He took a calligraphy class at Reed College. 10 years later it all came back to him and used that knowledge in the Mac.
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward.
You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.
If you simply do enough things and show curiosity with the ability to learn, eventually they’ll fit together in some fashion.
You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, karma, etc. It’ll give you the confidence to follow your heart even if leads you off the well worn path and that will make all of the difference.
2. Love and loss
He was fired from Apple.
Freed him to be more creative.
Started Next and Pixar.
Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick, don’t lose faith.
You’ve got to find what you love. Having a passion and love kept him moving forward even when things got tough.
Do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do this is to love what you do.
Don’t settle. You’ll know when you find it as with all matters of the heart.
3. Death
If today was the last day of my life would I want to do what I’m about to do today?
Whenever the answer has been “no” for too many days in a row I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the best tool I’ve found to help make the big choices in life.
Because almost everything, all external expectations, pride, fear of failure, all melt away in the face of death.
Remembering that you will die is the best way to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. Yet, death is the destination that we all share. Death is very likely the best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
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.