The first thing a good carpenter will do is make sure the house they're about to renovate is square and true. If it's not, they will have tricks to make the walls square and true, they're not just going to polish the turd or put glitter on it.
Jobs at Apple probably had a lot of opportunity to work on a lot of greenfield things, which I'd say 99% of people don't have the luxury or doing.
I also like his quote and attitude btw, just realistically, most of us won't ever get live in that world.