I always resent myself for not having the drive to listen to brilliant people while they are still roaming this earth. In this past day, I have had the pleasure to be inspired and reassured that my beliefs are like those who have lived great lives.
There are so many wonderful tributes out there to Steve Jobs. He was truly an amazing man who had a vision and was gentle, yet strong enough to nurture it to life.
Today I was privileged enough to have viewed a speech he presented six years ago to a group of college graduates. This speech revealed the real man that allowed his visions to come to life. He shared those pivotal secrets on how to apply it to your life.
It is humbling to know that a man of great wealth and creativity was unwanted before he was born. It was even more heart warming to know that he was even rejected at birth, by the most perfect family on paper, for not being the right gender. What was even more amazing was that his adoptive parents came from humble beginnings and didn't have much to offer other than love. And most of all didn't care who he was or where he came from or what gender he was, only that he was theirs. He knew that he was loved and wanted from the very beginning.
How did this man become so amazing? A college drop out with no real plan for life, just a vision that it would all work out in the end. A man who has walked in the footsteps that I started to walk eight years ago, but somehow he's more successful than I am.
It's very simple really.
He read a quote, a quote that many of us have heard a thousand times over and over, but it had a certain twist that made it more substantial and real than the rest.
It went something like this, "if you live each day as if it was your last, someday you most certainly be right."
Each day he would ask himself this very simple question "if today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I'm about to do today?"
A great question it is. But how did he apply it to life? Well, he answered it honestly.
"And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."
Change. That is the one thing that we all fear so much.
It's like if we change, we'll die. But what harm can it do?
"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 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."
Death is a frightening reality we don't like to acknowledge. Most of us don't think about death and if we do, we're scared that we haven't lived enough to have it end so soon.
"Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's a life change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new."
Listening to this speech was a vision in itself. It's not like I've never heard these words, nor said them to myself before. But I have never seen them in action. Hearing Mr. Jobs talk about his life and how he has risen from the bottom of death, whether it be being fired or a life threatening illness, and how he has used it to rise up again.
But at the end of the day "Death is the destination we all share."
"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there."
Everything is real and can be applied to our own lives.
This is life. We fall down to get back up again. We break to mend. We fall behind to learn.
"You're time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."
I am pretty sure all of us have lived the life of someone else at least once somewhere along the way. Some of us learn early on and move on to our own path, others take years, and others never learn.
We have the words wisdom from this great man out our finger tips. We should listen and use it.
We all have our own paths, some link together, some cross, some run parallel and others are off in the distance doing something completely different. But the one thing that we should remember and acknowledge, is that our life is own individual path. We can accept advice from others but we can never make their path our own.
Our path to our destination is completely different to the person next to us.
"Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice."
One day, we will be able to look back and connect the dots of all the mishaps, fumbles and falls that brought us to where we are at that point in time. The difference is whether we'll be happy with that destination.
"And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and your intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
Mr. Jobs lived his life listening to the person that he was. He made a success of it. He may have passed away at such a young age, but he lived a life that some of us will never achieve.
Let's not make those mistakes. Let's use his wisdom to create a life, whether it is great or small, but a life that we will look back on and love the journey that we made to get to the destination that we always wanted in the end.
A great man passed away, but a legend was born. His gift for success in life has been unleashed for us to use and nourish our future lives with. The choice is now with us.
As to what we will do with it, well that decision is your own.
"Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish. I've always wished that for myself."
To watch this amazing speech, please click on the following link. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address
