https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc
Steve Jobs shares three transformative life stories that demonstrate how seemingly unconnected experiences, setbacks, and mortality awareness can become the foundation for extraordinary achievement and authentic living.
Jobs reveals a profound truth about human potential: that our greatest breakthroughs often emerge from apparent failures, unexpected detours, and moments of vulnerability.
His address challenges conventional wisdom about linear career paths and safety nets, instead advocating for a life guided by passion, intuition, and the courage to embrace uncertainty. The overarching message is that authenticity and purpose matter more than external validation or predetermined paths. By trusting in our ability to connect experiences retrospectively, remaining open to love and loss, and maintaining awareness of our mortality, we can live with greater intention and create meaningful impact.
Trust Your Journey - Develop comfort with uncertainty and non-linear paths - Follow curiosity even when practical applications aren't immediately clear - Practice retrospective reflection to identify patterns and connections in your experiences - Build tolerance for taking calculated risks when conventional paths don't align with your values
Find and Pursue Your Passion - Regularly assess whether your current work energizes or drains you - Don't settle for "good enough" in career choices - View setbacks and failures as redirection rather than defeat - Cultivate resilience by maintaining faith in your core interests even during difficult transitions
Live with Mortality Awareness - Implement a daily morning practice: ask yourself if you'd want to do today's planned activities if it were your last day - Use death as a decision-making filter to strip away external expectations and focus on what truly matters - Regularly evaluate whether you're living authentically or conforming to others' expectations - Practice saying no to commitments that don't align with your deeper values and aspirations
Key Resources and Mindsets - Embrace the "beginner's mind" - view obstacles as opportunities to start fresh with new perspectives - Develop your inner voice through regular self-reflection and minimize the influence of external opinions - Study examples of successful pivots and career changes to normalize non-traditional paths - Build a support network that encourages authenticity over conformity
Implementation Checklist - Schedule monthly reviews of your current path's alignment with your interests and values - Identify one area where you're settling and create a plan to explore alternatives - Practice distinguishing between your authentic desires and societal expectations - Develop a personal mission statement that reflects your core values and revisit it quarterly
Steve Jobs died at the young age of 56. As a visionary of the personal computer, he transformed the lives of nearly every living being. His life's work left an impact on the planet in a way that few ever will.
I believe that his success stemmed from his 'programmer perspective' of the real world. Using the analogy that our lives are a computer simulation, everything we experience is would be a program. It feels real, but it's not. Emotion becomes an obstacle, and if you read or watch any of the Steve Jobs biographies, there's a strong indication he didn't spend a lot of time worrying about people's feelings (or their opinions of him).
You can't take something personally when you know it's only a program being run.
Below are his last words. I've taken the liberty to edit and analyze them form a Wireframed perspective.
"I can only take with me the memories that were strengthened by love."
Wealth and Steve Jobs are nearly synonymous as he built one of the most valuable companies in the world. If he gave a title to this piece it might have been "Love is the Only True Wealth."
I have come to the pinnacle of success in business.
In the eyes of others, my life has been the symbol of success.
However, apart from work, I have little joy. Finally, my wealth is simply a fact to which I am accustomed.
His wealth allowed him to live a life with few limits. But what got him to the point of being a wealth building machine became who he was. Even after he had already achieved more money than he could ever spend, it was part of his programming.
At this time, lying on the hospital bed and remembering all my life, I realize that all the accolades and riches of which I was once so proud, have become insignificant, with my imminent death.
In the end, what is significant?
In the dark, when I look at green lights, of the equipment for artificial respiration and feel the buzz of their mechanical sounds, I can feel the breath of my approaching death looming over me.
Only now do I understand that once you accumulate enough money for the rest of your life, you have to pursue objectives that are not related to wealth.
It should be something more important.
He had more than enough.
For example, stories of love, art, dreams of my childhood.
No, stop pursuing wealth, it can only make a person into a twisted being, just like me.
Despite Steve Jobs being one of the most successful human programs, he didn't view himself as such - instead calling himself into a 'twisted being.'
God has made us one way, we can feel the love in the heart of each of us, and not illusions built by fame or money, like I made in my life, I cannot take them with me.
He refers to money & fame as illusions. This would make those who give undue weight to both as somewhat delusional beings.
I can only take with me the memories that were strengthened by love.
Memories are retained in time, beyond ourselves. Are you making memories that'll outlast you?
This is the true wealth that will follow you; will accompany you, he will give strength and light to go ahead.
I'm beginning to see that love is not a program, but rather part of our hardware.
Love can travel thousands of miles and so life has no limits. Move to where you want to go. Strive to reach the goals you want to achieve. Everything is in your heart and in your hands.
This might vary well carry the important message in his final words. Move to where you want to go. Strive to achieve everything in your heart and in your hands. I strive to write from my heart. My hands produce the words in my heart. In this manner, I achieve everything in my heart through my hands (and through the words I write (and speak)).
What is the world's most expensive bed? The hospital bed.
You, if you have money, you can hire someone to drive your car, but you cannot hire someone to take your illness that is killing you.
Material things lost can be found. But one thing you can never find once you have lost it, is life.
Whatever stage of life where we are right now, at the end we will have to face the day when the curtain falls.
Please treasure your family love, love for your spouse, love for your friends...
In the end, all that remains that is significant is the love (with our friends, family, and soulmates).
Treat everyone well and stay friendly with your neighbors.
Moments after speaking these words, that he had asked to be written down, Steve Jobs, aged 56, passed away.
I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In some others' eyes, my life is the epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. In the end, my wealth is only a fact of life that I am accustomed to. At this moment, lying on my bed and recalling my life, I realize that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in have paled and become meaningless in the face of my death.
You can employ someone to drive the car for you or make money for you but you cannot have someone bear your sickness for you. Material things lost can be found or replaced. But there is one thing that can never be found when it's lost - Life. Whichever stage in life you are in right now, with time, you will face the day when the curtain comes down.
Treasure love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well and cherish others. As we grow older, and hopefully wiser, we realize that a $300 or a $30 watch both tell the same time. You will realize that your true inner happiness does not come from the material things of this world. Whether you fly first class or economy, if the plane goes down - you go down with it.
Therefore, I hope you realize, when you have mates, buddies and old friends, brothers and sisters, who you chat with, laugh with, talk with, have sing songs with, talk about north-south-east-west or heaven and earth, that is true happiness! Don't educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy. So when they grow up they will know the value of things and not the price. Eat your food as your medicine, otherwise, you have to eat medicine as your food.
There is a big difference between a human being and being human. Only a few really understand it. You are loved when you are born. You will be loved when you die. In between, you have to manage!
The six best doctors in the world are sunlight, rest, exercise, diet, self-confidence and friends. Maintain them in all stages and enjoy a healthy life.