Connecting the Dots

As most people know, Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple Inc., resigned this week.  Given his long battle with his health, it was an expected event at some point.  With the recency, I thought I would talk about him and some things he has shared in the past.

I have followed Jobs' life in the newspapers over the years, but I still remember that first time I read the transcript for his commencement address at Stanford in 2005.  No viral video at the time because YouTube hadn't come into official existence quite yet, and viral video really only existed via emails (wasn't that like SO long ago?!).

Btw, YouTube officially debuted in November 2005, and grew like a weed the summer of 2006.  It's crazy how time flies and how technology proliferates!

I distinctly remember (in detail) the time I read his commencement.  I was living in Ohio at the time, I had printed out a copy of the transcript at the office and brought it home that evening to read, sitting at my fake wood veneer IKEA desk in a totally uncomfortable dining chair (also from IKEA), and was just struck while reading about Jobs' life.

One message that stuck with me was: You can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect the dots of life looking backward, so you have to trust that your dots will connect in the future.  I remember I started to ball after reading that sentence, and just couldn't stop crying.  In 2005, I was uncertain of my future.  I was applying to business school but things weren't working out the way that I wanted.  I felt so much anxiety but also felt disappointment with many other parts of my life. 

The other point that really struck me was that Jobs was talking about how to connect the dots from a perspective of real life experiences of failure, rejection and disappointment.  Yes, he had started Apple and it grew to a multi-billion corporation, but he also had experienced lowest of the lows as early as rejection at birth (adopted child from an unwed mother), dropping out of college, getting fired by the very company he created, and facing death with the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.  These were heavy events; the odds seemed against him.  And in spite of all that, he didn't give up; he showed tenacity.  This made a very deep impression on me.

Today, that perseverance makes an even greater impact on me as I face an uncertain future.  But no matter what we face in life, we should live each day believing in something (as Jobs suggests).  Mine, more and more, is in Jesus.  But whatever it is for you, we all need faith that what we do today will have value in the future, even though we can't see or know at the current time.  Times in life are a window, and they will all pass.  Death is one of those few certainties in life, so don't delay to make today count.  We should live life with more love and with more purpose.  No regrets.  

Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

Source: Stanford Commencement Speech 2005