If Steve Jobs is reading this from wherever he is now – talking the future of ipads with God, meditating on a mountain top or embracing his family (in the spiritual sense of the word), please don’t mess with my PC. i am sorry that i never bought a Mac –  i really loved all those colors. Nearly won me over then. But my PC was not broken and i like to work on my computer as opposed to having to learn about a new version. i am so right brained that my left side needs CPR once in a while. i will convert one day.

i think what is more important than what computer i am writing this on are the life lessons Steve Jobs left all of us. Here are just a few that resonate and will resonate with me for a long time.

1) Stay hungry. Stay foolish. i don’t think i will have a problem with this one. i got the foolish part down perfectly.

2) Dress however the hell you want to. A black tee shirt and jeans. Steve, you always looked cool. i might have lost the white sneakers. The Italians would have picked you out as a tourist.

3) Keep it Simple. i am a Buddhist in waiting who is trying to grasp that simplicity is the way. Steve Jobs was a Buddhist for several decades and his Zen mentor, Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi said:

The more you sense the rareness and value of your own life, the more you realize that how you use it, how you manifest it, is all your responsibility. We face such a big task, so naturally we sit down for a while.

Got to love a guy who knows when it’s time to just sit.

4) Hotonline.net  said: Steve Jobs was dyslexic, which is a condition that affects reading and writing. Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell and Leonardo Da Vinci also suffered from this condition.  i am dyslexic and resent the wording, “suffered from this condition.” i think these men and this blond chick may have gone beyond what we can do because we are dyslexic and found our own way. So there.

5) Don’t be so freaking greedy. Steve was paid $1 a year and he holds the record for being the lowest paid CEO in the world (sure – he had stock options in Apple and owned 7% of Disney, but…) but he did not take a salary. So Wall Street – what can we learn from this? And as a creativity coach, writer and artist – some days i think my salary rivals Steve’s salary at Apple. If Apple is not using that dollar, i can send you my home address.

6) Get Fired. Learn from it. Been there. Done that. It works. Brilliantly.

7) From Steve Job’s June 12, 2005 commencement speech at Stanford: 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.

Everyday when i turn on my PC, i will see this quote and know that i better move my butt and go out and get a Mac.

8) Last thought – don’t limit what a college drop out can do. They all have their own paths to take.

i want to thank Steve Jobs for all he gave the world.

Now where did i put my ipod and where is a 12 year old who can show me how to work it?

© 2011 My Views from the Edge ™

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