Before his untimely death, Steve Jobs gave us a powerful lesson on living the best possible life.
BY MARCEL SCHWANTES, INC. CONTRIBUTING EDITOR AND FOUNDER, LEADERSHIP FROM THE CORE@MARCELSCHWANTES
For Inc.
Steve Jobs. Photo: Getty Images
The co-founder of Apple delivered these words to a newly minted class of Stanford University graduates in 2005. Not long before the commencement, Jobs had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was given between three and six months to live.
Facing his own mortality had impressed upon him the importance of living the best possible life, and it was a message he passed on to the new graduates, and to the rest of the world watching.
3 questions you should be asking
1. Am I living the life that I want and doing the work that I want to do?
In the face of his looming death, something powerful shifted inside Jobs. He began to live each day as if it was his last–because it may have been. Thinking about the limited amount of time you and I have left on this earth isn’t meant to be a downer. On the contrary, it empowers us to use that precious time in the most meaningful way possible.
