Sunday, March 14, 2010
Up in the air….
Maturity is not dependent on age or sex or any other variable , it is all specific to a person. Well we are always carrying a backpack full of stuff on our back. As very rightly pointed out by Clooney in the movie the stuff is largely the material things- the tangibles and relationships- intangibles. But I did not like the idea of taking stuff out and carrying with a nearly empty backpack , but its important to pack the bag so right, that the stuff with the most priority is most accessible and not out of reach. Most of us get our priorities wrong, But the point is when we realize the stuff in the bag is at a totally inaccessible and would need shaking the bag upside down to correct it. Sometimes one is forced to pack the bag in a particular way: funny no isn’t it my bag …… lol the movie shook me big time.. I need to organize my backpack a lot.. the good part is atleast I know my priorities.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Dhage meri soche ke
I stood there near the canopy, was at an event.. All alone again, watching the rain drops fall….. Contemplating my every decision of my life, was I wrong somewhere? Am I impatient and would get my deserved due later, or is it just a bad patch of time that will soon pass….
Saw other companies canopies being set up by 8-10 people, surely not engineers and definitely not MBA’s … and here I stood alone, do I need to be reiterated to learn the value of life.. have I not learned enough… How much more should I learn before they call me a learned man…
Soon I see my thoughts as very pessimistic and try to overcrowd this with enthusiasm from inside.. Just felt that a year back used to have a fire in my belly when I called for Enthusiasm.. Could just feel a spark today.. Is it just me or is it the environment…
Well I know it is just time and its going to pass… try to use every weekend lost to my work as a lesson but am nor enjoying my work, my environment.. A corporate slave, I want to break the shackles and make no more compromises..
Lost in the race for success have lost the meaning of present and in the game of future aspirations….see no present compromises.
No wonder people in jobs always quit for an MBA, although an MBA poor guy does not even have that option.. No more future education can get me what I Want.. Just realized What I want does not come from outside it comes from inside... Because What I want has the capital I.. Its “I” … Have straightened my priorities again just to realize that they were always straightened , the path is always correct , Its just how I see it ……
I go back though, to every MBA class… I revisit the views of the experienced people see my views more over aligning with theirs , but still its too small a sample…. Guess may differ with time….
Leadership
“A leader is the person who is a policy maker, implementor and a feedback evaluator . “
My views on leadership too have changed with my experience … I found that a structure in an organization or actually in life is one of the most important things…. And the structure comes from the top itself. Because structure is also a culture.. and a culture is never a product of all people.. its a group think thing and In a closed group that is a company it consciously/unconsciously moves with the thought of the leader… Well no wonder most people leave a company because of bad bosses who just do not know how to handle their subordinates, if a relationship in an office is limited to just work its really shortlived as relation is just too complicated a term to just be limited to one aspect..
Comfort level is another important thing.. most of the times employees comfort zone is disrupted because he is made to do a lot of work against his will without any incentives. A carrot and stick policy too is good for some companies because in those companies there is only stick and no carrot… one waits for appreciation and incentivization only to find the process so abstract that “ It depends” comes into the picture… and when it becomes it depends.. Well then it depends…
A brand
4P’s are just a fragment of the Brand Universe… Because it the 5th P which actually helps us Make the 4 P’s viable.. The place, price , product and promotion are all in the hand of the people and if the people are good and the people policies are good. The other 4 take no time to settle down.. A brand is always in the mind and the stakeholders mind can only be changed by employees who themselves are sure of the brand… If I as an employee , am not convinced would be even more difficult to convince others….
So the Key is the people..
Aniket’s 3D model..
Professional Vs personal
The professional life is a support function for Personal life and not vice versa.. But still professional life is 50% of our life so must choose what we like and not what other’s perceive to be good.
CTC vs Profile.
The curve is inclined towards CTC in the first quarter of the professional life.. while profile in the next two quarters and none in the last..
Brain vs Heart
A heart is a part of the body which pumps the essential fluid which helps the other organs to function.. So other organs are dependent on the heart, so our whole body is dependent on it even the brain … So you know whom to listen to right ??
