'Connecting Dots' is arguably one of the modern day classics among motivational and inspirational stories. For those who still don't know about it and for those who have not clicked on the above link already, let me introduce it as 'Stanford Commencement Address by college dropout Steve Jobs'. As understood, Steve Jobs was once invited to deliver the prestigious Commencement Address of the Stanford University, where he shared three of his own life experience, aligning them with the 'theory' of 'Connecting Dots'.
He talked about how messy his life had been from the very beginning, till the moment his higher educational dreams were also shattered. Then he talked about how one of his finest recruits managed to threw him out of his own company and finally, about the challenge that came as a pancreatic cancer. You may have heard this story and watched that video over and over again but have you ever thought about the criticality of each of these challenges?
To keep it short, let's take Steve Jobs' rise to the top. He started as a child who were rejected even at the adoption. Leaving apart the criticisms on Steve, if we focus on his achievements, it is unbelievable to say the least for someone who started from that level to end up as a highly successful tech entrepreneur and that was before he lost it all.
There are many people who started from the bottom (may be not as low as Steve Jobs did) and rose to the top. At the same time, there are brilliant students who commit suicide for one low grade or one failed exam, despite having all or most of the comforts in life. Then there is Steve Jobs. What about him? He started from nothing and gained everything, only to lose them all with literally no faults in his hand. To make it worse, it was a trusted colleague that threw him out from his own company, which was also the ultimate achievement of his life.
Imagine what you would do if you faced this situation? When you have nothing, you can have a target to achieve something. When you have something, you can target achieving something more. When you have achieved literally everything that you ever dreamt of, only to lose it all just like that, what would you feel? The vast majority would feel exactly as Steve Jobs did. In his own words, "What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating".
The lesson? That is the best learning. Having with nothing can be tolerated, working hard to achieve things you desire can be done, maintaining your success is possible but going through what Steve Jobs had to face is relatively difficult, extremely difficult and seemingly impossible for a human being. However, Steve Jobs did it. He faced it. He used his own skills to start NeXT and Pixar and finally found his way back to Apple.
Those who feel devastated for a failure at an exam or a minor (or even major) business loss should constantly remind themselves on one key thing. Even a failure is an opportunity. It at least allows you to focus on something different and more importantly, explore new horizons and discover new, different pathways to success. Anyhow, it happens only if you accept it that way and make up your mind to keep fighting till the end. If Steve Jobs could do it being 'human', other 'humans' can also do it.
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