Five Lessons You Should Learn From Steve Jobs

Two Days has passed by since Steve Jobs Passing, and I did not suspect his leaving us would affect me this profoundly, but it has.

I never got the chance to see him in person or listen to him live on any of his amazing keynotes, but some how I feel that I know him very well. May be because I am writing this post on my iPad, while playing some tunes on the background using my iPod, and I am so acquainted to these devices, and I have a great attachment to them, may be that’s the reason.

So he is definitely around me in spirit, the spirit of his inventions and accomplishments.

And as I reflect on his passing, his life and his journey, I learned lots of things from him, but here are the Five Lessons I learned from Steve Jobs:

Your health is not for granted, your job, your source of income is never for granted, you are employed today you might not tomorrow, and same for everything in life.

That’s why you always need to do your best in whatever you do, and always work on new ideas and new ways to reach the level of success that you want, you are able to do something today, then do it and don’t procasinate.

Be positive and always look forward to tomorrow, but just keep that in the back of my head, that our days in this life is numbered, so might as well, do your ultimate best, to take advantage of it every day.

So, my friend do your best, take care of your health, do what you are supposed to do right, work hard and always think of new ways and alternatives and workout regularly, and do your part.

Be passionate about what you do. When you are passionate about something that you like innovating and coming up with new ideas, is easy, fun and exciting, and according to my hero Steve, if many days pass and you wake up and you don’t feel like doing the thing that you are supposed to do that day, that’s a clear signal, that you need to change something.

Now think about your life? What are are your passion, what the thing you want to do but you are not doing for whatever reason?

By the way, if you don’t know what your passion is? then lock yourself, in a room, in a pen and paper, and don’t leave till you figure it. Tell me what are you passionate about? What do you want or where you want to be in 5 years from now? 10 years from now? What’s your vision? And how are you going to get there…

because those things are what make you better and stronger, looking back at Steve’s life, I remembered the moment, when he was fired from Apple, he thought that was the end, and that ended his career, and he was thinking to move out of the state, but according to Steve, that was the best thing that happened to him, that made him more hungry and more creative, and according to him, these 10 years outside of Apple, where the most creative years of his life, and he proved himself, by coming back, like a champ to the throne, and took leadership again.

In my life, where we faced challenges, and issues, and we thought it was the end, and remember how were these are the ultimate opportunities. Me personally about 6 years ago, I was so much in debt, between credit card and mortgage, and loans I was over $120,000 in debt, and I thought my life was over, and I was about to declare bankruptcy, but with little thinking and going into problem solving mode, and with encouragment and help of other friends and family, I was able to pass this crisis, and now I am proudly that for the past 3 years, I have been debt free, and not only that, I became better at managing money, and my business is growing every day.

Now I encourage you, to think about your life, and think about the most negative experiences that you went through, I know it is hard, but now think how they make you stronger and better today.

Back in August, one day after Jobs resigned from his position as CEO of Apple, Google’s Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice-President of Social Business, posted a story about Steve Jobs on Google+.

To summarize, Jobs called Gundotra one Sunday morning in 2008 and stated that he had something “urgent to discuss.”, at that time Gundotra was in church, and Gundotra called Jobs back, wondering why he called during the weekend rather than his normal weekday calls. Jobs stated that he was “looking at the Google logo on the iPhone” and wasn’t happy with the icon. Jobs continued, “The second O in Google doesn’t have the right yellow gradient. It’s just wrong and I’m going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?” (Greg was a member of the Apple team). ”Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject “Icon Ambulance”. The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon,” says Gundotra.

That conveys the level of perfectionism that Steve Jobs has. There was one scene in a movie, that stuck with me, that reflects a similar idea, when Leo Dicaprio, in the movie “The Aviator” where he is the role of Howard Hughes, where he passes his hand on a top of plane’s wing, and he notices, that it is not a smooth enough, and he orders his staff, to redo it again.

Perfectionism is good, but shouldnt slow down progress, and invention, as you can see Steve, start with first generation iPod, and then 2nd generation, and 3rd generation, and so on, and with every try there was a continuous conscious improvement to the version before it, he could have waited 4 years to come up with the perfect product, but he got it good enough, released got the feedback from the public, worked and improved and re released.

So if you are designing a blog, website, product, service, or writing a book, or whatever creative work you are doing. Don’t hold it back, and seek perfection, get it good enough, and release it, get the feedback, and go on that iteration, that’s how you achieve perfection, and I mean perfection for that time.

Always be seek new opportunities, to grow and become better, always look at any situation what’s the next level? How can I make this thing better? Think about it, iPod, to iPhone, to iPad, and god knows what was next.

Always innovate for the better, don’t think you have reached your peak, ultimate peak will be reached when we pass away and we leave our legacy.

Always ask yourself what do I got to lose? What’s the worst case scenario in this adventure that I am about to take ?

I guarantee you 99% of the time, the worst case scenario will be something that you can handle, and survive.

Don’t allow people, to hold you back, if you feel in your gut and your intuition that you are doing the right thing, then do it, listen to your heart, and will definitely lead to the right destination, learn from your mistakes, and think of anything that you might call a “mistake” as a lesson, that’s priceless.

And to add, have fun and enjoy yourself, and keep that inner child inside of you alive.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

And Here is the commencement address that Steve Jobs gave in 2005:

Remember we are all have our own gifts, and creativity and innovation are skills that can be learned, mastered and practiced, and Remember to always THINK DIFFERENT!

Now share your ideas and thoughts, express yourself, and market your product or service, and start blogging.

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