Saw other companies canopies being set up by 8-10 people, surely not engineers and definitely not MBA’s … and here I stood alone, do I need to be reiterated to learn the value of life.. have I not learned enough… How much more should I learn before they call me a learned man…
Soon I see my thoughts as very pessimistic and try to overcrowd this with enthusiasm from inside.. Just felt that a year back used to have a fire in my belly when I called for Enthusiasm.. Could just feel a spark today.. Is it just me or is it the environment…
Well I know it is just time and its going to pass… try to use every weekend lost to my work as a lesson but am nor enjoying my work, my environment.. A corporate slave, I want to break the shackles and make no more compromises..
Lost in the race for success have lost the meaning of present and in the game of future aspirations….see no present compromises.
No wonder people in jobs always quit for an MBA, although an MBA poor guy does not even have that option.. No more future education can get me what I Want.. Just realized What I want does not come from outside it comes from inside... Because What I want has the capital I.. Its “I” … Have straightened my priorities again just to realize that they were always straightened , the path is always correct , Its just how I see it ……
I go back though, to every MBA class… I revisit the views of the experienced people see my views more over aligning with theirs , but still its too small a sample…. Guess may differ with time….
Leadership
“A leader is the person who is a policy maker, implementor and a feedback evaluator . “
My views on leadership too have changed with my experience … I found that a structure in an organization or actually in life is one of the most important things…. And the structure comes from the top itself. Because structure is also a culture.. and a culture is never a product of all people.. its a group think thing and In a closed group that is a company it consciously/unconsciously moves with the thought of the leader… Well no wonder most people leave a company because of bad bosses who just do not know how to handle their subordinates, if a relationship in an office is limited to just work its really shortlived as relation is just too complicated a term to just be limited to one aspect..
Comfort level is another important thing.. most of the times employees comfort zone is disrupted because he is made to do a lot of work against his will without any incentives. A carrot and stick policy too is good for some companies because in those companies there is only stick and no carrot… one waits for appreciation and incentivization only to find the process so abstract that “ It depends” comes into the picture… and when it becomes it depends.. Well then it depends…
A brand
4P’s are just a fragment of the Brand Universe… Because it the 5th P which actually helps us Make the 4 P’s viable.. The place, price , product and promotion are all in the hand of the people and if the people are good and the people policies are good. The other 4 take no time to settle down.. A brand is always in the mind and the stakeholders mind can only be changed by employees who themselves are sure of the brand… If I as an employee , am not convinced would be even more difficult to convince others….
So the Key is the people..
Aniket’s 3D model..
Professional Vs personal
The professional life is a support function for Personal life and not vice versa.. But still professional life is 50% of our life so must choose what we like and not what other’s perceive to be good.
CTC vs Profile.
The curve is inclined towards CTC in the first quarter of the professional life.. while profile in the next two quarters and none in the last..
Brain vs Heart
A heart is a part of the body which pumps the essential fluid which helps the other organs to function.. So other organs are dependent on the heart, so our whole body is dependent on it even the brain … So you know whom to listen to right ??
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Did you fill up the forms yet???
Well filling up a form seems to be the most boring thing in the world but it is a prerequisite for an entry to any college....
Criterion for filling up MBA College forms….
Today after a discussion with an MBA aspirant I could gather that there are a lot of doubts in the aspirants’ mind; well just decided to pen down a few of my observations about Entrance forms and colleges in particular.. Mind you these are all my personal opinions and have been created through after being in touch with the post graduate management education sector for the past 3 years….
CAT: Due to the ever-changing patterns its been common to see all aspirants blowing up a lot of money on filling out all forms possible and on the other hand some aspirants fill only the top B schools forms…
An example of either would be a guy who gets 70 percentile in CAT and has filled up all forms of colleges in the above 90 percentile region... Spending 15000 but getting no calls. Or else a guy getting 97 % and not filling up any forms apart from CAT….
I have a simple motto: Do not just reject the college straight off. Let the college accept you first then you reject it... (Applies to at least the top rung colleges, I definitely do not mean fill up the worst college in the country and after selects it , be proud to reject it ) So a guy (in the 2nd example) getting 97 percentile has screwed his chances to get into at least two of the top ten colleges… and the guy (1st example) has not clearly diversified the risk….
So following is a small strategy that helps most of the time...
