Steve Jobs on Finding Your Passion

Jobs shared one of his stories at a Stanford University commencement address he gave in 2005:

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 world’s 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.

Source: Transcript of presentation – Stanford University website

• Page 1: Fundamental Principles
• Page 2: Steve Jobs – Find Your Passion
• Page 3: Apple’s Story – Not Always A Beautiful Rose (Coming)
• Page 4: Best Practices We Can Learn From Apple (Coming)
• Page 5: Lessons Learned From Apple (Coming) App

Can we make a difference? One idea.

“Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University – a short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today – how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime.”

“It is about students in the developed world with good connectivity, but the lessons are the same as regards the need to create active learning. And we have to stop using poor connectivity as an excuse for not changing things in the developing world.”

Learning from History

As we try and solve our problems today,  we must learn our history.    I’ve started a section on this site called “learning from history.”   Although I’ve studied history,  it hasn’t been systematic.   I have worked closely with and managed (or tried to) some of the country’s top historians.   I’ve managed 100s of projects in my life, but projects with historians have been the most difficult.   They love detail.   They love the journey.   They are most interested in getting history right.   They see how history distorted and their silent passion is to get it right.

The “History” section of this website is currently a resource posting site for me.   It will evolve.    I’m not qualified to determine if the history content is valid or not.   The historians I work with refer constantly to “primary sources” and “interpretations.”    They are often against “interpretations” unless they are substantially provable.   I like that.   In time,  I will try and rely on resources that are heavy with primary sources.

There is a deep gulf between historians and the public.   I’m a big fan of David McCullough.   He makes history interesting – and  historians are fairly pleased with the historical quality of his work.   He relies heavily on reliable sources – often highlighted by paper projects (e.g., George Washington Paper Project).    David  laments that historians have done a disservice to our generations because they have made history boring.    History is rich with drama,  adventure, science, sin, breakthroughs,  sickness, strength, war and peace.   History is interesting and it isn’t fiction (or shouldn’t be).

The Joy of Innovation

When our focus is on the growth and happiness of others,  as opposed to putting green in our pockets, gaining fame or power,  then miracles can occur.   When a higher power,  a higher motivation, a higher sense of purpose motivates us, then we are anxious to bless others to the fullest extent possible.

To bless others, we need to know what really is best for them.    Sometimes we need to jump in and succor those in need.  Sometimes it is wise to not give too much so that people can learn, grow, and earn happiness for themselves.

Our country’s founding fathers were collectively wise.   Each  had weaknesses and limits in their views – but together they were wise.   They knew, based on personal pain and suffering, that individual freedom was needed.   The shortfall of our founding fathers is that they didn’t initially extend those rights to all of our brothers and sisters.   They knew that some government was needed to protect and bless us, but too much would most certainly destroy us – as demonstrated by most of recorded history.   The desire of some for money, sinful pleasure, fame and power were recipes for disaster.   Our founding fathers knew the tendencies of man and they built in complex checks and balances.  They created the right government that led to huge breakthroughs in innovation and economic strength.

Once our hearts are right and our minds our wise, we are in an incredible position to innovate and bless others.   The miracles of radio, of light, of television, of space travel are inspiring to consider.   There is no end to what can be developed to bless mankind.   Each of us has a deep desire to create and innovate.    These desires give us joy and focus.  It is part of who we are.   Find time to innovate.

Are you wasting your life away?

I am amazed at the number and status of the people who have looked into my eyes and have almost pled, “what am I supposed to do with my life?” Some of these have been highly accomplished, powerful and wealthy people who seem to have everything in life. Others have been destitute of hope because of harsh trials and a lack of belief in themselves. Both groups of people are just as important. They are our brothers and sisters. The most important question is, are they, are we, humble enough to take the right steps?

