Living Before You Die~ Advice from Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, the iconic founder of Apple, Next, and Pixar, made a commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005 that reviewed the major events of his life and how they all fit together to shape who he became and what he accomplished.  He highlighted three specific events- dropping out of college, being fired from Apple, and being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  Dropping out of college allowed him to drop in on classes he was actually interested in, one of which was calligraphy.  Taking this class was just fun at the time but ten years later when he was helping to design the first Mac it gave him the skill and insight he needed to make the first computer with beautiful font.  After he was fired from Apple at age 30 he went through the most creative period of his life.  He founded a company called Next and another called Pixar which is responsible for the first computer animated motion picture- Toy Story.  This is also the time where he met and fell in love with his wife.  Then when he was diagnosed with cancer he was compelled to make the most of every day.  He had already been doing this as a daily checkup for himself on whether or not he was doing what he loved.  He would stand in the mirror and ask himself if today was the last day of his life would he spend it the way he was about to spend it?  He knew that if the answer was no too many days in a row that something needed to change.  Being diagnosed with a near fatal disease (one to which he would eventually succumb) gave a focused clarity to the lens through which he performed this daily ritual that he did not previously have.   

Watching this speech did inspire me.  There are huge parts of my life that I am not extraordinarily ecstatic about but I have the power to make the changes I see fit. Also, I have to believe that, like Steve, everything I experience is part of the intended plan for my existence and will ultimately come together to make something beautiful that will touch others for good and satisfy my Maker and my ambitions. 

Steve’s advice can be summed up to this: follow your gut, don’t live your life to please or imitate others, stay hungry, stay foolish.  I am going to make a conscious effort to do this everyday.

 http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html