1. Assess your level of preparation through measurement of performance in simulation tests and also the confidence levels.. Although simulation is not a guarantee but still gives you an indicative performance level. ( for short listing the percentile range you must apply to )
2. Clear your objectives of doing an MBA/Specialized MBA... Example and IRMA, TISS or MICA may offer an MBA which would be very specialized and would only be good for if you if you are really interested. Trust me a 10L package has no value in your life if you do not love what you do. ( For short listing the colleges you must apply to )
3. Talk to people who have done an MBA, talk to a sufficient number of people not just one guy/gal. ( concept of sample size …)
4. Coaching center counselors have a lot of theoretical knowledge and give you a lot of quantitative data… but as far as opinions are concerned (cannot take only their word for it )so collect the facts and do not take the opinions blankly.
5. Finally note down all colleges which come down in your percentile range (take a 5-10% relaxation on both the upper and lower sides). Percentile ranges can be got from previous MBA takers or coaching centers and also through the internet. (Validate all sources) .
6. Now strike of colleges you would not never want to go to (on the basis of locational/course/fees/placement preferences).
7. Fill in at least one college form per 1-2 percentile for the top end of your percentile range (as calculated in step 5) and after the top 4-5 colleges at least one college per 4- 5 percentile range.
8. This way you cover all the colleges you want to go to and also which fit in your bill.
Example: X is consistently getting a score in the range of 80-95 % in Simulation tests…
He is sure he’ll score an 85+ percentile in CAT. And moreover he is interested in operations aspects of business. X has his strengths in QA/LR/PS. X is a resident of Maharashtra . Wants to stay either in Maharashtra or can go to North India but does not want to go to south India or east india. (Would only go to southern parts of India if he gets through the top ten) X’s budget is 25K and says he is not going to fill forms for more than that
Analysis (Assuming cost of forms to be 1500 avg )
X’s percentile range: 80-100 percentile.
X’s special interest colleges: SIOM and NITIE: famous for operations MBA
X’s Rule outs IRMA, MICA... And all locational rule outs.
X’s choice list:
IIM’s , MDI, IMT , IMI , SP jain , Fore , LBS, SIOM, NITIE , XLRI,SIBM,SCMHRD, SIIB,NMIMS,TISS,FMS,DSE-MIB and MHROD,UBS,KJ Somaiya.IITD,IITM
X’s shortlist:
IIM’s : Top 2 percentile
MDI, IMT, SP JAIN, NITIE, IMI : Colleges in 95+ percentile.
Fore/LBS : fills one …college in the next 5 percentile
UBS, KJ Somaiya : colleges in the next 10 percentile
Sectorals: FMS... NMIMS... Symbiosis: 3 colleges (SIBM, SCMHRD, SIOM), XLRI, JMET (IIT Delhi, mumbai)
Will skip TISS: More known for HR and Social services.
Will skip other colleges through XAT.( Locational issues )
Will skip DSE and SIIB. A little redundant in the list
Total colleges filled 23;
Total cost 26K (Estimating 1500 per form for all forms except FMS/JMET/UBS: Rs 1000 avg...)
Forms : CAT, MDI ,IMT ,SP JAIN ,NITIE ,IMI, Fore/LBS , UBS,KJ Somaiya, FMS ,NMIMS, SNAP,SIBM ,SCMHRD, SIOM, XLRI( XAT ) ,JMET ,IITD,IITM
Percentile range : 80 -100 % + Specific exams : CAT (16 colleges) + SNAP( 3 colleges) + NMAT( 1 college ) + XAT ( 1 college ) + FMS ( 1 college) + JMET ( 2 colleges )
College ranks applied to: Top 35. (More or Less)
Criterion for filling up MBA College forms….
Today after a discussion with an MBA aspirant I could gather that there are a lot of doubts in the aspirants’ mind; well just decided to pen down a few of my observations about Entrance forms and colleges in particular.. Mind you these are all my personal opinions and have been created through after being in touch with the post graduate management education sector for the past 3 years….
CAT: Due to the ever-changing patterns its been common to see all aspirants blowing up a lot of money on filling out all forms possible and on the other hand some aspirants fill only the top B schools forms…
An example of either would be a guy who gets 70 percentile in CAT and has filled up all forms of colleges in the above 90 percentile region... Spending 15000 but getting no calls. Or else a guy getting 97 % and not filling up any forms apart from CAT….
