Stay Hungry. Stay foolish. 求知若渴，虛心若愚

Today I read an article in the newspaper which gave me great insights. It was written by Steve Jobs when he gave a speech at the 2005 Graduation Ceremony of Stanford University.  In the article, he mentioned that he had three stories to share with the graduates, one about cconnecting the dots, the other about love and loss and the last one about death.

He dropped out of college adn went to a calligraphy class to learn about typography.  And he found great application of the skill when he designed the first Macintosh computer. 

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.  So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.  You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever."

There are so many external factors and influence that pulled us back from pursuing something by gut feeling and by will.  A girl reads law and it was expected that she would become a lawyer.  Her parents have spent so much money in supporting her to go to law school, to pursue a career that seemed to have a glamourous and successful future.  It seemed to her that although she did not like law that much, it would be wasteful to pursue another dream, after so many years of study.  So she continued to become a lawyer... We have heard so many stories of these, and is it too sad to realize that this is the state we are in?

Steve Jobs metnioned that he got fired from Apple and he started his own comapny NeXT. Suprisingly, in a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and so he returned to Apple again.  Yes, loosing a job was an awful tasting medicine, but the patient needs it, he said.

"Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.  Don't lose faith... You have got to find what you love... Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.  And the only way to do great work is to love what you do."

When I read to this, there was only one thing that kept pondering in my mind. The thing that I loved to do... and sadly it was not my present job. I had a very perplexed feeling, as I felt that I was so stuck in my present job and I do not see that I would be able to pursue what I love to do at least in the next 5 years.  Is that why people say we should plan for a ten year goal? I suddenly realized what I wanted to be in 5 years and in 10 years could be so different.  10 years do appear to me.. truly as another stage of life. And as I wrote, deep in my heart I really hoped that when I look back to this post after 10 years, I would really be doing something I am dreaming of.

We all fear death.  But it as so true, as played in Midnight Paris, the movie, that if you fear death, you could never be a great writer.  I believe this is so even if we are not writers.  We fear death and that's why we try to avoid thinking about death.  But death can be so close to us. And although I have heard it many times, Steve Jobs reminded again that. remembering you will be dead soon is the most important tool you can encounter to help you make the big choices in life, because almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, they all fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

"Remebering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.  You are already naked.  There is no reason not to follow your heart."

This actually echoes his first story and second story about finding what you truly want to do and love what you do and simply just do it.  Because they will all happen if you truly follow your heart and intuition.  He reminded me not to be trapped by dogma, living with the results of other people's thinking, and drowning out your own inner voices by noises of others' opinion.  I guess inside our hearts, we do really know what we want to become, it's just that we are afraid to achieve it, or couldn't care less about our dreams because of all sorts of reasons.. e.g. we can't make a living of it, we are not talented enough, we do not have the necessary capital to achieve.. etc. Yes, these may be the factors hindering the achievement of dreams.  But isn't there a saying "When there is a will, there is a way?"

Set our souls free, and oh yes, I feel lighter.  And I know, one day, soon, I will see my dream come true.  

The full script of Steve Job's script can be found here.