Steve Jobs

"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."

~Steve Jobs (2005) 

On  Wednesday, news of Steve Jobs' death was all over facebook. Looking to Google the top stories were his new autobiography and his Stanford commencement address from 6 years ago. While I'm not one of those people who owns everything by apple and swears by it, I do enjoy Pixar quite a bit and so my respect for Steve Jobs is very high. Because of this, I chose to read through his commencement address. 

Throughout the address he references 3 stories. Struggling with the lack of money to afford college and eventually dropping out, starting up Apple but getting fired and then starting NEXT and Pixar, and triumphing over Pancreatic Cancer. Throughout all of this he emphasizes staying focused through adversity. When he got fired from his own company, Apple, he didn't give up and hold a grudge to the point of blaspheming it to the press. Instead he started two newer, better companies in Pixar and NEXT which eventually got bought by Apple and thus reinstating him as a leader in the company. 

The situation made me think of the difference of being a manager and a leader. If Steve Jobs had simply been a manager of the Apple company, even though he was smart enough to design the technology to create the Apple company, his career would have ended when the Apple company fired him. As simply a manager he would have accepted the reality of the situation (that he was fired) and accepted the status quo (which would have been that he was unfit to perform the job). However Steve Jobs was not just a manager, he was a leader. When he was fired from Apple he challenged it. He didn't challenge it in the way of causing countless scenes in which he ultimately would have been categorized as unstable and deranged. Instead he challenged himself to rise above the situation and prove to himself/others that he was smart enough to start his own companies and succeed. He became his own person and as the success of Pixar can speak for itself, he rose above. 

As cliche as it sounds, this situation taught me if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Even if it seems like no one believes in you and no one values your opinions, don't give up. A true leader finds a way to rise above the adversity and forge their own path. In the future I won't be as worried about success in the little things I do and instead work my hardest to maintain a leader's viewpoint instead of a manager's.

Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian