Steve Parks

Three Stories from Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is held up as an icon of entrepreneurship, and in this video he talks about 3 key events that have shaped his life:

1. Dropping out of college.
He talks about his adoption, and his parents determination to send him to college. But he didn't find college to be worth the fees they were forced to pay - so he left after 6 months. He was very poor, but this gave him the freedom to explore what he wanted to learn and do - and he ended up learning the skills he would later need to create Apple.

2. Getting fired from Apple
He'd hired a manager to run the business with him, but their visions diverged - and the board of directors sided with the manager. So at the age of 30, Steve was fired from the company he founded.
This was when he founded Pixar, and a company called NXT (which eventually was bought by Apple, and its technology formed the basis for Apple's rennaiscance).
He says "Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick, but don't lose faith. I'm convinced the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to love what you do. The only way to do great work is to love what you do - if you haven't found what you love keep looking and don't settle"

3. Facing Death
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way he knows of focusing on what is really important. Everything else falls away in the face of death. Steve talks about being diognosed with cancer and being told to get his affairs in order and being prepared to die. Against the odds he was cured of the cancer - but the feeling of having limited time, and being determined not to waste it, has stayed with him.

The speech was given to thousands of students on their commencement day at Stanford University, and it's a very inspiring talk from one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs.

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Again a hat-tip to GigaOm for another great recommendation.

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