A follow-up to yesterday’s post about doing great work wherever you are. From this Business Insider article about Steve Jobs:
Jobs’s perspective (at least, as interpreted by Isaacson) frees you from a self-centered obsession with figuring out exactly what you want out of your job. This type of thinking almost always creates anxiety and confusion because most people aren’t pre-wired with a true calling, and most jobs aren’t that fun at first (you need to get good at what you do before you get to do cool things). Jobs flips this mindset. Instead of asking what the world can offer you, he suggests, you should instead ask what you can offer the world. The goal is not to love every minute of your job, or to identify your one true passion, but is instead to put a dent in the universe (to use another famous quote from Jobs).”
Some people might remember Jobs’s 2005 Stanford commencement address where he advised graduates to find what they love and not to settle. But “find what you love” is very different advice from “First, figure out what you love. Then go get a job doing it.”