steve jobs

Connecting the Dots, Steve Jobs, Justin Bieber & Dreams

While trying to drift off to sleep last eve, or should I say around 2am (because of a massive creative attack), I thought of a speech that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford University. He spoke of how one can only connect the dots when looking backward, never when looking forward. Meaning...if we try to piece everything together before it happens, we waste valuable time.

Will my dreams come true?

Will my family  be happy and healthy?

Will I finally be able to own my dream house?

Will I be able to travel the world?

What about work...will I be able to keep my job?

If I completely dislike my job and decide to quit...will I be OK? Will I starve?

If I leave my dysfunctional relationship, will I ever find love again?

The list goes on and on...

The truth as Steve Jobs so eloquently put it...is that we simply can't know. We can only make wise/bold decisions in the present moment and have faith that the dots will connect in the future. One moment will lead to the next, no matter what we do. Time cannot be halted until we figure it all out.

The key is to stay focused on what we can do in the here and now. Begin writing before we worry about finding publishers. Start running for a while before we become concerned with whether the pounds are coming off. Do our best each second to create healthy relationships with the people we love...not try to connect the dots toward forever.

We must be the task...whatever it is...otherwise we push people away, we don't focus on the actual work that needs to be done to build our dreams. I was thinking today about Justin Bieber. That poor kid has so many haters and critics. But I'm going to tell you something...

he's doing it...

he's putting himself out there while...

well...while many people are sitting on their arses doing nothing. Staring at the TV with their mouths open...allowing for their minds to grow soggier by the moment. Laugh all you want...while he's singing and dancing his heart out...and traveling the world to boot.

It's not that we all have to become fans...but really we must respect those who are out there experiencing and pushing the limits.

If you have a dream...or a hope...just put one foot in front of the other and begin to create something.

The dots will connect while we're doing our work...

- Jen Engevik

Project BE Bold


The Steve Jobs Story: Inspirational Video from Stanford University Graduation

Enjoy this amazingly inspirational commencement address by Steve Jobs at Stanford University in 2005! There is so much to learn from this man!

RIP Mr. Jobs. Thank you for your willingness to innovate, inspire and be bold...

 


Memorable Steve Jobs Quotes

“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.”

“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.”

"There's nothing that makes my day more than getting an e-mail from some random person in the universe who just bought an iPad over in the UK and tells me the story about how it's the coolest product they've ever brought home in their lives. That's what keeps me going. It's what kept me five years ago, it's what kept me going 10 years ago when the doors were almost closed. And it's what will keep me going five years from now whatever happens."

"Innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we've been thinking about a problem. It's ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea."

"And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We're always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it's only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important."

"These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I'm not downplaying that. But it's a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light -- that it's going to change everything. Things don't have to change the world to be important."

"Picasso had a saying: 'Good artists copy, great artists steal.' We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas...I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, poets, artists, zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world."

"I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. Humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing about a third of the way down the list....That didn't look so good, but then someone at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of lomotion for a man on a bicycle and a man on a bicycle blew the condor away. That's what a computer is to me: the computer is the most remarkable tool that we've ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds."

"My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other's kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That's how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they're done by a team of people."

- Project BE Bold