Steve Jobs on Creativity, Thinking Differently, Secret of Life, Courage and Passion
Steve Jobs, the co-founder and iconic leader of Apple shaped and changed the world of technology as an innovator and leading advocate of simplicity. He was perceived as larger-than-life pop culture and tech icon who connected art and technology in extraordinary and unprecedented ways.
Some described him as “kind of like this generation’s John Lennon“, who had a significant influence on many creatives, and entrepreneurs, inspiring them to founding startups, build companies and think differently.
But what is worth noting, Steve Jobs’ path wasn’t always so obvious.
The biographical sources say that young Steve wasn’t so specific about his goals and didn't have a crystal clear vision and notion of what he should do. Jobs didn’t set up his passion in advance. His journey was much more complicated, but certainly, what helped him was his purpose-driven character and being a constant seeker.
He stumbled upon different opportunities and went for them, absorbing himself in the process of connecting the dots. The lesson we can take from Jobs’ life is that ideas didn’t come out fully formed. We have to work on them to make them clear, and the crucial step we can make is just to start and prove our courage.
If you’re curious about Steve’s life, what factors shaped him, how he pursued his dreams, and what kind of person he was in private. I recommend you to get familiar with the bestselling and worth-reading book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. There are lots of valuable and helpful insights.
The abovementioned book describes the complexity of Jobs' story in an extraordinary way - his relationship with his family and co-workers, descriptions of creating and polishing all products, and interesting anecdotes. Jobs was an inspiring person but also was able to put somebody through it.
On Creativity
Steve Jobs shared a lot of insightful conclusions about creativity, but the most memorable one is his metaphor of creativity as connecting dots and gathering experiences. It means that to achieve a higher level of creativity, you should try to see a bigger picture — recognize hidden patterns, notice connections between seemingly unrelated topics and things, and collect new insights.
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.”
This quote is also the essence of compound interest. Steve encourages us to be more open-minded because the more dots you collect, the more connections you have. And the more you think abstractly, the more creative you become.
These small steps consist of being exposed to new experiences, being a seeker, and stumbling upon new opportunities. And it reminds me of a quote from Vincent Van Gogh, who said that great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together.
Remember, be diverse, collect and connect your dots. Then you can come up with broader patterns of understanding and solutions.
On Thinking Differently
One of the most successful and memorable ad campaigns was “Think Different“ by Apple launched in 1997 and narrated by Steve Jobs.
Steve and his team came up with the “Think Different” idea. They believed that people who think differently or differently (which is incorrectly grammatically, but Apple did so on purpose, and by replacing adverb for a noun, they give more meaning to the word) were able to change this world for the better.
“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.“
The most creative people we know are rebels who think, act and behave differently. They can’t be easily labeled and put into a box or square of corporate constraints. Rebels push and redefine.
And they’re not different for the sake of being contrarian per se. It rather comes from within and their deep conviction that we can make things better. They set the bar and go for opportunities.
The misfits are often ignored and invisible to the masses. They are put in the position of failure, but they keep rising.
Embrace your inner rebel voice - this is where growth comes from. Not all of your ideas will be good, but they will push and challenge you, giving you a new perspective. Don’t strive for complacency. See things differently.
On Secret of Life
When we grow up, we take adults for granted. We perceive them as people who figured things out. Often it is just an illusion. Jobs said that the most important discovery we can make is to figure out one simple truth what we call life is made up by people no smarter than us.
For example, you can have a more interesting and vibrant career by following your genuine curiosity rather than being influenced by peer pressure.
“When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is, and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life. Have fun, save a little money. That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is everything around that you call life was made up by people who were no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use. And the minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That's maybe the most important thing. It's to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you're just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it. I think that's very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you'll want to change life and make it better, cause it's kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again.”
It is, in a way, a call to live more consciously.
Don’t take life for granted. Your life can always be much broader.
On Courage
Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address is the most-watched in history. The tech and pop culture icon shared lots of timeless wisdom that only get better over time. He told the three most impactful stories of his life, from being an unwanted child to love, loss, and death, drawing broader conclusions that everyone can relate to and find universal truths.
The last story Steve said during this speech was about death and why we should embrace remembering the notion that we’ll be dead soon.
However, the message was not depressing, but rather inspiring, uplifting, and uplifting.
“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?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.“
We’re already naked. There’s no reason not to follow your heart and make big choices since death is the destination we all share.
On Passion
Steve Jobs, while sitting at the conference with Bill Gates, was asked for the most valuable single piece of advice for people who attempt to do some creation of value, similarly to Jobs or Gates.
It seems to be one of the most misunderstood pieces of advice from Steve. However, knowing the context behind this advice is crucial. Jobs, knowing how hard it is to make something valuable, encourage people to have a love and passion for things they do because it’s easier not to give up, especially when hard times come.
“Yeah, people say you have a lot of passion for what you’re doing, and it’s totally true and the reason is because it’s so hard that if you don’t any rational person would give up.
It’s really hard and you have to do it over a sustained period of time. So if you don’t love it, if you’re not having fun doing it, if you don’t really love it, you’re going to give up.
And that’s what happens to most people, actually.
If you really look at the ones that ended up being successful in the eyes of society, and the ones who didn’t, oftentimes it’s the ones that are successful love what they did so they could persevere, you know, when it got really tough.
And the ones that didn’t love it, quit. Because they’re sane, right? Who would want to put up with this stuff if you don’t love it?
So it’s a lot of hard work and it’s a lot of worrying constantly and, if you don’t love it, you’re gonna fail.
So, you gotta love it, you gotta have passion.“
The underlying principles behind that story about passion are that Steve described the features of passionate people as they act consistent and persistent. And it seems crucial. Even if you don’t have any specific passion, strive to be a seeker who stumbles upon different kinds of opportunities and be persistent.
Still curious? Get familiar with my blog post about Steve’s thought patterns on the world and reality - Reality Distortion Field and give a chance bestselling book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.
For more insights, I encourage you to connect with me on Twitter and join our “Create & Grow” community on Discord!
Summary:
“Creativity is just connecting things.”
“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers […] The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.“
“Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is everything around that you call life was made up by people who were no smarter than you. And you can change it“
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.“
“If you really look at the ones that ended up being successful in the eyes of society, and the ones who didn’t, oftentimes it’s the ones that are successful love what they did so they could persevere, you know, when it got really tough.“
And most importantly:
Stay hungry. Stay foolish.