CNN.
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