Learning from Steve Jobs -- Life By Design
Just a week ago, on my way back from Maine, I stopped by a little bookstore in downtown Portland. The first thing that caught my attention was a sketchbook with a saddle-strap and recycled paper. The old-school looking cover that wrapped the leaflets inside was just too appealing to resist. As I explored this notebook, I couldn’t help but love the attention to detail of this product. Everything from the leather smell, to the clasps and the handcrafted stitching was done with great care. I also bumped into a book that I instantly knew I needed to read: "Steve Jobs' Life By Design" by George Beahm.
The sketchbook reminded me of Steve Jobs and how he, as a non-technical visionary of technology, was such a product craftsman. I decided to quickly skim through the book and could not put the book down after browsing through Chapter 1 (“Connecting the Dots”). “Make a dent in the universe,” he used to say all the time. I asked myself: 10 years from now, what would I have to show for myself? What dent would I have made on my world? This turned out to be a hard question to answer. In fact, I didn’t have an answer at all. I don’t know if I have or if I ever will make a noticeable impact, but I continued reading through the book.
Every chapter of the book begins with a lesson we can learn from Steve. The chapters are laid out in the order of 3 stories Steve told at his final lecture at Stanford University’s commencement in 2005 on “Connecting the Dots”, on “Love & Loss” and on “Death”. I took notes on a few ideas that stood out. Here are the 5 lessons that I carry with me:
You have to trust in something
I took this very philosophically. Considering our own mortality, it seems logical to question, “What’s the point?”. Steve’s answer to this is that life is short (#yolo) and we might as well try to be the best version of ourselves possible. We might as well pretend that we will live on through our impact on this world. For me trusting that things will work out, or trusting in “life’s process” as he puts it, is a source of hope. It gives me a motivation that whatever I put my heart into, as irrelevant as it may seem in the moment, will eventually have an impact or is at least a small part of a larger picture. Otherwise, why do anything more than the bare minimum?
Follow the way of your own zeal
If you have a calling or a vision, chase after it. What’s the worst that can happen? Life is short, so you might as well make a move to figure out what you want to do with it. For Steve, this happened with both Pixar and NeXT. As he was pushed out of Apple he never stopped caring about beautiful products. There were times when it was imminent that Pixar would sink, but he just pushed through and paved a path for followers. Then he brought his work on NeXT back to Apple. No matter where he was going to be he was going to work to fulfill his vision. What I’ve learned from Steve is that even though I still struggle with this, I’m not going to stop. I have faint visions of what I want to do and where I want to be and if that’s a path not frequently taken I have to take it nonetheless. I have to “trust in something”.
Imagination is more important that knowledge
Pretend you walked into a toy store and bought a box of Lego. Now, you can follow the instructions inside the box and build the amazing looking building on the box cover, but just as soon as you’ve learned how to build that you’re done. How do you build the next building? You have to use your imagination. Knowing how to do something is definitely important, but using your imagination in combination with your skills is really what sets one apart. If you can’t accomplish that, sorry, its long-term-game over!
Marriage is all about surrendering yourself to a third entity -- the relationship itself
It was quite surprising to find this in the book, but it resonated with how I think about marriage. To me, this is about having faith in your relationship. The sooner you throw your ego out the sooner things will start working well. Surrender yourself to the partnership and trust in its process. I don’t have all the answers, but I know things will work out.
The only way to do great work is to love what you do
I am a 100% believer in this. In the long run, the only way to do great work and have a vision for it is to love it completely. This also applies to other things in life, but that’s why it’s important to keep finding things you absolutely love to do. This is often a cliché that is repeated too often without understanding what it means to love and to be dedicated to a single purpose. Once those two facets are understood, one can be on his or her way to truly “doing what you love.”
In closing, Steve Jobs has left a clear imprint on my mind and I can’t stop thinking about the things that I’ve learned from this book. Places like Portland, Maine are helpful in reflecting on these thoughts. They are quiet places where your mind can breath free of the daily stresses life, so that you can focus your energy on doing great work. I recommend a visit to Portland and Steve Jobs’ Life By Design to everyone!