Find What You Love by Steve Jobs
“Find What You Love”
Steve Jobs’ at Stanford University
Steve Jobs, who stepped down as CEO of Apple Wednesday after having been on medical leave, reflected on his life, career and mortality in a well-known commencement address at Stanford University in 2005.
Here, read the text of that address:
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world.
I never graduated from college.
Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.
Today I want to tell you three stories from my life.
That’s it.
No big deal.
Just three stories.
1). The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
2). My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
3). My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “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, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because 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 you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.
This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown 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.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park , and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
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He was a wise, successful billionaire, one of the most respected entrepreneurs and inventors. His life story was truly inspiring and amazing . Our life is full of up and down. Every up or down it will lead us to another chapter of our life.
There are times when we need to relax ourselves and re-think what we want to achieve in life because it is counting every second and we do not know when we’re going to leave this lifetime.
It’s such a pleasure to read motivation stories to push me forward in life.
Here are lessons I learned from each story:
1. Stop wasting time complaining. My reaction matters more than what happens to me.
2. Never left one failure from the past hold me back in the future.
3. ‘No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there.’ This fact is so good! In psychology, it is believed that becoming aware of death can have a powerful positive effect, and bring about a radical shift in attitude and perspective.
Thank you for sharing. ??
Among the 3 stories, I can relate to third story very much. May be because I’ve passed the age of first and second stories and I’m now into the third story journey which is day by day, I’m nearer to death.
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because 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 you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Isn’t this what we should meditate on everyday? This pushes us to focus and concentrate on what’s important. Don’t you think we always busy with little little things that’s not important in our lives? Not many people has the chance to face death and then over come it and start a new and stronger life after that. I would say rare. Many couldn’t make it and what left behind was regrets of wasted their life living in someone else lives. When it’s too late, that’s only very little we can do. Some don’t even have a chance to say goodbye.
I like what has been shared by Steve Job in this article. Our life is full of up and down. Every up or down it will lead us to another chapter of our life. Our life never stop when we succeed or when we failed…. life still go on. What important is that we should always look forward and move on. Never fall and stay on as time is ticking every second. The moment we stop then we will be staying behind for the next second. Looking at Steve Job life journey, when he failed it leads him to another success and when he falls again it lead him to another success. Why so? I personally feel that every moment of success or fail is temporary and this moment is just a result check of our life. After we acknowledge it then we have to work out for another chapter of our life from there to keep going and move on to improve our life from that moment.
I like what Steve Job mention about this quote “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It’s so true that if we live with this quote, everyday we will do our best everyday in our life. Steve Job live his life with this quote which is similar to realising impermanent in Buddhist teaching. This is one of the very important teaching in Buddhism for us to realise that our life is impermanent and by acknowledging this how and what should we do in order not to waste our life while we still breathe every single air that we could.
Live your life in a meaningful way by benefiting others. When your time is up and you look back you are leaving a legacy of benefiting others is so much fulfilling instead of living your entire life by just accommodating your own self.
Inspiring life story of Steve Jobs from rag to riches and famous co-founder of Apple. He was a wise, successful billionaire, one of the most respected entrepreneurs and inventors. His life story was truly inspiring and amazing . His Apple’s revolutionary products, which include the iPod, iPhone and iPad, are now seen as dictating the evolution of modern technology that has benefited many of us everywhere in the world. He explored, experienced, evolved, and took years of hard work, determination to be where he is then. Since having diagnosed of cancer , he begin to speak with powerful and words of wisdom which has inspired many indeed. Steve Job realised death is near , hence he spent it wisely encouraging many with his powerful words and quotes in his speeches. Time is running out for sure , all of us have to accept it , spending the rest of our lives meaningfully before it too late.
Thank you for this wonderful ,inspiring article of a great inventor.
Steve Jobs is the wise men create such advance tecnology benefit many people in this world. Words from him are precious and full of wisdom. I respect all his hard work and contribution to the world. Death is uncertain. Althrough his is sick, he still share his story inspire many people. When the dealth come to us, what we do does not matter. We should accept it with no fear and no anger. Follow what you have belieave and bring peace for our mind.
One of the most powerful sharing of Steve Jobs’s speak is about “death” which not many successful peoples will talk about it. Just like what he said “ No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share”. People normally have a fear of death. In fact, death is nothing to be afraid of. The truth is when there is birth, there will be death, death is certain. On accepted death, we will have no fear of death and this can change our life. Our life will be more meaningful and happy. Steve Jobs’s speaks can help us forge a new map of life , and very suitable for the 21st generation.
