You gotta love it, for work is a big part of life
June 14th, 2010He was born in 1955, raised by adoptive parents in Silicon Valley and is among the top topics Googled today. A college dropout, he was a multi-millionaire before the age of 30. He was forced out of the company he started, only to return to become CEO after his second start-up was purchased by the first. And through the sale of yet another company, he became the largest single stock holder of Disney.
The ups and downs of business were accompanied by a few in his life. He’s survived pancreatic cancer and a liver transplant. As a leader, he has as much to offer about life as he does about business. For the two are not separate in his mind.
Reports of the younger Steve Jobs would not include him in the same sentence as a reference to leadership. Seems he was autocratic and a bit cocky. On the contrary, interviews with Apple’s CEO of the last couple of years are rich in insights for happiness and success.
On the business side, focus has been critical. Jobs will tell you it is not about just saying “yes” to one thing, but rather “no” to hundred great ideas. Without discipline in focus, the resources and energy aren’t available to get out in front in a competitive market.
Jobs understands people, the right people, are key, as is delegation and decision-making. “When you hire really good people you have to give them a piece of the business and let them run with it,” he told Fortune magazine. But in doing so, he wants them to make as good or better decisions than himself, so having them up to speed on all parts of the business is crucial. There are no silos for Jobs.
But how does he decide on the right people? Competence is a given, and beyond that the “real issue” is will they fall in love with Apple. This is where life and business blend. It’s all about passion and why an applicant would want to join the team.
This is in total alignment with Jobs approach to life. “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 work as it is for your lovers,” he said.
He urges people to not settle, but rather keep looking. With work being such a large portion of life, he believes the only way to do really good work is to love what you do.
Living that belief, Jobs says he looks himself in the mirror everyday and asks: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? Whenever the answer has been ‘NO’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
What would you answer your Self in the mirror? Does passion drive you to work every morning? Or are you among those who believe you will be happier when you don’t have to work any more? Perhaps there are too many years before retirement, so you dream of winning the lottery so you can quit.
That’s exactly what one Iowa firefighter did a couple decades ago, as reported in the Des Moines newspaper. With the assurance of a check much larger than his current paycheck, he quit. He bought cars, vacationed and just lived the good life. Then, with the lottery money still coming in, he applied for his job again.
You see he missed the job and all that it meant. What he discovered was that it wasn’t just about the paycheck. Like Jobs, he really loved his job.
As he discovered, and Jobs professes, loving what you do is powerfully fulfilling. And the cliché version of the good life is not dream worthy. This is not a new notion, just a good one to revisit from time to time. French author Albert Camus summed it up rather well many, many years ago:
“Without work all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless life stifles and dies.”
Anita Ancel is President of Ancelary Group, a Vermont firm that helps executives and their teams develop attitudes and habits for ongoing success.
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