Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO of Apple yesterday. In a 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, he reflected on life, death, love and his unconventional academic and career path. His speech serves as a powerful inspiration for parents who want to spur their children to be independent thinkers, as well as any of us stuck in a cube doing a job we may not be passionate about.
In the speech, he described how getting fired from Apple earlier in his career turned out to be “the best thing that could have ever happened to me,” because it freed him up to be creative and to really focus on doing things that he loved to do. Ultimately, Jobs went on to start Pixar and return to Apple, leading its renaissance. He said he didn’t settle for doing anything he wasn’t truly in love with:
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.
To be sure, many of us have to settle. Sometimes doing what we love doesn’t pay the bills or there are no openings in fields we aspire to, but we still need a paycheck. And not every job is going to be exciting and fun and fulfilling every single day.
