Nobody
can tell it like you can tell it! Why is that, you might ask? Well, the truth
to the matter is that your experience, is your experience. That experience made
you feel a certain way and left an impression on you that no one other than you
can explain. If we look at what history really is, it is simply someone telling you there story of how something happened in times past. Depending on who is
telling the story, the chain of events and occurrences can be accredited as her
story, their story, or his story; we choose to call this history. I believe your
story is just as vital as his story and it needs to be told. I've worked in
education for almost 13 years now and I once had an administrator who would
always make this statement, "...Everyone has a story...!"
In this video presented on TED.com, I
viewed a presentation given by Steve Jobs as he addressed a graduating class at
Stanford University during their commencement ceremony. The speech he gave was
remarkable. I feel that it was remarkable for several reasons, but I would like to point
out two. In the video, Mr. Jobs tells three stories. These stories are events
and occurrences surrounding his life and he shares how these things contributed
to his success. In the first story he talks about why he didn’t finish college.
Although it would seem as if not finishing college would contribute to a lack
of success in life or in ones career of choice, the results of Mr. Jobs’s life
were very contrary to this belief. It wasn’t at all that Mr. Jobs discredited
education as a way of bettering oneself or establishing a career, but there
was one thing that he attributed to his success that didn’t make clear since to
him until he was later able to look back and connect the dots. This one fact
was that he followed his heart. I truly believe that when you trust what you
believe to be your purpose in life, the path you choose to fulfill that purpose
becomes a by-product of what you believe. This became the case for Mr. Jobs and
it worked out to his benefit. This is the first of the two reasons why Mr.
Jobs’s speech was remarkable.
The second reason came out of the
second story he told. He talked about how he and his partner grew a business that they started in his parents garage to become a 2 billion dollar, 4,000
employee company, in the span of 10 years. Mr. Jobs goes on to explain how one
decision he made caused him to get fired from the very company he started.
Instead of giving up, within 5 years, he started 2 more very successful companies.
One company named Pixar became the first company to create the worlds first
computer animated feature film, Toy Story,
and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. His second
company NeXT, would become the gateway that placed him back with Apple as its
CEO and advisor. Apple is the same company that he had once founded and was
fired from. He attributed his love for
what he did as the driving factor for why he didn’t quit, even after the
devastation of being fired. He talked about how in life, pertaining to work and
in relationships, to go after what you love and never settle for less. Simply
put, you should love what you do and only do what you love!
Steve Jobs told his story. In his story
there were two things that I wanted to point out. The first is that if you
follow what’s in your heart it will eventually lead you to the door of your
purpose. If you choose to open this door it will lead you to a life full of
success. The second thing is to find out in life what you love. Life is too short to spend it being miserable or to exhaust it on those things that really
don’t matter to you the most. To find love is to find life and then begin
loving the way you live. I was truly inspired by Mr. Jobs’s speech and I
sincerely hope that his story inspires you to live, love, and someday tell your own story.
