{"id":46271,"date":"2026-04-27T15:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T15:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/46271\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T15:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T15:40:16","slug":"incoming-apple-ceo-john-ternus-tells-gen-z-an-early-mistake-taught-him-an-important-lesson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/46271\/","title":{"rendered":"Incoming Apple CEO John Ternus tells Gen Z an early mistake taught him an important lesson"},"content":{"rendered":"

College graduates are stepping out of college and into corporate offices, uncertain of how to excel<\/a> in an AI-enabled world of work<\/a>. However, in the pursuit of success, incoming Apple<\/a> CEO John Ternus<\/a> advises young professionals that putting in 100% effort matters most.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe care that you put into your work really matters,\u201d Ternus told the<\/a> University of Pennsylvania\u2019s engineering graduates in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The longtime company insider,<\/a> set to take Apple\u2019s top role<\/a> on September 1, first learned this lesson when he started working at the tech giant in 2001. After joining the product design team, his first project was to create a large plastic desktop monitor called Cinema Display. After months of toiling over the build, the supplier facility produced a version of the product, but on the back of the display, 35 grooves were installed instead of 25. Ternus knew the mistake would be out of sight to most observers, but he couldn\u2019t bear the thought of letting his design go to market with an issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI distinctly remember stepping back for a minute and thinking to myself, \u2018What the hell am I doing? Is this normal?\u2019\u201d Ternus recalled. \u201cI realized it might not be normal, but it\u2019s right, because I\u2019d already spent months working on that product. And if you\u2019re going to spend that much time on something, you should put in your very best effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ternus said that whether a customer notices the extra grooves or not, he would always know. And since he and his team had meticulously planned every detail\u2014from the display screen to the concentric steel grooves that shimmered like a CD\u2014they wanted their very best work reflected in the final product. That dedication may come across as intense, but it\u2019s always worth it to go the extra mile rather than do the satisfactory minimum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake\u2014it\u2019s hard to put that much of yourself into something,\u201d Ternus advised. \u201cIt\u2019s stressful, it requires sacrifice, but it\u2019s worth it because our time is finite.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incoming CEO says to act with \u2018humility\u2019 and \u2018make a dent in the universe\u2019<\/p>\n

Ternus was just 26 years old when he joined Apple\u2014it was his second job out of college, and at the turn of the 21st century, technology was innovating at breakneck speed. The incoming CEO told graduates that there will be many times in their careers when they have to take on something new, and uncertainty is bound to creep in. But there\u2019s a trick he\u2019s mastered to push through the doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways assume you\u2019re as smart as anyone else in the room, but never assume that you know as much as they do,\u201d Ternus told the Gen Z engineering graduates. \u201cWith this mindset, you\u2019ll find the confidence you need to push forward, but more importantly, the humility to ask questions and learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he first started working for the $3.9 trillion tech giant, Ternus admitted it was both exhilarating and intimidating. His coworkers were smart and confident, cutting into his self-assurance that he belonged there. However, he embraced their strengths instead of anxiously shying away\u2014and it\u2019s proved fruitful for his two-decade career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll always be grateful that I wasn\u2019t afraid to ask for help when I needed it,\u201d Ternus continued. \u201cBecause being around people that care that deeply, it won\u2019t just make you want to stretch your limits and see how far you can go, but they\u2019re also the best people to help you understand how to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 50-year-old engineering executive left the budding professionals with a parting piece of career advice: \u201cTake the time to build skills and expertise in areas that matter to you.\u201d Whether it be product development, fighting incurable disease, or building a healthcare AI model, young professionals should invest in meaningful work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBuild what interests you, build what excites you, but above all else, build it in a way that aligns with your values.\u201d Ternus said. \u201cThis is your time, this is your moment, so do what Steve Jobs once said, and go out there and make a dent in the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ternus\u2019 25-year come-up at $3.9 trillion giant Apple<\/p>\n

Ternus, who currently serves as Apple\u2019s senior vice president of hardware engineering, has devoted nearly his entire professional career to working at Apple. After a brief stint as an engineer at Virtual Research Systems upon graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, he first joined Apple\u2019s product design team in 2001, right as the company was ramping up its product innovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By 2013, Ternus was promoted to vice president of hardware engineering and later rose to a senior role, joining Apple\u2019s executive team in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over his 25-year run, the mechanical engineer has led hardware engineering across Apple\u2019s vast product portfolio\u2014including AirPods, all generations of iPads, and the latest iPhone. But Ternus\u2019s technical chops were only part of the appeal; Cook said that<\/a> he has the \u201cmind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reaction to the announcement of his appointment as CEO<\/a>, Ternus said that he is lucky to have worked under the late Jobs, and had Tim Cook as his mentor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am profoundly grateful for this opportunity to carry Apple\u2019s mission forward,\u201d Ternus said in a<\/a> statement. \u201cI am humbled to step into this role, and I promise to lead with the values and vision that have come to define this special place for half a century.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"College graduates are stepping out of college and into corporate offices, uncertain of how to excel in an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[23148],"tags":[7672,633,1720,2683,766,5469,9995,2686,5470,836,2344,1021,628,7577,7676],"class_list":["post-46271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-john-ternus","tag-advice","tag-apple","tag-career-advice","tag-careers","tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","tag-colleges-and-universities","tag-engineering","tag-executives","tag-gen-z","tag-jobs","tag-john-ternus","tag-steve-jobs","tag-tim-cook","tag-workers","tag-young-workers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116477429279612919","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}