I have a simple motto: Do not just reject the college straight off. Let the college accept you first then you reject it... (Applies to at least the top rung colleges, I definitely do not mean fill up the worst college in the country and after selects it , be proud to reject it ) So a guy (in the 2nd example) getting 97 percentile has screwed his chances to get into at least two of the top ten colleges… and the guy (1st example) has not clearly diversified the risk….
So following is a small strategy that helps most of the time...
1. Assess your level of preparation through measurement of performance in simulation tests and also the confidence levels.. Although simulation is not a guarantee but still gives you an indicative performance level. ( for short listing the percentile range you must apply to )
2. Clear your objectives of doing an MBA/Specialized MBA... Example and IRMA, TISS or MICA may offer an MBA which would be very specialized and would only be good for if you if you are really interested. Trust me a 10L package has no value in your life if you do not love what you do. ( For short listing the colleges you must apply to )
3. Talk to people who have done an MBA, talk to a sufficient number of people not just one guy/gal. ( concept of sample size …)
4. Coaching center counselors have a lot of theoretical knowledge and give you a lot of quantitative data… but as far as opinions are concerned (cannot take only their word for it )so collect the facts and do not take the opinions blankly.
5. Finally note down all colleges which come down in your percentile range (take a 5-10% relaxation on both the upper and lower sides). Percentile ranges can be got from previous MBA takers or coaching centers and also through the internet. (Validate all sources) .
6. Now strike of colleges you would not never want to go to (on the basis of locational/course/fees/placement preferences).
7. Fill in at least one college form per 1-2 percentile for the top end of your percentile range (as calculated in step 5) and after the top 4-5 colleges at least one college per 4- 5 percentile range.
8. This way you cover all the colleges you want to go to and also which fit in your bill.
Example: X is consistently getting a score in the range of 80-95 % in Simulation tests…
He is sure he’ll score an 85+ percentile in CAT. And moreover he is interested in operations aspects of business. X has his strengths in QA/LR/PS. X is a resident of Maharashtra . Wants to stay either in Maharashtra or can go to North India but does not want to go to south India or east india. (Would only go to southern parts of India if he gets through the top ten) X’s budget is 25K and says he is not going to fill forms for more than that
Analysis (Assuming cost of forms to be 1500 avg )
X’s percentile range: 80-100 percentile.
X’s special interest colleges: SIOM and NITIE: famous for operations MBA
X’s Rule outs IRMA, MICA... And all locational rule outs.
X’s choice list:
IIM’s , MDI, IMT , IMI , SP jain , Fore , LBS, SIOM, NITIE , XLRI,SIBM,SCMHRD, SIIB,NMIMS,TISS,FMS,DSE-MIB and MHROD,UBS,KJ Somaiya.IITD,IITM
X’s shortlist:
IIM’s : Top 2 percentile
MDI, IMT, SP JAIN, NITIE, IMI : Colleges in 95+ percentile.
Fore/LBS : fills one …college in the next 5 percentile
UBS, KJ Somaiya : colleges in the next 10 percentile
Sectorals: FMS... NMIMS... Symbiosis: 3 colleges (SIBM, SCMHRD, SIOM), XLRI, JMET (IIT Delhi, mumbai)
Will skip TISS: More known for HR and Social services.
Will skip other colleges through XAT.( Locational issues )
Will skip DSE and SIIB. A little redundant in the list
Total colleges filled 23;
Total cost 26K (Estimating 1500 per form for all forms except FMS/JMET/UBS: Rs 1000 avg...)
Forms : CAT, MDI ,IMT ,SP JAIN ,NITIE ,IMI, Fore/LBS , UBS,KJ Somaiya, FMS ,NMIMS, SNAP,SIBM ,SCMHRD, SIOM, XLRI( XAT ) ,JMET ,IITD,IITM
Percentile range : 80 -100 % + Specific exams : CAT (16 colleges) + SNAP( 3 colleges) + NMAT( 1 college ) + XAT ( 1 college ) + FMS ( 1 college) + JMET ( 2 colleges )
College ranks applied to: Top 35. (More or Less)
Friday, November 20, 2009
An experience in my warehouse
I had a particular order to be serviced by the warehouse , So I wrote them a mail
Mail : Please send the attached order ( Excel file containing the order ) to 186, Ground Floor, Tagore Park, Delhi -110009.
