'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

Stanford Report ^ | June 14, 2005 | Steve Jobs

[hummingbird]

I partly agree with Jobs. In lieu of saying "Find the job you love"; I would say, "Know God's will for your life; find your calling."

Very lovely put, streetpreacher.

Sometimes it takes looking death face-to-face to finally realize what is truly important. Best to seek God's will before facing that certain death. To know His will is to know that "all will be well." (St. Julian)

I really don't know much about Jobs but his speech has a peacefulness to it that I really appreciate. It also makes me think of those who perished on 9/11...and of those who survived, as well. As we do not know "the day or the hour," I think I will give my precious niece and nephews a call tonight. No reason to call and every reason to call.

Hope y'all can forgive the sentimentality. I met a woman the other day who was in a car accident a year ago. She struggles to speak, is wheelchair bound, going through therapy and needs 24/7 care, etc. Her husband and infant son survived the crash with hardly a scratch. Her eyes laughed as she tried so hard to make a little joke "it is always the mother who feels the pain."

A fraction of a second can change forever the way one views one's life and its purpose.

[NHResident]

You'll find that with very few exceptions the high profile, driven executives at the very top are demanding, dictorial, insensitive, intolerant, petty, inconsiderate, brutal, etc., etc. with those that work for them - if you are going to successfully build and maintain a multi-million let alone a multi-billion dollar business - you don't have time to make 'nice-nice' and worry about 'hurt feelings' or even maintaining personal relationships - it's about winning - nothing else. If you have ever had the opportunity to work closely with the most successful executives, politicians, entertainers, etc. - the 'private' person is often extremely different than the carefully crafted and maintained public persona. Just as often - a lot of their accolytes make all kinds of execuses for their behavior - "The Apprentice' shows how thousands are willing to put themselves to demeaning and ridiculous hoops on the off chance they will be able to beome another Trump. Anyone who has been involved in high stakes business - can see how much of 'The Apprentice' shenanigans are pure entertainment fantasy not competence nor reality.

It is also quite enlightening to see how 'sensitive' some of these guys become once they've made their 'pile' - as long as we are considering technology giants look at Gates, Jack Welch, Jobs, Larry Ellis, Bill Joy, etc. - after focusing their lives through their 30's and sometimes longer - they are multi-millionaire/billionaires - they discover there is more to life than the quarterly reports mandated by the SEC.

Jobs is quite intelligent but his path and advice will absolutely NOT work for everyone. In many instances (and as illustrated so well in Thomas Wolf's book 'I am Charlotte Simms', university training is the equivalent of yesterday's grammar school education - today it is an attempt to assure some portion of the workforce has at least the minimal skills to learn how to do something useful once they finally enter the workforce. (Do you REALLY think a graduate in 'Gender Economics' or 'Feminist Literature' (outside government funded academia) is in great demand in the real world?

The popularity of 'outsourcing' and embrace of illegal laborers from outside the US reflect the effectiveness of American public school system.