Steve Jobs did not come to earth with a good start. Born out of wedlock to a mother who could not afford him, he was setup for adoption right after birth. After attending a semester at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, Jobs felt that it was pointless to continue and called it quit. To make matter worse, at the age of 30, he was ousted from the company he co-founded. Certainly, his early life resembled a roller-coaster ride with more troughs than peaks. After such a crushing defeat, most CEOs would have given up corporate life and live in solitude with their big severance pay. Instead Jobs never lost his determination and marched on.
During his decade-long hiatus from Apple, he used this opportunity to explore the world to a greater multitude. Jobs met his future wife, Laurence Powell and eventually married her. He founded NeXT Computer to build the next generation computer systems. In fact, one of the systems produced, NeXTCube was used by Tim Berners-Lee to build the world’s first web server. He also groomed Pixar Animation Studio from an obscure movie studio to being a pioneer in producing fully computerized animation films with numerous box office hits.
At present, Jobs is a happily-married family man with four children. When The Walt Disney Company bought his Pixar Animation Studio in all-stock transactions for US$7.4 billion in 2006, he became the largest shareholder of the company overnight. And with the acquisition of NeXT Computer by Apple Inc. back in 1997, his Chairman and CEO titles were restored. In a span of less than ten years, Jobs transformed Apple from a dying company with a series of failed products to become one of the most coveted companies in the world with a portfolio of market breakthrough products. On hindsight, his “lost decade” was a crossroad that paid off really huge dividends.
To top it all off, when most people could hardly shift the consumer market even once, Jobs did it four times! Through the introduction of Apple II, he ignited the vision of making personal computers available to ordinary citizens; through Pixar Animation Studio, he showed the world that life-like, emotion-driven and fully computer-animated films are possible; through his invention of the wildly popular iPod MP3 players, he changed the way how music are distributed; and just a year ago, through the birth of iPhone, he raised the bar of mobile phones. In all his executions, he never swayed away from his basic belief that a killer product will always find its audience. Now, Jobs is not only the most famous comeback CEO of all time, but he is also a role model for aspiring entrepreneurs.
So what makes Jobs tick? Let me just quote a passage from the man himself in his commencement speech at Stanford University, “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.”
So what’s my takeaway from Steve Jobs’ life story? Here’s my two cents:
You may be born into an unpleasant world; you may encounter difficult situations; you may get lost in a crossroad; whatever circumstances that might have come across your way, they don’t matter. You can still achieve greatness in life as long as you never lose yourself in the process and follow these three basic principles:
- Find what you love
- Love what you do
- Don’t stop until you can satisfy rules (1) and (2)
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