I got an instant reply from them ... We cannot send the order because the given address is not clear . Its very amazing that the "clear" word is so subjective. What may be clear to one may not be clear to the other and vice versa. But we have got used of these age old excuses of shirking the work and hence i was prompt in my reply to send the following mail
My mail ...........
This order has to be dispatched to 186, Ground Floor, Tagore Park, Delhi -110009.
Cotact number : 99XXXXXXXX
Jasola Vihar
Delhi
1. Head south-west 1.7 km
2. Turn left at Rd No 13A 0.9 km
3. Turn right at Amrapali Marg 2.4 km
4. Turn left at Dadri Rd 5.6 km
5. Continue onto Noida Link Rd 4.0 km
6. Turn left at Vikas Marg 2.3 km
7. Continue onto Indraprashta Marg 0.3 km
8. Turn right towards 0.4 km
Mahatma Gandhi Marg
9. Continue straight onto 6.0 km
Mahatma Gandhi Marg
10. Continue onto 3.7 km
Dr KB Hedgewar Marg
11. Turn left at Parade Marg 1.7 km
12. Turn left towards 0.5 km
Ramlal Kapoor Marg
13. Turn right at 0.5 km
Ramlal Kapoor Marg
14. Turn left at Bhai 0.3 km
Parmanand Marg
15. Take the 1st right 0.2 km
16. Slight right 0.3 km
17. Turn right 0.2 km
Total Distance 31.1 Km
Average speed 30KM /Hr
Time 62.2 minutes
If this information is not enough we can also get more details like ..
The no of potholes you may find in your way or the number of stairs you will need to climb to reach the Ground floor of the adddress
if after this one finds it difficult to service the order we can also find out the muber of red lights you may find while reaching the destination address or if there is a probability that the vehicle carrying the order may be involved in an accident.
Even if after this one finds it difficult to service the order we may also look at
the impact on profitability of the company through servicing of this order or any negative imapct on the stake holders due to servicing this order.
I think post this the order could be serviced for sure.....
Rgds
Aniket Narula
Mail : Please send the attached order ( Excel file containing the order ) to 186, Ground Floor, Tagore Park, Delhi -110009.
I got an instant reply from them ... We cannot send the order because the given address is not clear . Its very amazing that the "clear" word is so subjective. What may be clear to one may not be clear to the other and vice versa. But we have got used of these age old excuses of shirking the work and hence i was prompt in my reply to send the following mail
My mail ...........
This order has to be dispatched to 186, Ground Floor, Tagore Park, Delhi -110009.
Cotact number : 99XXXXXXXX
Jasola Vihar
Delhi
1. Head south-west 1.7 km
2. Turn left at Rd No 13A 0.9 km
3. Turn right at Amrapali Marg 2.4 km
4. Turn left at Dadri Rd 5.6 km
5. Continue onto Noida Link Rd 4.0 km
6. Turn left at Vikas Marg 2.3 km
7. Continue onto Indraprashta Marg 0.3 km
8. Turn right towards 0.4 km
Mahatma Gandhi Marg
9. Continue straight onto 6.0 km
Mahatma Gandhi Marg
10. Continue onto 3.7 km
Dr KB Hedgewar Marg
11. Turn left at Parade Marg 1.7 km
12. Turn left towards 0.5 km
Ramlal Kapoor Marg
13. Turn right at 0.5 km
Ramlal Kapoor Marg
14. Turn left at Bhai 0.3 km
Parmanand Marg
15. Take the 1st right 0.2 km
16. Slight right 0.3 km
17. Turn right 0.2 km
Total Distance 31.1 Km
Average speed 30KM /Hr
Time 62.2 minutes
If this information is not enough we can also get more details like ..
The no of potholes you may find in your way or the number of stairs you will need to climb to reach the Ground floor of the adddress
if after this one finds it difficult to service the order we can also find out the muber of red lights you may find while reaching the destination address or if there is a probability that the vehicle carrying the order may be involved in an accident.
Even if after this one finds it difficult to service the order we may also look at
the impact on profitability of the company through servicing of this order or any negative imapct on the stake holders due to servicing this order.
