Confession: I have been using the same Dell notebook since I graduated high school and after having paid a pretty penny to raise it from the dead not once, not twice, but THREE times, I can assure you- I don’t know the first thing about my computer. Naturally, I know even less about the competition. The only Apple device I have ever owned is an early generation Ipod that, given the ease with which I am able to play music via websites such as Pandora and Spotify through my recently purchased Android device, rarely sees the light of day. However, I know people. More importantly, I know a good man when I see one. As is common with the passing of any icon, I have joined the rest of the world in taking a very close look at Steve Jobs. While his numerous accomplishments prove him to be a brilliant innovator and entrepreneurial genius, it is a single speech (a commencement address given at Stanford University in 2005) that has me convinced the world has lost a good, better yet, a great man.
- You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards...You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever, because believing that the dots will connect down the road, will give you the confidence to follow your heart. Even when it leads you off the well worn path and that will make all the difference.
- The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.
- If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?...whenever the answer has been “no” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
- ...Almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die, is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose. You are already naked, there is no reason not to follow your heart.
- ...Death is very likely the single best invention of life. Its life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.
- Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life...Don't let the noise of others opinions drowned out your own inner voice and most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
In Memory of Steve Jobs, February 1955- October 2011
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