RIP Steve Jobs. I remember the excitement in the 80s–technologies were going to change our lives. We knew that but really didn’t have to vision to see how it could be. These are quotes for a Commencement speech Jobs gave at Stanford in 2005. Click here to read it in it’s entirety.
“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,” Steve Jobs told Stanford University graduates during a commencement speech in 2005.
“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.”
“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.”
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life.It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.”
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
I know that’s a lot of Steve Jobs quotes. I didn’t realize he wrote such inspiring things. I don’t have an iPod, iPad, iPhone, but I remember how revolutionary Jobs and Steve Wozniak were in the 1980’s. We studied them in my Marketing classes at Community College and I used an Apple IIe to keep track of the Varsity Volleyball stats in high school. Of course, I was a die-hard Win/PC girl, then I met **** and he was a Mac guy. I got used to it and it introduced me to the internet in 1995.
I posted this from my Current events blog because after reading some of his words, I thought they were very inspiring. I didn’t realize how enlightened he was. Peace be with you, Steve Jobs.
Searching For Enlightenment 
Great post. !!!
Thank you. I don’t know why I was caught off guard by his death because I knew it was coming. I was working of school work with my son and opened my computer to show him something and there is was on CNN.com. I started reading his quotes about the future and dying, then started crying. I was reminded of his reputation for being a demanding, perfectionist leader; I have often thought that those types of leaders were necessary for big things to happen. People working for them get frustrated and angry, but have such respect for their genius and great vision.
Thanks for reading!
I choked up this morning too! He is a true legend. I just got my first IPhone last week and I love it. The whole technology thing is mind blowing and how it all took place over a relatively short period of time in history. But the health side of me challenges how it has made us all so stressed, intense, impatient, distracted, and over stimulated. I hope we can all find a balance to the chaos. But this guy really was a genious. RIP.
I just finished writing about how glad I was that I wasn’t the only one who cried. I needed a reality check, because sometimes I wonder if it’s just me and I’m loony.
You mentioned the stress impact of technology, which is ironic, because yesterday I had a 1/2 hour conversation with my mother about the same thing. I have been saddened by all the hate and anger that seems to be everywhere these days. After talking for a while, we came to the same conclusion. The 1990’s was a frenzied decade of excess; then reality set in and people started to wonder how they were going to keep up. Along with the usual debts of house and cars, now we have ditched dial-up for the faster, more expensive broadband. No basic cable either. Cell phones were used in case your car broke down or you needed to call hubby to pick up milk. The family computer is gone; now everyone, even the kids have their own laptops. And cell-phone, with unlimited Data plans which can cost family’s several hundred dollars a month…
So here we are, waking up in the morning and our first impulse is to check Facebook, our email, etc. I turn my laptop on–it sleeps on the other side of my king-size bed, where I used to have a husband. Then I think about coffee.
I’m definitly less focused because of the constant inflow of information. I wondered last night if maybe I should let all that in. I don’t need to know everything that is going on to live life.
Whoa! This is getting long. It’s more like a blog post than reply.
Thanks for your continued feedback. Between you and my mother, I am able to work thorough and figure out things in my life.<3
Oh don’t get me started on what the 90’s did to us as a society. I could go on for-ev-ah! But I won’t. But what you say is true. It’s a bit out of hand and I’m very concerned about how my child is going to turn out in the midst of it all. Since it made me absolutley CRAZY when my parents did it, I try not to entertain him with what life was like when I was his age, but rather, I find myself constantly trying to instill the values of gratitude and generosity in this world that focuses on selfishness and greed…which by the way leads most people into a cave. There are no lights in a cave, so I’m trying to encourage him early to find another path. But I’m only one person. There are 1000 other influences out there that may dominate.
I think when we turn 40, we’re all figuring out the truths and myths of life, don’t you think? Wish I had more figured out in my 30’s but I didn’t. It was a decade of experience…good and bad. I think the 40’s come with the gift of enlightenment. My eyes are certainly getting worse with age but the lenses I look through these days are becoming so much more clearer. I bet they are for you too.
Girl, you hit on a lot of things I’ve been thinking about this week. In regards to your comment about being one person, check out my post from a few days about called “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Wonderfually written Liza 🙂 What a great quote. It’s one thing you actually have power over.