I think post this the order could be serviced for sure.....
Rgds
Aniket Narula
Friday, October 2, 2009
Help others! It’ll come back to you
Rarely do I write posts which say things simply and there is nothing abstact in it, because Simplicity is just not my cuppa. Confusion and Chaos is my forte and I am the most productive when I write in that manner. Please read my previous posts for reference and excuse for simplicity.
My motto is Very simple “Productivity amidst chaos “ , why try to simplify things when making things simple would use time and need effort, so reaching equal productivity amidst chaos helps me save time and effort as I find chaos equally easy to handle as simplicity …. Ok enough of Blabber now coming to the point …
Following are a few of my practical experiences which helped me realize that when I helped others it helped me.
Incident 1
I was a faculty @IMS and use to teach LR to students. I have a helping attitude and helped most of my students in and after classes( Excuse for Immodesty ) . One of the few students who I had helped staye in touch with me throughout my MBA ( which I did post My faculty job @ IMS ) and is still in touch with me.When I joined As a brand manager with Lotto post MBA I took up four interns through vaibhav’s contact Devesh who is a BBA student. Devesh and team of Interns did a good job in their internship and Through Devesh and Team I met Another guy who arranged a football tournament where Lotto got to take part in . At this tournament I met a guy Who got me Lotto in two more football tournaments and also I met People who have helped Lotto get to places where it would not have been possible If I had not helped vaibhav and stayed in touch with him. All this happened because I helped vaibhav…….
Incident 2
One of my colleagues in the office wanted to convert a few jpeg files to pdfs . I was in a hurry with some of my work but I took ten minutes out to help him by downloading a driver in my computer which helps do the same. I just can’t remember how helpful this driver has been to me and how many times post that I have converted word,excel,bmps,jpegs to pdfs. Sometimes to reduce the size and sometimes for non editable functionality. I could do all that just because I helped a colleague out on a very busy day.
Incident 3
Again on a very busy day I was given a work by my dad to make a concept note for an event of theirs. I made 3-4 concept notes with a page of literature on all. He liked them and used one. I have used one in my newsletter: (Potpourri) and still have 2 more to use elsewhere.
Not once does the work done go waste. It always comes back in one way or the other.
My motto is Very simple “Productivity amidst chaos “ , why try to simplify things when making things simple would use time and need effort, so reaching equal productivity amidst chaos helps me save time and effort as I find chaos equally easy to handle as simplicity …. Ok enough of Blabber now coming to the point …
Following are a few of my practical experiences which helped me realize that when I helped others it helped me.
Incident 1
I was a faculty @IMS and use to teach LR to students. I have a helping attitude and helped most of my students in and after classes( Excuse for Immodesty ) . One of the few students who I had helped staye in touch with me throughout my MBA ( which I did post My faculty job @ IMS ) and is still in touch with me.When I joined As a brand manager with Lotto post MBA I took up four interns through vaibhav’s contact Devesh who is a BBA student. Devesh and team of Interns did a good job in their internship and Through Devesh and Team I met Another guy who arranged a football tournament where Lotto got to take part in . At this tournament I met a guy Who got me Lotto in two more football tournaments and also I met People who have helped Lotto get to places where it would not have been possible If I had not helped vaibhav and stayed in touch with him. All this happened because I helped vaibhav…….
Incident 2
One of my colleagues in the office wanted to convert a few jpeg files to pdfs . I was in a hurry with some of my work but I took ten minutes out to help him by downloading a driver in my computer which helps do the same. I just can’t remember how helpful this driver has been to me and how many times post that I have converted word,excel,bmps,jpegs to pdfs. Sometimes to reduce the size and sometimes for non editable functionality. I could do all that just because I helped a colleague out on a very busy day.
Incident 3
Again on a very busy day I was given a work by my dad to make a concept note for an event of theirs. I made 3-4 concept notes with a page of literature on all. He liked them and used one. I have used one in my newsletter: (Potpourri) and still have 2 more to use elsewhere.
Not once does the work done go waste. It always comes back in one way or the other.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Transcript of Commencement Speech at Stanford given by Steve Jobs
This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. 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.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
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.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. 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.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
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.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. 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.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
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.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. 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.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
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.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
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