In his 2005 speech during a Stanford Graduation Ceremony, he said these:

Keep looking, don’t settle

“…I am convinced the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You got to find what you love and that is true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is gonna to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truely 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. and don’t settle. as with all matters of the heart, you will know when you find it. and like any great relationship, it just get better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking, don’t settle…”

Follow your heart

“…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 is NO for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I will be dead soon is the most important tool I have ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost anything, all external expectations or pride or fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death. Remember you are going to die is the best way i know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something lose. You are already naked, there is no reason not to follow your heart…”

And he concluded with “Stay hungry, stay foolish”.

The speech did not resound that strongly when I read it in the papers a few years back. I was thrown with the question: “Do you like what you are doing everyday?” in a seminar a year ago. And the reply was: “If no, why are do doing this? You’ve got only 1 life…”. That had really got me thinking and took actions.

I often relate to my friends and colleagues that passionate about something means jumping out of bed every morning and immediately feel wanting start doing that something. And one will feel tireless doing that something. Even when it means doing late into the night. You will still wake up energized the next day. I never had that feeling. The closest was when I was “forced” to be passionate about my university studies. All the late nights and stuff. I know it is different.

A mentor once asked me. Do you think Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs work for money? Of course not. In fact, Warren Buffett’s pay package stayed around $100,000 yearly for a very long time. Being billionaires, their fortune can easily last them and their children for a lifetime. They are certainly not in it for the money, it is the passion for their work.

It’s kind of sad when I realize I don’t know what is my passion when I asked myself a year ago. But I was surprised to discover that it is not just me, even my wife and some relatives and friends had no idea at all. I began to question the education system, the beliefs that was passed down to us from our parents, the way we lead our lives and so on. Since then, I have redesigned my life.

Another interesting concept: using death as a tool for make decisions. I learnt about the concept of “live every day as if you will died tomorrow” from the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Steven Convey. So Steve Jobs is suggesting we even apply the concept to decisions that we make daily, not a bad guiding principle at all.

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