Daily Focus: Tips for Life Success from the Late, Great Steve Jobs

by Angela Atkinson

The late Steve Jobs inspired many people during his life. In addition to showing the world that a college dropout wasn’t necessarily doomed to failure, Jobs freely shared his secrets to success with the world.

Even though I’m currently a PC and Android kind of girl, I have a great respect for Jobs, not only for his extraordinary success, but also for his apparent understanding of the world around him and his ability to inspire others.

That’s why today, I’m sharing a few of my favorite quotes from Jobs’ Stanford commencement speech from June 2005. See him delivering the speech below.

Just a few of my favorite quotes from the speech:

• “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.”
• “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.”
• “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
• “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.”

What points stood out most for you in Jobs’ speech? Please share your thoughts in the comments section, below.

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