Whether you're a "fanboy" (or girl) or a detractor, you can't deny the tremendous influence of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, whose death was reported on October 5th. Nor would many argue the point that Jobs was a creative giant.
While reading his obituary over at CNN's site, I was particular struck by this quote from a 2005 commencement speech, given at Stanford University:
True of so many things in life, these words seem especially applicable to creative endeavors. How often do we struggle never knowing whether we are destined to nosedive into disaster or exceed beyond our wildest imaginings? How many failures seem permanent, only to prove stepping stones to an eventual success we never could have defined at the time? Only our capacity to trust keeps us creating, our ability to believe that some agency outside our understanding will break through, like the light that pierces the darkest cloud bank.
Thanks for this reminder, Steve. Of all the many, many gifts you've left us (including the computer I use to write these words) this wisdom may be most important.
Now let's get out there, everybody, and do our work, and let the universe, the muse, or whatever you want to call it worry about the rest.
While reading his obituary over at CNN's site, I was particular struck by this quote from a 2005 commencement speech, given at Stanford University:
"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."
True of so many things in life, these words seem especially applicable to creative endeavors. How often do we struggle never knowing whether we are destined to nosedive into disaster or exceed beyond our wildest imaginings? How many failures seem permanent, only to prove stepping stones to an eventual success we never could have defined at the time? Only our capacity to trust keeps us creating, our ability to believe that some agency outside our understanding will break through, like the light that pierces the darkest cloud bank.
Thanks for this reminder, Steve. Of all the many, many gifts you've left us (including the computer I use to write these words) this wisdom may be most important.
Now let's get out there, everybody, and do our work, and let the universe, the muse, or whatever you want to call it worry about the rest.
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