Bottom line is, I didn't return to Apple to make a fortune. I've been very lucky in my life and already have o... — Steve Jobs

Bottom line is, I didn't return to Apple to make a fortune. I've been very lucky in my life and already have one. When I was 25, my net worth was $100 million or so. I decided then that I wasn't going to let it ruin my life. There's no way you could ever spend it all, and I don't view wealth as something that validates my intelligence.

Author: Steve Jobs

Insight: There's something quietly radical about someone at the peak of wealth dismissing it as a measure of anything that matters. Most of us spend years convinced that hitting a certain number would change everything—that we'd finally feel secure, smart, validated. Jobs is saying the opposite: once you have enough, more of it becomes almost irrelevant to who you actually are. The tricky part is he's right, and most of us know it intellectually but can't quite believe it. We watch wealthy people struggle and think they're exceptions. We tell ourselves it's different when it's our money we're chasing. But here's what his comment reveals: the anxiety many people feel about money isn't really about the money. It's about proof. Proof that we're capable, worthy, intelligent. Once you decouple your self-worth from the number in your account, suddenly that number becomes just a tool instead of a scoreboard. This doesn't mean money doesn't matter—it absolutely does. Having enough removes genuine suffering. But there's a point where the pursuit becomes more about silencing doubt than improving life. The real work, Jobs suggests, is figuring out what you actually care about underneath all that wanting. The fortune is just noise after that.

Source: IWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon, p. 242, 2006