knowing your 'why' ? Archives | jeremyrolleston.com

The biggest legacy Steve Jobs left wasn’t the mac / ipod / iphone …

RIP Steve Jobs. An amazing man. An entrepreneur. A visionary. The founder of Apple and Pixar and Next. A man who changed the world as we know it. But more than that. A great human being. A family man. A man who did what he loved.

Watch this video – his commencement address at Stanford University. There is no need to say anymore. What he says in this is the biggest legacy / lesson he could leave us – far more than the Apple Mac computer, the ipod, the iphone etc.

“I love what I do … You’ve got to find what you love … if you haven’t found it yet, keep looking and don’t settle. And as with all matters of the heart, you’ll know it when you find it !”

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve encoutered to make the big choices in life … the best way of avoiding the thinking that you have something to lose.”

How bad do you want it ?

Today I have invited a good mate of mine Tim Birch to write the weekly blog. Tim is an inspirational guy and one of those good guys all-round. In many ways we’re cut out of the same stone and we often trade quotes or videos or thoughts. That was why, as expected, I knew he’d come up with something inspiring and challenging. Over to you Tim …

“How often does ‘life’ get in the way of our best laid plans and intentions? So often the things we know we want to achieve get pushed further and further away due to the circumstance we let limit us…

I say ‘let’ because there is always a choice. A choice to say ‘Yes, I’m getting up when the alarm sounds to take a step in achieving my dream’, or ‘Yes, I’ll spend my weekend focussing on my studies’. The alternatives to these two scenarios may be staying in the warm, cosy bed or heading out to see friends for dinner…but at what cost.

You need to make your goals and dreams mean something and often it is only when these things seem like they will be taken from us that we start to really fight for what we want.

The below clip illustrates that, “when you want to succeed, as bad as you want to breath, only then will you be able to succeed”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aowB5wNPvWQ&feature=player_embedded

Don’t tell me how bad you want to succeed. Get up each day and show me. No one will remember you for what you planned to accomplish in life. You will only be remembered for what you actually did.

My challenge – What will you do today ?

Here's to the crazy ones !

apple ad think different 2

This video is interesting because it speaks of a number of things …

It speaks of knowing and finding the core, authentic you. That unique person that you were created to be, with your own interests, characteristics, talents, personality traits. After all, never forget, there is no one like you in the entire world. You are completely unique. Fashioned for a purpose. It is just up to you to find out what that is.
It speaks of never being afraid to be different. Of not being conformed and constrained by the limits that society places on us. The ‘should do’s’ and the ‘shouldn’t do’s’ that we’re bombarded with. The limiting mindsets and opinions that others like to place on us. The conventional thinking and the herd mentality that we so easily adopt.
It speaks of the process of initiating and inventing and creating. And it reminds me of the process of adopting change (Rogers model for the adoption of innovations) where at first people say that is crazy and ridiculous and then they sceptically try it out, before the majority finally adopt it and come to believe what the early adopters and investors said in the first place but were ridiculed for. Think about Bill Gates or ipads or iphones.
And it also speaks about how ‘Apple’ were positioning themselves in their advertising. They knew they were branding themselves as different thinkers. As being different. Speaking to early adopters. They knew their brand was about innovation and new and different. They knew ‘why’ they did what they did and ads like this merely brought this view to life. Very clever. Very effective.

Be inspired and be you ! The world needs it.