“Steve Jobs Secrets of Life”
It’s the title of a YouTube video containing a short clip from an interview Jobs conducted in 1994.
In it, Jobs shares:
“When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is. Your life is just to live your life inside the world and not bash into the walls. To have fun. To save a little money. But that’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you’ve understood one simple fact: everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you.”
I think about this quote often.
As a 25 year old, with many privileges and few obligations, living a limited life - one that I’ll look back on with deep regrets - terrifies me. The question is, “What exactly should I be doing now to live my fullest life?”
The answer isn’t obvious to me.
I’ve always found the interview question, “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” to be a frustrating one. Because almost always the honest answer is, “I have no idea”. Part of me envies people that find their passion early in life. Life seems simpler when your goals are well-defined: Nobel Prize Winner, NBA Champion, Fortune 500 CEO, etc.
On the other hand, spontaneity brings a richness to life.
When I graduated from Stanford in 2019 and started my career at Goldman as an analyst, my initial intent was to aggressively rise through the corporate ranks. Analyst to Associate, Associate to VP, VP to MD, and on and on… Over time, however, I began to more closely question the underlying motives behind my ambitions.
Goldman is a special place to work, and I think there’s incredible value (especially early in one’s career) in working at a place like Goldman to develop a core set of skills. But Goldman is also a corporate machine with a profit-driven agenda, and its structure and hierarchy serve its objectives.
When I left Goldman in July of 2021, I had no plan. All I knew was that I wanted to play my own game. Not somebody else’s. I wanted to bash into the walls that I felt I was confining myself to. I wanted to kill all possibilities of living a limited life.
This writing is meant to be a small step in this ambitious effort.
The impetus for my writing is tied to another “Secret of Life” that I’ve come to learn:
Results require action.
As a hyper-introvert, I’ve grown complacent in learning passively. It’s incredible to reflect on the amount of information I’ve absorbed over the years through podcasts, books, documentaries, etc. But the popular quote that "Knowledge is Power" is wrong (or at the very least it’s incomplete).
Only knowledge with action is power. Without action, knowledge is useless.
I’ve invested a lot of time becoming knowledgeable. I haven’t invested nearly enough time taking action. (This tweet cuts deep.)
I have no idea what I want to be doing 5 years from now. But what I know for certain is that if I continue to live life as a passive observer, life’s inertia will drag me down a path that I’ll undoubtedly look back on with regret.
There’s a Crypto.com commercial featuring Matt Damon that was airing a few months back that, although cheesy, I found compelling.
In it, Damon says:
“History is filled with almosts. With those who almost adventured. Who almost achieved - but ultimately for them it proved to be too much. Then there are others. The ones who embrace the moment and commit. And in these moments of truth, these men and women - these mere mortals just like you and me - as they peer over the edge, they calm their minds and steel there nerves with four simple words that have been whispered by the intrepid since the time of the Romans: Fortune Favors the Brave”
The “Secret of Life” that Jobs highlighted in his 1994 interview that, “everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you” is no doubt empowering. But observing this truth is not even half the battle.
As Damon stated, fortune only favors the ones daring enough to “embrace the moment and commit”.
At the end of the day, it's action that produces outcomes.