I wrote the workbook Journey To Your Potential because I can’t think of anything more important than someone taking the time to not just “jump into life” and either waste or sub- optimize their life’s journey, but to thoughtfully think things through. This isn’t rocket science. I attempted to frame up the right way to think about life, and then to help you through a process of asking yourself thought-provoking questions. It is honest and authentic. The real question we should ask ourselves is, “am I focused as I should be?”

Today we are swamped with broken philosophies that cloud the right questions we should be asking ourselves. We watch too many movies and love the climatic moment and excites our emotion – and all wrongs are righted once and for all. This isn’t life. This isn’t real. Life isn’t an event, there isn’t just one defining moment, it is a journey. Life can be a wonderful journey. We make mistakes. We make poor decisions – but it helps to see, or even re-envision, our potential, to make right decisions, and to strive to move in a direction that you know and feel in your heart is right. We will have our ups and downs – and again it helps to have the right vision -even if things seem really dark at times.

One of the most important points in this book focuses on noble passions. Nothing, absolutely nothing, seems more important to me than this.

Exploring Social Media Sites

Below are some of the social networking sites I’ve looked at today  to see if they might help with the objective of bringing citizens together to solve country problems.

• Facebook
• Friendfeed
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Friendster
• Ning
• Orkut
• Bebo
• KickApps
• MOLI
• Fast Pitch!
• Plaxo
• Livecasting -  SHOUTcast, BlogTalkRadio, TalkShoe, Justin.tv and Live365.
• ReadNotify
• Zoho
• Zoomerang
• Constant Contact
• Eventful
• Acteva
• Google Docs
• Google Wave
• DimDim
• iChat
• Skype
• http://www.20dc.com/
• http://www.essembly.com

Can we create solutions?

Do we know who we are and what we are capable of?

Debt Trap – Is There Hope?

Notice that this video was provided by the head accountant of the government (Director of GAO), David Walker,  back in January of 2008.   David Walker gave up talking to politicians and government officials and went around the country pleading to the public.  Did we listen?

Click here to see economic trends of our government. These charts focus on total government (federal, state and municipalities) economic trends.

Click here to see the economic trends of the U.S. public. In particular look at interest payment trends.

Let’s be honest.  Our government has been more than irresponsible and we has consumers have as well.  The situation seems hopeless.   Can we dig ourselves out?    What do we do?

As citizens of the free country,  we need to have a voice.  We need to assume that we are the CEOs and that our politicians work for us.    In the last article I suggested we find or build social networking tools to help us.  The media should be an important vehicle.  We have government run media – and the extremists.   Where is the balance?   We are.    We need to learn together, research together, dialog together,  track together, etc.   We represent different perspectives – and that is fine.  Take a look at my last blog entry.

As individuals,  we need to stop looking for someone to bail us out.   Let’s own up to our own problems- and take the necessary steps.  There is no magic to getting out of debt – just a lot of discipline of a long period of time.

Don’t politicians work for us? Can social networking help?

Isn’t this our country?   Are we really the CEOs?   Don’t politicians work for us?  Do they?  Is the current approach working?    Do have have problems with secretive meetings, special interest groups,  politics,  favors, sound-bits,  attacks,  slopping planning,  and incredible poor execution?   These politicians are  sometimes articulate – but what are they saying?   Does it really make any sense?    Are these the type of people you’d turn to help you with a complex problem?   Doesn’t is sound like we have a bunch of extremely spoiled children running around causing a mess with our most important rights and resources?

Perhaps it is  time that we  get involved in the assessment, planning, and oversight of  those that report to us.   I know this sounds complex… but does it really need to be?   I guess we could continue to trust what is happening and close our eyes.  As joint CEOs isn’t it time for us to do our part?   So, how do we best do this together?

Perhaps the right social networking tools can help.  Below I have identified a simple, common-sense problem solving approach.  Also, I’ve began to outline social networking features that could help.   I’m not a technician or designer – so your help is appreciated.   The tool would need to be simple and fun and engaging so people will want to be a part of this on an ongoing basis.  Without enough participation this would fail.

