"You've got to find what you love"

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios, is one of the most innovative and creative people of our time. Just recently, Steve gave a speech to the 2005 graduating class of seniors at Stanford University. After writing a speech of my own, I became very interested in reading Steve’s. It is a compelling read and I found it especially attractive as the content of the speech is geared towards a young audience. If you have not read it, I suggest you do. It can be found here.

Some of us tend to overlook the bigger picture in life as we begin to explore new careers – we have to find what it is that we love to do. Steve’s speech provides a perfect example of following your gut, taking risks, and having the courage to find and do what you love. Because let’s face it, work is going to take up a big portion of our lives.

“After six months (of college), I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea of how college was going to help me figure it out…So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. The minute that I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.”

This excerpt provides a great example of having the courage to do what you want to do, and not what is expected of you (with good intentions of course). It was the dream of Steve’s parents that he would one day attend and graduate college, as they had never experienced this for themselves. Yet, he followed his heart and explored different options to find out what he really wanted to do. One path he took led him to drop in on a calligraphy class – which he greatly enjoyed.

“And much of what I stumbled into later by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on…If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts…If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.”

“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.”

Steve went with his gut and did what he knew he would find more interesting, not knowing whether or not it was going to pay off for him in the future. It was a risk, but a risk that he took by following his intuition of what he felt was the right thing to do. You have to admire him for that.

“…For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

There is going to be a point in your life where you will ask yourself similar questions. Will you follow your gut and find what you love to do, or will you take the safer route and settle for something that works?

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. 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 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. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.”

In his earlier years, Steve had lost his job with Apple - his own peers had rejected him. Instead of giving up, he did what any person would do after getting rejected – pick yourself up and start over. He kept faith. Steve knew what he loved to do and kept on doing it, whether that meant that he had to start from scratch. He didn’t settle.

If you know what it is that you love to do, follow your gut. It will lead you to find what it is that you love. I love to write. I do not consider myself an excellent writer, but I know that I love to do it. So here I am, Monday night at 11:45pm, writing because I love to. Will it pay off in the future? There is no way of telling. But like Steve says, “you have to trust that the dots will connect somehow in the future."

With that said, I would like to leave you with one final excerpt from Steve’s speech.

“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 other's 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.”