This is in continuation of my previous two posts, You’ve got to find what you love, Steve Jobs – Part 1 and You’ve got to find what you love, Steve Jobs – Part 2 My third story is about death. When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”...

This is in continuation of my previous post, You’ve got to find what you love, Steve Jobs – Part 1 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...

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005 at Stanford University. I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed...

Before you wish to become a victor and not a victim of life and before you wish to have a flight of celebration, ecstasy and joy, let’s understand the dynamics and mechanics of life and living. The very reason for us being born again and again is due to the latent desire of the soul, which is to get free from the meshes and shackles of life. To be salvaged… to be liberated… We subconsciously seek permanency in everything we do, achieve, and experience. The very phenomenon of a temporary world full of illusion, where the mind switches gears every nano second just wanting more...

Some important principles of leadership: Always, when leaders say that the people are not following, it’s the leaders who are lost, not the people. Leaders get lost because of isolation, delusion, arrogance, plain stupidity, etc., but above all because they become obsessed with imposing their authority, instead of truly leading. Incidentally, leading is helping people achieve a shared vision, not telling people what to do. It is not possible for a leader to understand and lead people when the leader’s head is high in the clouds or stuck firmly up his backside. That...