Posted on 06/18/2005 7:12:20 AM PDT by FreeKeys
This is neither PC nor a lie. Kids that love engineering will become engineers, kids that love nursing will become nurses, and kids that love plumbing (I know!) will become plumbers. And because they love their chosen field, they will be very successful (and able to pay the bills).
I strongly recommend all young people choose a career path that will allow them to love what they do, lest they become stuck in job they hate!
I think this was a very inspirational and refreshing commencement speech, and I commend Jobs for not using the occasion to take a cheap shot at our President (or Republicans in general)...so many people seem to be too weak to resist that temptation!
If Jobs thought his college tuition was too expensive at the time, why didn't he try a state college? Nothing wrong with a state college...it worked for me.
Then it was fit for its audience: young (albeit intelligent) skulls full of mush. Tripe like that is for the young. Reality is the better teacher, but we have to impart a bit of that foolish dreaming into them, cuz life will steal it away pretty quick regardless.
Of course,it's easy for him to say silly things like this to the young people once he's had the advantage of life and hard knocks and happy fortunes...now that he's in the money. Other folks have the same dreams and setbacks and it leads nowhere. Hardships and setbacks don't entitle folks to happy endings.
But intelligently foolish dreaming (not the lazy dillitante type) is a very necessary part of life; it gives us important things like space shuttles and Charmin.
I'm not clear as to why you disagreed with my thought on the Jobs quote. As I understood his comment, it was an encouragement to seek out ones passion. I agree with this, as do some highly successful people such as Limbaugh and Trump.
If what you love also leads to be financial success, so much the better. But continually doing something which causes stress and unhappiness solely for the financial benefits generally leads to an early grave.
With Fathers Day upon us, that truth is brought to the forefront for me once again.
Give it a run on Ebay prior to trashing it. Someone may consider it a collectors item.
Typical 'from the heart' PC mush - I'll guarentee that no one who works at Apple or Pixar that 'follows their passsion' in a way that doesn't directly contribute to company profits is out the door very, very quickly. One doesn't make it to the top of ANY corporation without a lot of personal sacrifice - if they are married - their kids and wife pay the price, if they are single - the price is paid in personal relationships - financial and professional success doesn't come easy, anyone claiming otherwise is lieing. That said, everyone has the opportunity to decide what is most important to them - just don't pretend that there are tradeoffs - yes, Rush says he loves his work - whick I don't doubt. His career has paid off for him tremendously in terms of wealth and influence but at least part of the personal price has been three marriages. Jobs is just massaging the mush in those skulls to make sure there are plenty of corporate employees to choose from.
The most successful people I know all love their jobs.
How big is your sample set? I've worked closely with a significant number of extremely successful (financially and professionaly) folks in a range of positions - I could NEVER make such a statement. Some of the successful ones I know are driven by fear of failure, the need to be the best at any cost, the need to demonstrate to themselves their own ability in whatever field, fear of poverty, the desire to please an audience/family member, the desire to 'do good, etc. I'm not saying all of them hate their jobs - I'm saying depending on an essentially transient 'emotion' to select a career makes as much sense as doing the same for a life partner.
My sample set is fairly large and over a large segment, say from cops to wall street types. I'm not saying they go around like grinning idiots or that they are not driven by inner demons, but they do love their jobs and can't imagine another life.
It's always the less successful, people who hate their jobs you find spouting the "woulda, coulda, shoulda" lines.
Life's a tale told by idiot.
The speaker did not address all those levels of responsibility, but told of a typically, classically American rise from nothing to success along with a lack of preparation for the responsibility that comes with success.
A lot of people don't know what they are really good at and really like to do for work until they have been around a while. Some don't even start their true life's work until they are retired.
Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are college dropouts. Interesting.
And Michael Dell. There are more smart people outside of colleges than there are inside.
Stephen Jobs is a lot of things, but I wouldn't call him an idiot. You may not agree with his opinions and his statements but calling him an idiot is inaccurate. He has shown multiple times that he has ideas which are ahead of his time. He has also shown the ability to turn his ideas into reality.
The interesting thing about this speech (which I liked) is that I have heard from many employees that have worked for him throughout the years that he is a slavedriver. Demanding, unforgiving and lacking of compassion and understanding are just a few of the comments that I hear over and over. Even if you are doing what you love, its kindof hard to love what you are doing, when you work for a boss like that.
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."
It helps if kids aren't left sorting all of this out on their own. Our six-year-old has shown a fascination with and proclivity towards science and natural phenomena. He questions everything and then makes me "prove" it to him. For a while, that drove me crazy; my six-year-old not believing me until I can show him evidence. But I now appreciate the intellect God has graced our son with and hope to encourage him more in this area.
That's the how, but omits the why; it's a prescription for making a living, not having a life. I've seen plenty of teenagers consult the books and magazines to find a field that pays, then lock themselves into it. They're old before they're 30. And we've all known people who are so dead-set on providing for their families, who spend so many hours at the office that they hardly know their children's names.
Choosing a career, like anything else, can't be summed up in duelling platitudes. Passion and pragmatism both count. Sure, you can decide at 18 to be an engineer. But if you don't care about it, don't want it, you won't be very good at it. No matter how well-designed a car is, it don't go without having a spark.
Sure, most of us have had jobs at one time or another that put food on the table but left our souls starving. It's possible -- and even normal -- to be competent without being inspired. But that's a recipe for mediocrity. It's an old wives' tale that the world is divided between dreamers and doers. Any individual who is remembered by history was a combination of both. You don't quit the safe job to take up navel-gazing, but you keep your eyes and mind open for a next move most folks don't see.
The most important decision any 22-year-old can make is to be adaptible. To be prepared to veer from the planned path in pursuit of something that's lucrative or interesting or novel. I've talked to massively successful people, and very few of them thought, in college, that they'd be where they were. They moved to new industries or invented them.
That's the central message I took away from Jobs' speech -- he's a billionaire from a few different industries, none of which existed when he was in college. If he'd set his path early and never strayed, if he'd taken the safe choice and become an accountant on Wall Street, he wouldn't be where he is.
I didn't call him an idiot.
Whether I think him an idiot is another matter.
I was agreeing with Shakespeare's Macbeth about life, is all.
sorry, I misunderstood. I didn't recognize the reference to Shakespeare. (Kind of makes me the idiot this time)
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