Loving what you do - RIP Steve Jobs

"I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did." - Steve Jobs 

I saw that quote soon after I found out that the Apple co-founder and former CEO was dead. Atala was the one that gave me the news, and also showed me the quote on Stack Overflow, one of his favorite websites. We did the rest of the rounds together, Slashdot, Mashable, Huffington Post, they were all reporting on his death. I was also all over the news on TV. Another quote caught my eye on Politico.com sending me on a search for Jobs 2005 commencement speech at Stanford, and I was really touched. He was just 56. May his soul rest in peace.

I'm always inspired by people who follow their dream, and who pursue it, and make a good example of it. Steve Jobs is one of those people. I'm not a big fan of Apple products, and I only used Mac in the school library. I had an ipod once but I gave it away when I got a phone that was an mp3 player. The biggest way that Steve Jobs touched my life was through his animation company Pixar, and the movies they created.


I love cartoons, and last year, Toy Story 3 was among my greatest movies. I have been to two Pixar exhibitions, one in Edinburgh and another in New York, and each time, I marveled at the genuis of Steve Jobs and the artists he worked with. As I read various reports of his life and death, I couldn't help feeling a sense of loss. I'll leave you with some more quotes from the above mentioned speech. Find the full text on the Stanford website and watch the video on Youtube.


On Life;

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. 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.

On Love;

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.

On Death;

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.

Finally;

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.