To be honest I didn’t expect the words of the legendary Steve Jobs to relate so much to my own experiences in life. You’d think a man so successful in life would be so from the start, but from his speech, that was far from the truth. Back in college, Steve Jobs had no idea what to do with life or how college would lead him to it, which is what I still feel since I was a freshman. Yet despite my worries of the future prospects yet unknown, I take comfort in Steve’s words that you just have to trust that it will work out okay in the end. Even despite the fact he quit college, Jobs never truly gave up on himself and looking back he could see that sometimes, drastic actions that are against societal status quo can be the best decisions you ever make. Though I have decided to continue my college career to the very end, I do have the belief that it will lead to something worthwhile, even if I can’t see it yet, heck it might not even be here just yet.
Lessons from Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture
Over the years, I have often found myself falling down the YouTube rabbit hole, consuming countless hours of TED Talks, motivational speeches and lectures from great minds – household names who have changed the way we interact with the world around us. This week, I was lucky enough to watch an inspirational talk that is easily the best one I have seen yet. On September 18th, 2007, Professor Randy Pausch delivered his Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon University. Facing a terminal cancer diagnosis, Randy taught us the ingredients to achieving our dreams.
Once I finished the over hour-long ride, I wasn’t sure where to begin in summarizing my reaction. The first thing I did was send the video to my brother, because I just wanted more people in my life to experience Randy’s wisdom. The second thing I did was look at the notes I had scribbled while watching – a few short quotes and the titles of various concepts he had bestowed upon me.
“Brick walls let us prove how badly we want things.”
The words Randy spoke during his Last Lecture taught me something that I had not understood an hour before I started watching. It was that I want to lead my life like Randy Pausch. Hearing the wildly different childhood dreams that he had, and how he achieved them all through being himself, and having fun, was eye-opening.
I also came to the realization that this was the perfect time in my life to watch this lecture. I am currently in the final year of the Interactive Multimedia Major, and soon I will be venturing into the “real world”. While this fact is extremely anxiety-inducing, Randy’s words helped me understand that I can reach out and grab the tools needed to build my dreams. All it takes is a willingness to work hard, be loyal, never stop learning or challenging myself, and to have fun.
“It’s not about how to achieve your dreams, it’s about how to lead your life”
I want to use Randy’s teachings to help my Senior Thesis Project, as well as future ventures in my life. His words about Head Fake Learning deeply resonated with me, and will remember this concept when building my website for thesis and on my free time. People learning, without realizing they had an educational experience, is a magical thing.
Perhaps the remarkable clarity of Randy’s lecture came from a perspective he gained while facing his tragic diagnosis. All we have is time, but our time is limited. His legacy is far greater than a single lecture, but I will forever connect his name to this video, and forever be thankful to have experienced it.
Thoughts On Steve Job’s Commencement Speech
Steve Job’s speech really speaks to me about life and its expectations. Despite The pressure set up for him to attend college from the time he was born, he gave it a shot, and found it wasn’t for him. In choosing to drop out and form his own path is where he found success. And even once he found success, it wasn’t a happily ever after. He faced another huge struggle being fired from his own company, but eventually used it as a chance at a new beginning instead of allowing it to drag him down. This is the sort of mindset I hope to carry through life. Everything is temporary, and change is constant, so you must keep looking to the future and knowing that if you are not happy with where you are now, you can find a way to get to where you want to be.
These concepts can be applied to any aspect of your life, even a senior thesis project. There’s a long road ahead that will bring many challenges and changes, but I hope to welcome and overcome them the best I can to produce something I can be proud of.
A Story of Love and Loss
Steve Job’s second story, that of “love and loss,” hit me at a degree that was very close to home. As many of my friends know, I am really in love with a competitive game called Smite. I have worn many hats in the time that I have played the game, but none have ever been as amazing as the time when I coached an amateur team that got a chance to compete at the international level.
This team was called We Garn Servo and was an Australian team comprised of 5 male players ages 16-22. I completed their lineup as their sixth member, and although we spent so much time together, it was obvious I didn’t quite fit in for a number of reasons. Firstly, they were 16+ hours ahead, and I wasn’t really able to spend the quality time a teammate typically does getting to know them. Our scrimmages were from 3-7 AM for me, so as soon as we were done, I was off to bed or else I was definitely not going to make it to class later that day. Secondly, the team was all guys. Normally, you would hope that wouldn’t mean anything, but there always seemed to be a bit of a divide; I was never really “one of the lads” as they would say.
Despite this, I worked incredibly hard to review their scrimmages, devise strategies, and compile statistics in order to give them the best possible chances at dominating their Oceanic league. And that’s exactly what they did. Though it was a rocky start, I have never felt more proud of anything that I’d ever done than the moment that we won our best of three set that secured our tickets to the international Smite Masters LAN event. That feeling of pride didn’t last forever.
A week after we won, I had been getting some mixed signals from the boys. A little later, I was told I was kicked from the team.
Kicked? You’re joking, right?
Alas, it was the truth. They decided that the ticket I had worked so hard to earn would be snatched from my hand and ripped to shreds. To say I was devastated was an understatement. Even as I think back now, I wish I had been able to change my fate, for my life could have been so different if I had actually been able to go.
However, that doesn’t mean I dislike where I ended up. That doesn’t mean I left my passion to float away with the cruel breeze like my ticket did. In fact, it made it much, much stronger. Since then, I have grown within the Smite community to a place where I am much happier — not to mention I actually have gotten paid to play it. Although I lost something very dear to me, I was able to reassess and find the place where I truly wanted to be. Rather than waking up to a deafening alarm at 3 AM to groggily watch scrimmages, I can create my own content and reach an audience beyond those that are interested in the niche international leagues.
I did love my coaching position with We Garn Servo, and though I lost it, I didn’t lose my love for the game, the community, and the job.
steve jobs response
Throughout Steve Jobs’ address, there was a common theme that really made an impact on me. Trust. Jobs said, “You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.” He also said, “So you have to trust that the dots will connect in your future.” These quotations really stood out to me because the most important thing people should do is believe in themselves and trust their gut.
I think the part in his speech that connected most to IMM was when he was talking about taking a calligraphy course and applying it on the Mac. In IMM, we are exposed to so many different courses, that allow us to work on various skills. Applying all these skills to whatever we want to do in life – even something as minor as typography – still makes an incredible difference.