Tuesday 18 October 2011

Inspiration from Steve Jobs

With Steve Jobs passing, huge tributes have been paid world over to his genius. Recently his commencement address at Stanford University in 2005 was published again. Reading his speech filled one with hope and energy.

He tells 3 stories that he calls - Connecting the dots, Love and loss and finally Death. All these concepts are familiar to us but somehow his way of telling it puts in perspective for us again.

In ‘Connecting the dots ’ Steve says “You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever” . Hindus believe in Karma. Whatever happens is for the best and has a reason. The reason is not apparent immediately but when you look back on life you realise that whatever happened was to prepare you for something to come. Steve says that this approach never let him down in life.

In ‘Love and Loss’, Steve tells the story of how he was fired from Apple - the company he founded. He did not let the loss get him down. He realised that he loved what he did at Apple and with the lightness of a beginner got down to work again. He set up two other companies NeXT and Pixar. Pixar created the world’s first animated feature film – Toy Story, and is the most successful animation studio in the world. Apple bought NeXT and he entered Apple again with the technology he developed at NeXT. Steve says if he had not been fired from Apple, he would never have established NeXT and Pixar and never met his wife Laureen. So find the job you love to do, keep looking till you find it and don’t settle for anything less is his advice.

In Death, Steve talks about how he had cancer of the pancreas and the doctors had given him a few months to live. Luckily with surgery he made a recovery. A quote he had read in his teen years had impressed him. “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." Since then, he asked himself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, he knew he needed to change something. Steve says knowing death was imminent, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away leaving only what is truly important.

What I took away from this message of Steve Jobs; as caregivers, we have often asked ourselves - why me? The answer is - Because You Can. The Universe knows the strength in you. You need to recognise it too. Trust yourself. You can connect the dots later.

1 comment:

  1. "Steve says knowing death was imminent, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away leaving only what is truly important."

    This sentence in your blog is equally applicable to caregivers - death to our loved ones is imminent, therefore we do whatever we can, with no fear of embarrassment of failure but only because it is important (to us as much as those we care for).

    Thanks Vijaya.....

    Shanthini

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