Power stories shared by another great man.
We should follow our heart, interest & explore ourselves & live a life for ourselves. At the end of the day, we are all alone. Hence, why bother about people’s comments on what we’re doing which it is right & create no harm to either oneself & others.
Go all the way is the way!
Steve Job’s life story is really inspiring and amazing. He went through life like most of us are facing. Family, love, study, failure, success, and ultimately, death. Don’t even talk about death, many of us can’t even face our failure and can’t even stand up to fight for their life again, what more to say when death comes one day? I like the quote he mentioned “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” Just like one of our Rinpoche’s book title “If not now, when?” Steve Job by realizing death is upon us anytime in life, he did many amazing things, like bringing Apple to the peak of the world. Of course, by realizing death also, he accept the fact that he was diagnosed with Cancer. But by doing so, he didn’t loose faith in life, on the other hand, he lived greater than before, this is what we all need to learn. Everyone will die one day, be it later or soon, we don’t know when. Thus, we need to appreciate what we have at the moment, love what we do, do what we love, and live like there is no tomorrow.
What Steve Jobs shared the 3 stories of his life do tell how much meaningful a life is. Regardless how rich or educated we are, lack of passion, determination, persistence, patience and intelligence, may not lead us to success. Success is not judge by being profession, is our passion and tenacity.
A lot can be taken from what Steve Job’s life story and his thoughts. One of it is definitely the way he realises life is so fragile and short, without thinking that we can actually life as long as we like. We shouldn’t waste time on unnecessary things and just do what we are passionate about as time is short and its unpredictability is cruel. Something I can relate to in Buddhism which is we live the way we think we are going to do live the last day of our lives.
Steve Jobs was not the only successful and wealthy person in the world who did not finish college or had a university degree. These successful people have many things in common like passion, tenacity, perseverance, consistency in realising their vision. But Steve Jobs was one of those few people who realised death is always near and that realisation pushed him to do more in where his passion lies.
This is an inspiring article for people who often meet with ups and downs in the life. We do not have to take everything too fixated and rigid. There are times when we need to relax ourselves and re-think what we want to achieve in life because it is counting every second and we do not know when we’re going to leave this lifetime. We also do not need to care what other think about what we do is wrong or right. But of course we can listen to their comments and contemplate to see if it really make sense. Following the Zen Buddhism has perhaps open Steve Jobs’ thinking about life and hence he accepts his sickness and death quite well.
“When one door closes another door opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.” – Alexander Graham Bell
I thought of this quote as I was reading Steve Job’s speech. Very inspiring. Always move forward and believe in something better rather that getting stuck in the past. He was very positive in everything he did and never thought of failure as something to stop him in achieving bigger goals. Even when he knew that he is going to die, he still pursue whatever he wanted to do and at the same time embracing it.
Rinpoche gave a teaching about death meditation. Find out more here :
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/kechara-13-depts/last-night-i-spoke-about-death-meditation-in-more-detail.html
“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish” such an advice would be considered a crime if not quoted by someone as successful as Steve Jobs.
However relating to the 3 stories that Steve Job told during the commencement of such a prestigious university as Stanford, he was prepared to stay hungry and foolish in following what he was passionate about.
From Steve Jobs success, it was obvious that he was inclined to creativity without boundaries, with a willingness to explore and experience whatever came his way. His courage in following his intuition created a huge change in our lives with the Apple appliances.
Most interesting was how a calligraphy class could have such a impart in his creation of the Apple products.
The lesson of “stay hungry, stay foolish” is the tenacity to hold on to what you love and believe it through failures, disappointment to others, criticism and still hold on even when facing death.
Amazing lesson on conviction and tenacity to live with what you love and create a better world.
For me, there are more lessons to be learned in Steve Jobs’ speech than the three stories he brought up.
1) “But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out.”
In this, I see a willingness to admit he is wrong and therefore, him giving himself the opportunity to always improve.
I also see gratitude, and a recognition of the sacrifices others have to make in order for him to succeed, and his wish to make the most of their sacrifice.
2) “So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.”
His ability to face his fears head-on and make it work. Humans are naturally risk averse, which is a fancy way of saying we like to stay in our comfort zones. But if we stay in our comfort zones, what we have around us is the most we will ever have around us. So if we don’t make a change in one of the variables in our lives, we will always be stuck where we are.
