Steve Jobs

Our passions will propel a new age of prosperity

If you read through these quotes that I found in different books, posts, articles and speaches, I suppose you will easily guess what I mean by “passions that will propel a new age of prosperity”.

  • In the book “Crush it!”, by Gary Vaynerchuk you read: “Love your family, work super hard, live your passion.” The book is entirely developed around the idea: “Do what makes you happy, keep it simple, work hard, look ahead.”
  • In the book “Enchantment”, by Guy Kawasaki one fundamental concept emerges: “New business are created from people trying to make the world a better place with new ideas which they fulfill by pursuing and developing their passions.”
  • In the book “The art of the start”, by Guy Kawasaky you find this quote from Ludwig van Beethoven: “I never thought of composing music for the fame and the glory. What’s inside my heart must come out; this is why I am composing music.”
  • Steve Jobs during his famous commencement speach at Stanford said: “[...] 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. [...] 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. [...] 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.”
  • In the article “The best investment you can make”, by Umair Haque published on the blog of the Harward Business Review you read: “The best investment you can make isn’t gold. It’s the people you love, the dreams you have and living a life that matters. [...] the safest investments of all are the human, the social and the emotional ones.”
  • In the book “The new capitalist manifesto”, by Umair Haque acknowledges “[...] my insight matters less than your vision, ambition and passion.”

The list could go on, but I am sure the underlying concept is becoming clear: if we want to make the world a better place, things have to change first in our hearts. The place where our dreams, ideals, intuitions, inner voices, ideas and ultimately where our most authentic passions are living. This is not just a naive vision of our society, but rather a very different way of feeling and living that brings those who deeply share it, to feel like misfits. In fact when we come to realize that “the heedless pursuit of more is unsustainable and, ultimately, unfulfilling” how would it be possible not to feel a misfit in a world that does not understand the “difference between maximizing consumption and maximizing quality of life”? The starting spark must come from each and everyone of us, from our will to build a sustainable future where “prosperity is not what one has, but what one is capable of”. Within this renewed context we’ll be able to develop the art of living our life paths “meaningfully well” as opposed to “pursuing opulence”.

Sharing good content to keep in touch. 05.18.2011

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My feeling on Steve Jobs' commencement speech in 2005

Up today I am among the "4 point two Million and something" viewers of this sensational video about the famous speech Steve Jobs gave almost six years ago at the Stanford University - don't remember exactly how many times I viewed it. I truly respect and sincerely admire the person, the entrepreneur, the innovative genius, the great leader and the great companies he founded. This is why I don't believe there is something valuable I could possibly add to what he said: I feel his message is so clear, so powerful and so strong that doesn't need to be commented. My only intention here is to share a very strong feeling with you: every time I watch this video, I feel Steve Jobs is talking directly to me about my life. It's like if I had a very special personal coach. It's like he already knew me and my whole life. This is - in my opinion - what makes this video really invaluable. I thought that if it sounds so deep and true to me, it will do the same to many others. Love what you are doing, listen to your heart and keep the faith during the tough times: the reward will not be too far.

[...] And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. […] If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. […] Again, 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. […]


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. […] 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.


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.

"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."