Part 2 ~ Don’t Settle

Don’t you just hate it when you meet people who know exactly what they want from life and exactly where they want to go? For example, they would have their entire life mapped out for themselves in terms of personal and career i.e. when to get married and have the first kid; when they would become manager and director of a company; when they want to make their first million, etc. Yes! I have friends like that in varsity days and yes, a few of them are doing very well in life now.

Perhaps hate is too strong a word. Don’t you simply feel envious of these people who seemed so sure and confident of themselves as they trudge forward in the path of life while you struggle to come to terms with who you are and what you want from life?

The second story from Steve Jobs’ speech at Stanford University addressed this issue.

From the mouth of Steve Jobs:

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky - I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired.

How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out.

When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. 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. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking.

Don't settle.

As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it.

Don't settle.

~~~~~ To be continued ~~~~~

Whilst most of my friends stayed on at one or two jobs or at most three and built their careers with these companies, I have changed a total of 6 jobs in the span of 11 years of working. It was never part of my grand plan in life to move so frequently. I am cognizant of the fact that a rolling stone carries no moss. I badly wanted to stay on at one job and build my career, but it was never meant to be.

Part of the problem was me. I was always looking for a challenge. I hated routine and which job didn’t become routine after awhile? I did not want to settle in a job where I feel no passion for it. After all, I probably spent 60% of my waking hours at work. And I figured I darn well better enjoy it! The other part of the problem was the circumstances that befell me. In one instance I was retrenched and in another, the company wound up.

Be that as it may, being retrenched was never a great feeling. No doubt you get a chunk of money from your employer. However, you can’t help but feel like a failure in some ways. Even after you moved on, the stigma still remained and it would take months to regain your level of confidence. But as in the case of Steve Jobs, being retrenched was probably one of the best things that happened in my life. It moved me away from a situation of contentment and complacency and put me right back into the race to fight for something I feel passionate about.

What I have learned in the corporate world is that there is no such thing as long term employment. Restructuring comes and goes. Bosses come and go. One has to learn to roll with the punches. But the one important thing I learnt about myself is that I have to feel passionate about what I do and enjoy my work. The day I quit doing so would be the day I would look elsewhere to paddle my wares.

And as in work, life and matters of the heart, the words from Steve Jobs ring true, “Don’t Settle.” I have yet to do so though the pressure has been great in recent years. My creed in life for so long has been to do something because I feel the passion and the joy for it, not because society demanded it of me.

Marching to the tune of a different drummer is not easy. Sometimes we falter because settling for something is always the easiest solution. In matters of the heart, there is a constant fear that we would settle due to the constant urging of good meaning samaritans who believe in conforming to society’s time line of getting married and having kids. I certainly hope not.

I shall keep the words of Steve Jobs close to my heart.

You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. 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. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking.
Don't settle.

As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it.
Don't settle.

Yes! Don’t settle.

P.S. Look out for Part 3 – Death