3) “It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.”
His honesty and being realistic about the situation. Millenials today suffer from feeling very entitled to success. They set up start-ups assuming it will take off quickly and be a success; they want to live the life of success without putting in the hard work. Steve Jobs is offering a sobering reminder that it’s not easy and you will have to suffer, but how badly you want it is how much you will put up with in order to make it happen.
He also has a willingness to suffer for his conviction and to go all the way with whatever decisions he has made, regardless of how painful the consequences may be. This is someone who can look beyond the now to plan for the future.
4) “I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley.”
I have read that Steve Jobs has always been brutal with the people he works with. But I think what leads people to respect him despite this is that he is just as brutal with himself as he is with everyone else. Because he’s fair and his method has results, people will put up with him.
Finally, it is sad that people have to wait until they have a diagnosis and a timeline for their death before they come to these realisations. We are all going to die and we are all already dying. The only difference is, the people who are terminally ill know when. And most of us will never be lucky enough to know when, so we have a chance to consciously prepare. Since we don’t have that chance, why not spend every moment consciously preparing? The rest of us behave like we are going to live forever but the reality is we will not and Steve’s realisations are therefore just as applicable to us as everyone else.
Wow! This is a guy with an amazing view on both life and death and backed it up with success. Steve Job found what he truly loved to do and realized it too. Hence no matter the rejection, the failure, the humiliation, he prevailed and turned it all around.
Most of us will spend a large part of our life working. And if it is not something we love, it will be a struggle, it can be miserable. Many of us stop looking and we settle because we are afraid to let go of our current situation even though we are not satisfied or unhappy in them. We settle by letting our fear of the unknown wins.
From young we are brought up with expectations and obligations, to live someone else’s life, to live with the results of other people’s thinking. What Steve is telling us is not different from many others who have followed their heart and intuition, who has followed their dreams. What is your inner voice telling you? I think a lot more of us already know even though some of us doesn’t really want to acknowledge that inner voice. If you haven’t found yours, keep looking and don’t settle but if you have found yours, embrace it.
Steve Job’s stories are inspiring. It tells us that there is always opportunity for every challenge we face. When face with challenge, we should stay positive and take proactive action to overcome them. Running away from the challenge shall deprive us the opportunity to turn a crisis into opportunity. Good luck ? Bad luck ? Who knows ? Having the right mental attitude is crucial to keep us passionate no matter under what circumstances.
Steve Jobs… he left a legacy. He changed how the world operates while he was alive and he left us with much words of wisdom. His speech brought up the most important aspect of life: death.
“Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away.”
When i was younger, when people made fun about old people i used to join them. now (in addition to laughing at a well told joke) I also think “i’m going to be like that one day”.
remembering that we will grow old and die is so important and effective in making us become nicer people and live more meaningfully. Steve Jobs truly appreciated that and continued to innovate for the betterment of so many lives up till his last day on this earth. how wonderful.
Steve Jobs clearly is someone special. While his life was relatively short but when compared this with the achievements that he has created in this life time, it is simply beyond words.
He is one of the few people in this world who rise up to the pinnacle with minimal resources. I feel intelligence and perseverance from him.
He leaves legacy behind. He has not wasted this life.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for sharing this article. Steve Jobs demonstrated to us what we perceive as failure is not really a failure if we accept, contemplate on it and move on. It is through failure that we know what we are lack of and learn from our mistakes.
Steve Jobs’s story about connecting the dots has stuck in my mind. I’ve found it helpful to think about since listening to his speech in Sept.
I’ve been an Apple and Steve Jobs “fan” for most of my life. I found it very interesting learning about his connection to Buddhism. At the same time I try not to see him as too godly. He was harsh with many people. He suffers in samsara like the rest of us.
He and Bill Gates are truly very interesting people. Gates gives so much money to charity. The top pioneers in the personal computer age turned out to be quite good people. They started off as thinkers, computer programmers. Think about other industries where the CEOs are not so virtuous. It’s quite a gift.
