Editor's note: Marketing expert Shama Kabani, who pens the weekly advice column "Ask Shama" for Portfolio.com, offers her take on the lessons young entrepreneurs today can take from the late Apple cofounder's approach to business.

Steve Jobs was a technology and business icon who founded Apple at age 21. At that time, he would have been called a whiz kid—but now this age group of entrepreneurs are called Millennials and are a new demographic. We grew up in a world where Apple was a fruit second and an electronic first. With 18 billion apps already downloaded, Steve Jobs didn’t just pave the way for our generation—he created our entire way of life. Below are the 10 things his life and career example can teach us.

1. Go where the puck is going to be: Steve Jobs followed Wayne Gretzky’s advice: “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” Jobs went where he saw technology was going, not where it had been. Don’t just focus on where you have been or what currently exists. Focus on what tomorrow will look like.
2. A good thing takes time to build: When Jobs first bought Pixar Studios, it was a mess. Their first full feature movie, Toy Story, took years to develop and build. It took a lot of money and patience. And, Jobs had that. Many Gen Yers lack patience. Job hopping today is an all-too-common but highly undesirable trait.
3. Differentiate yourself: His black turtleneck shirts and unique presentation style made Jobs stand out. In a sea of tech entrepreneurs, he found a way to make geeky cool. Gen Y as a generation has been good at standing out as a group, but you have to stand out as an individual as well. Be memorable.
4. Don’t use time as an excuse: Jobs was only 56 when he died, and like the rest of us, he also had only 24 hours in a day. But, he accomplished more in one short life than most will in multiple lifetimes. Give up the excuse that you are too busy or there isn’t enough time.
5. Maintain focus: This is a rare quality in people across generations, but Jobs was a master at it. He focused his time and attention on the things that mattered most to him and the company.
6. Looks matter: You don’t have to be a good designer to appreciate good design. Apple’s products stood out above others because they were impeccably designed and aesthetically appealing. Simply, they looked good. But design extends to all things. Don’t turn in a report if it doesn’t look good. Take the extra effort to format the email before you send it to your boss. Design is in the details. Don’t ignore it.
7. Learn when to step up and when to step down: When Apple realized it needed Jobs back in charge in 1996, he took the helm with intention. And, when Michael Dell recommended that Apple sell its shares and apologize to shareholders, Jobs ignored his comments and kept building. But, when he felt that he could no longer do his job, he stepped aside. To be truly successful, you have to know when to step up as a leader, and when to step aside—also as a true leader.
8. Learn to cross-pollinate: Jobs often said that if he hadn’t taken a class in calligraphy at Reed College, he would have never come up with different typefaces for the Mac. Sticking to learning about your industry is great, but the best ideas come from widening your scope of learning.
9. Understand the value of a team: When asked about his business model, Jobs once replied in an interview, “My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each others' negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are not done by one person, they are done by a team of people.”
10. Don’t listen to the critics: And the higher you go, the more they clamor. Steve Jobs had critics, but he chose to ignore them. Jobs personified the words uttered by Theodore Roosevelt some 100 years ago —“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”