Steve Jobs never graduated from college, but he nurtured big dreams. From age 20, he build a computer career from the ground up in his parents' garage to where Apple computer has 4000 employees and continues to develop. What is it that awakens in such a person to compel extraordinary efforts and experiences that are rare for most people?What is it that leads a savvy entrepreneur to inspire a generation of innovators? Steve Jobs' life choices are a source of inspiration no matter what your life phase or job focus. Reflect why he encourages us to do what it takes to stay perpetually hungry and quirky:
1) Pursue your passions. Life experience can be ugly or even seem to whack you like a brick. Whatever happens, don't lose faith in yourself. Stay hungry to discover and build on what you love. Work and relationships will only ever be truly satisfying if you're honest with yourself and others. To do great work requires passion. If you haven't yet found that thing that gets you, keep looking. Don't settle. When it comes to love, you'll sense it when you find it. Great relationships, like good wine, simply improve as time passes. The best are worth waiting for. Life happens when you're focused on other things.
2) Do meaningful things during the time you have. don't waste time you've been given living someone else's life. Don't get trapped in other people's thinking or view of what's best. Don't let the noise of others' opinions block the advice of your own inner voice, as quirky as your ideas may seem to others. Most of all, nurture the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They already have insight into what you want to become and who would help you transform. Everything else is less important. Make the most of your time to enrich your life.
3) Don't be afraid to start again from scratch. Being successful in a team with diverging interests was stressful and burdensome. It was tough to live up to expectations balance. Steve embraced being fired and welcomed the freshness of starting from scratch again, less sure about everything. It freed him to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. Within five years, he launched a company called NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman whom he married. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and became the most successful animation studio ever. In a remarkable, unforeseen turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, Steve returned to Apple, and tech developed at NeXT became the core of Apple's comeback. Amidst positive developments, Steve had a new family. This renewed his creative energy.
4) Live Each day as if it was your last. This doesn't mean to drink and eat yourself senseless or do things you would later regret. It implies its desirable to live life to the fullest, whatever this means to you in the 'here and now'. In 2004, Steve Jobs was diagnosed with a rare pancreatic cancer and was told he had little time to live. As luck would have it, it turned out this was a rare operable cancer and Steve lived. He admits his brush with death taught him valuable lessons about appreciating each moment. No one escapes death, but the fear it triggers often leads to positive change. Clear out what's unnecessary in life to make way for essentials.