Valuable advice Jobs gave in his lifetime guides the next generation of innovators. Entrepreneurs world-over, admire Steve Jobs as a bold visionary who revolutionized the technology industry. Many years after his death, people revere Jobs as a role model worth emulating and we continue to learn from his past interviews and speeches, and inspire the next-gen innovators.
Your Curiosity and Intuition must Guide you
In a Stanford University commencement address in 2005, Jobs stressed on trusting your gut-feelings and following innate curiosity. He encouraged students to pursue even impractical interests, as much of his success is attributed to this philosophy. After he dropping out of College, he was not pressured by specific course requirements, and audited whatever class interested him. A class on calligraphy was fascinating but served no practical purpose. Later the need for great typography arose when designing the Macintosh computer. Curiosity and intuition are trustworthy guides even if each decision may not be immediately useful. These are guiding you along the right path.
For Success, be Passionate about Work
In 2007, someone asked Jobs advice for entrepreneurs to build valuable companies. Jobs answer: “For success, be passionate about work being done. While this advice is widely regarded as true, the real insight is that success depends on loving what you do as that ensures your perseverance. Building a business is not easy; for success, hard work only can overcome multiple challenges over long time-periods, without ever giving up. When faced by severe challenges, most people quit. But those loving what they do, win through, driven by inner passion, and not external rewards.
Ignore Expectations of Others
In a 1994 interview, Steve advised people to ignore limitations imposed by others and live their own lives, not bounded by society’s boundaries and believed that limits should be questioned. “People can change lives by challenging the status quo. With limited time, never waste it by living someone else’s life, trapped by the dogma of living by other people’s thinking. Noisy opinions drown out your inner voice. Be courageous to follow your heart and intuition as these already know what you truly desire to become. Everything else is dross. Overcome fear of failing and be action-oriented always, even if you do fail.”
Remember the Deadline
Steve Jobs was diagnosed with cancer in 2003 and succumbed in October, 2011. Before this diagnosis, Jobs treated every day as important as we had a limited time to live. When 17, a quote provided life-long guidance to live each day as if tomorrow was not a given, someday this would actually come true. Over 33 years (in 2007) Jobs would ask himself daily, if this was his last day on Earth, would he be doind what he planned to do today? A negative answer for many days in a row provided feedback for drastic changes. Jobs knew he would soon be dead and this was the impetus to make big choices in life and he made sure that the disease would not get him down, right till the end.