Hi There was a Steve Jobs documentary just aired on the bbc called ‘Steve Jobs: Billion dollar hippie’ which is still available on i player if anyone is interested http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b018ct00/Steve_Jobs_Billion_Dollar_Hippy/
It is said that Steve Jobs biography was honest, though often harsh, but it has conferred on Jobs a kind of Tragic desperation, especially when, with the onset of cancer, he discovered that his infinitely looped and ingenious mind is housed in a fallible body. In Jobs words, he said, “No one wants to die, even people who go to heaven dont want to die to get there, and yet death is the destination we all share. None has ever escaped it. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon………because all external expectation, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure….just fall away in the face of death. In the world of invention and Innovation, Steve Jobs was said to be a super-genius, Gate’s a super-intelligient. Steve Jobs believes he was an “enlightened Luminary” to be ranked with Gandhi or Einstein. It seems at his best Steve Jobs mimicked the serene demeanour of a Buddhist priest. He negotiated multi-million deals while walking barefooted through the countryside and bought himself a mansion, in which he had to sit cross-legged on the floor, because he disapproved of possessions and had optical objection to furnitures. At his worst, fellow colleaques said he resembled Rasputin, the famous Russian Monk.
Doug Siebold, Agate’s Founder and President,has this to say in its Finale:- “Jobs mindset of cutting against the conventional wisdom to fulfill what people want before they know they want it, denotes Jobs as “The greatest Business Visionary of our Era”.(
Steve Jobs is truly an amazing person. From a college drop-out to a visionary is something we can learn from. What I can get from his inspiring speech is that whatever we do now will and can lead to something bigger in the future as long as we follow our passion. We may not know it now but in time it will reveal itself. I truly like “stay hungry, Stay foolish” because this is what is needed for us to explore on the things we want answers to and the goals we want to achieve.
The world has lost a inventor, innovator and visionary.
it those without anything that have the wisdom to achieve the most for those with everything rarely find time or reason to consider what if it could be another way , i say what if? What if we reconstruct a new way of thinking and living that reverts to the ways we were before it was not perfect but wow it may be a lot better than what we are doing now to our mother, she is a patient thing our mother but she can not endure relentless raping of her heart and mind and body , the moment you undersand where you come from is the moment you know what to do for all of the children of the earth sometimes it is nothing and sometimes it is many things
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” This is what Rinpoche teach all along. Honestly, it is not easy to achieve especially when you feel down. But Rinpoche already trained me so well, while you feel down then think about other people problem then everything will be alright. I try few times, it is really work, how about you?
Steve Jobs’ message is truly inspiring, motivating and encouraging. He faced many challenges in his life, yet, instead of staying status quo, holding on to previous success or mourning what he lost, he faced the challenges with moving forward, patience and the important key word – Never Give Up. He never give up!
When he say, he was lucky to found what he love in early life..yes, he was lucky to found what he love in life; I envy him for this. For me,its hard to understand what i want in life, my mind at one time like certain things, and, feel i can do this, the next time, i will try something new, the desire towards new thing is no ending. But, for Steve,yes, he found his love,but the true spirit in it is , he hold tight to what he love, he work hard to made things happened, he connect what he love. Again the key words- He never give up!
About death.. lots of time, we are clinging to the idea that we will be alive the next day or next month and forget the death could be happen anytime, any where. Thus lots of time, i tends to drag thing; neglecting and even ignore things. Not only clinging to the idea i will be alive tomorrow and lots of tomorrow, i too contradict myself on trapping the failure idea..thus i give up easily.
Read Steve’s notes, read about Guru’s story, made me realize that the core factor that lead to success are — Never never give up. And, it is important to understand time is not too long waiting for me to made things happened, if i don’t do it now, do not begin now, when? As Guru always say “If not now, when”? Thanks to Guru encouragement and motivation. Yes, its time to have courage to overcome my laziness and fear. Should put this to my 2012 new year resolution 🙂
Not loving what we do seems like we are not totally honest with ourselves. Doing something we do not like seems like self betrayal in a way , how can anyone succeed under such circumstances. What he wrote does not have the buddhist terminology but the spirt is very dharmic. I wish you well Steve Jobs in your future lives.
I love this message and advice from Steve Jobs. I have read it many times over regular intervals. When I look backwards at my life, nothing has happened as I predicted or planned. However, when I see where past events have led me i.e. in a place where I fully embrace the workings of karma and very hungry for the dharma, then the dots join beautifully and in perfect timing. And as for the courage that Steve Jobs said, now is the time to summon all of it and follow what I know to be true.
Thank you Rinpoche for posting this, and thank you for showing me a better way to use my life.