Problem Solving Approach and Needed Social Networking Features

1.  Identify desired results:   Examples of desired results for our country may include things like eliminating the federal debt,  reducing divorce rates,  increasing the average personal income,  minimizing crime, etc.    The ideal tool would facilitate the brainstorming, commenting,  linking to similar,  rating, ranking/voting on ideas.

2.  Outline problems and causes: The federal debt is an example of a high level problem.  One cause may include legislators not understanding the effects of the debt,  focusing more spending programs or tax cuts to get votes.  The ideal tool here would allow us to identify problems, causes,  comment on,  link to, rate, and rank/vote.

3. Research:  One of biggest problems is that legislators don’t adequately research lessons learned and best practices.  We see repeated patterns of spending that leads to wasted money.   The ideal tool would facilitate access to and discussion around the applicability of lessons learned and best practices.   Linking, commenting, rating, and ranking/voting would be important features.

4.  Design Solutions: The temptation is to say it is the role of the legislator to design.   We need to bring a broad segment  to be part of this process.   The question is how do we turn off the loud, arrogant and obnoxious voices and turn up the voices of those that have the most common sense.   We need to design solutions that will best the problems and their causes.   Simple cause and effect.   The idea tool would include the ability to brainstorm, narrate, comment on,  debate,  rate and rank/vote on solutions.

5.  Test Solutions:   The Japanese believe that Edwards Deming,  a quality and management guru, had more impact in turning their economy around back in the 70 and 80s than anyone else.   He commented once that he wished that Congress won’t do anything.   They continue to dig bigger and bigger holes.  They don’t understand problem-solving,  they don’t understand cause & effect, and they rush to solutions that leave us bankrupt.    Solutions must be testing and piloted.   The ideal tool would allow us to design test solutions,  and together monitor the  efforts and results, offer course correction ideas…until we see the desired results.   We can choose to skip this step like our politicians but at what cost?

6.  Deploy Solutions: Often solutions only get partially deployed – leading to wasted resources.  Again, the ideal tool would allows us to monitor the efforts and results,  offer course corrections, until we see the desired results.

If you think there is merit in the ideas, please share them.

Civility

- Civility Is Vital To Our Country

For most of history, people were ruled by kings and tyrants. The United States Constitution was an experiment – that worked brilliantly.  At its foundation was an understanding of people and their basic rights and their tendencies. Today most nations have written constitutions, and the U.S. constitution has influenced all of them. It is a model of rights and protection for all. The right of religion, free speech and press is core.

There is a strong move towards secularism and religious antagonism. There are growing attacks on Christian religions by atheists and are hostile to religion. They are skilled at demonizing those who are believers.

So, what do we do?

Dallin A. Oaks suggests:

First, we must speak with love, always showing patience, understanding and compassion toward our adversaries. We are under command to love our neighbor, to forgive all men , to do good to them who despitefully use us and to conduct our teaching in mildness and meekness. ….Even as we seek to speak with love, we must not be surprised when our positions are ridiculed and we are persecuted and reviled…

Second, we must not be deterred or coerced into silence by the kinds of intimidation. We must insist on our constitutional right and duty to exercise our religion, to vote our consciences on public issues and to participate in elections and debates in the public square and the halls of justice. These are the rights of all citizens and they are also the rights of religious leaders.  We must also insist on this companion condition of democratic government: when churches and their members or any other group act or speak out on public issues, win or lose, they have a right to expect freedom from retaliation.

Third, we must insist on our freedom to preach the doctrines of our faith. … Religious people who share our moral convictions feel some intimidation.

Fourth, as advocates of the obvious truth that persons with religious positions or motivations have the right to express their religious views in public, we must nevertheless be wise in our political participation.

If we aren’t open and civil in our dialog, what is the alternative?    Whatever it might be, it isn’t good.