"Stay Hungry Stay Foolish"

Here is a very inspiring speech from whom I believe is the greatest inventer of our time - Steve Jobs, founder and CEO of Apple, Inc.




Few of the excerpts from his speech that I was able to jot down:

1. On Connecting the Dots.
You cant connect the dots, looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards. You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - life, karma, fate, destiny or whatever. Because, believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even if it leads you off the well-known path, and that will make all the difference.

Jobs was relating this to the Typography class he took in college. The class he enrolled for after dropping out of college. The class he took because he loved different fonts style. He loved it and didnt care about how this class was going to help him in the future. But it became evident when he invented the first Macintosh, the fonts ( about which he learned in his Calligraphy class) were made a part of the software.

I have a similar experience to relate to as well. After graduation as a computer engineer, my first love was embedded software engineering. It was a difficult road ahead. Neither was I aware of what future lay ahead of me, nor were the circumstances conducive for me to pursue my interest. Hence, I couldnt connect the dots - looking forward. I trusted my life, that it will work. I went with my love, took me sometime, and things began to work out eventually.
Today, after so many years being in the field, I feel satisfied, I look back and connect the dots and realize that it has made all the difference :).


2. On Love and loss.
It was an awful medicine but I guess the patient needed it. Sometime life is going to hit you in the head with a brick, dont loose faith. 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 fully 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 have not found it yet, keep looking and dont settle.

Jobs was discussing, on how getting fired from Apple ( a company he started) helped him learn from his loss, and further develop love for what he loved the most. He relates that experience in his career, to personal lives of people around. He says that what you love ( work or your close ones) grows, like relationships grow with time. Moreover, he mentions that if you dont love what you do, you will never be good at it, so go and look out for something you'd love doing.

Very much applies to me, loss of something so precious, as definitely taught me to love it even more intensely. They say you miss the water when its gone. But I am learning from it and the way Jobs came back successfully as CEO of Apple, I too will make a comeback. And of course my quest of finding that job that I'd love doing continues.

3. On Death
If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you will certainly be right. Remembering that you are going to die, is the best way, I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to loose. You are already naked, there is no reason not to follow your heart.
No one wants to die. Even the people who want to go to heaven, dont want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped , and that it as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. Its life change agent that clears out the old to make way for the new.
Your time is limited, so dont waste it living somebody else's life. Dont be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Dont let the noise of others opinion drown out your own inner voice. And most important have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

This is something I need to ponder upon. Take a cue from this and shape my life accordingly. I am going to follow my heart and intuition, because they already know what I truly want to become and where I want to be, with whom I want to be. And yes I will forever:

"Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" !!