This is the graduation commencement address that Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, gave at Stanford in 2005. In this powerful speech, Steve recounts three personal stories from his personal life in which his main emphasis is, " the only way to do great work is to love what you do." Personally, I found his speech to be powerful and motivational, so enjoy! Below is the entire transcript of the speech...
Add Comment  Are you good at what you do? Chances are, unless you are completely new at what you are doing you have gotten good, perhaps you have even became an expert in your field. In one recent conversation with a client, he told me that after an average of 2 months most of his sales guys are 'great' at what they do and at that point are creating their own desired income. He says that it only takes a little time to learn their clients, their computer system and organizational expectations. Typically in my professional past experiences, I would say it was a 2-6 month time frame before I felt comfortable and in some cases good at what I was doing. Of course if there was previous experience in that industry then that 2-6 months could be mere weeks.
On one hand it is good… Well it has been nearly 4-5 years since I worked at an architectural field and a good 2-3 years since I have done any architecture on the side. I recently picked up a consulting gig for a church in the West Valley to help them with their site development and building project. They are looking at doing a 5-7 year building project consisting of 5-7 buildings, outdoor sporting complex with football/soccer field, gymnasium, and perhaps some other great ideas. They want to do this in about three Phases all spaced 2-3 years apart. I love working with clients that have great vision yet take a realistic approach. With my architectural background I have no problem designing the dreamsical unrealistic art but the reality is that designing things within budgets, constraints, taking into consideration other architectural design elements within the project's locale, area demographics, etc. can often paralyze clients. When sitting down at a blank piece of paper many people have a tough time conceptualizing their dreams... or facing the reality of what is doable. I enjoy leadership that can be modest in their approach to the doable, respecting the fundamentals however allowing the 'fun' of creativity and exploration. Those leaders that understand this and 'get it' typically dream bigger, run faster, climb higher and have an unmatched aptitude for success. Their leadership is addictive and permeates those around them. Are you dreaming today? Are you running faster than those that have held you back? Are you climbing higher? Do you have an unmatched aptitude for success? I hope the answer in the forefront of your mind is a resounding yes! If not, begin... NOW! Linked are a couple renderings I decided to put up. Comment your thoughts, be advised these are very preliminary. Click HERE. Leader: "Hey guys did you finish the way I wanted?"
Them: "Well, 'within reason'!"I get this from time to time. As a leader that is such a scary reaction phrase when assessing completion. As a worker/volunteer/intern who doesn't have a strong grasp of excellence, this creates a large gray area of unfulfilled duties, a sort of sick justification. The toughest project for a team leader is to produce the culture in which the hands have a degree or sense of self-responsibility, self-motivation. When they lack this it slowly forces the leader to micro-manage, which any good leader dreads and never wants to walk in that role, at least the good ones. There are some manager/leaders that thrive on the micro-management philosophies. Scary land. 'Within reason' could be defined as 'within the bounds of good sense or practicality'. However within bounds is still missing the mark. Later we can debunk the difference between perfection and excellence but for now lets tackle the issue of... This guy named Jesse at Buckle introduced himself to me. We talked about professionalism in the market place and taking pride in our job. He told me how once he went to P.F. Changs in Scottsdale and ordered food, a plate that he orders custom, half shrimp and half scallions, however this time it was horrible. He then ordered another plate and it was horrible too, two in a row.
He payed and left and went to the P.F. Changs in Tempe and ordered the same meal. He payed twice to get what he expected, in order to get the best that the restaurant had. He explained to them...  In one of my recent grad projects we had to identify several gaps within our organization. Once identified came the task of trying to figure out the root cause. After knowing the cause the next process was to lay out a plan on how to fix the initiatives. Then the final task of the project was to point out any resistance to the initiatives.
What is tough is not identifying the gaps. We are good at that. We are great at looking at the flaws of a system, item, or process, and sometimes we are even good at exploiting those gaps to help out our own cause. However most of the times we do not...  George Rathman, a charismatic chemist, felt that the purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline. He also felt that problem largely goes away when you have the right people in the first place. George was the co-founder of Amgen from back in 1980 who brought the company to $1 billion by 1996.
Jim Collins says in his book, Good to Great, "Everyone would like to be the best, but most organizations lack the discipline to figure out with egoless clarity what they can be the best at and the will to do whatever it takes to turn the potential into reality." If you have heard me speak or heard my life story you have heard the words resonate from my lips...  Jeff, a disbarred lawyer, on a TV show called, Community, signs up for a class at a community college that he heard was an easy ‘A’. When Professor Whitman tells the class to throw their textbooks away and simply "seize the day and live in the moment" to get an 'A', Jeff thinks he has hit the jackpot. Jeff encourages his study group to take a class that is supposed to be a breeze. This class has no tests, quizzes, papers, and appears to be no homework in the modern sense, except to ‘Carpe Diem’, Seize the day.
Professor Whitman catches on to Jeff’s carelessness and freewill desire for an ‘A’ and tells him he must ‘live life’ or face an ‘F’. Jeff begins doing all kinds of acts in front of Whitman to get caught living the moment, flying kites, dressing funny, etc. However Whitman calls him out each time. Professor Whitman finally tells him...  As I have eluded to in previous posts as well as particular Twitters I began my Masters this week in residency at Evangel University, Springfield, MO. I am realizing the difference between the work load and knowledge level when I received my AA in Architectural Design & CAD as well as my BA in Pastoral Ministries to a Masters level education. That coupled with the experience of being a hybrid experience, (Hybrid means, I fly out twice a year for a week of classes, professor introductions, class introductions, etc.) then the rest is distance study at home makes this a very overwhelming jump start.
Though this still is insurmountable in my mind... This week begins the start of a two year intensive passage of a lifelong journey. A journey that I hope takes me to the depths of knowledge in an area that is close to my heart, leadership. I know many enjoy this subject and seek out every book that talks about leadership, I do as well. I decided about two years ago to pursue a Masters degree in Organizational Leadership for many reasons. The main reason is to...
| Latest Tweets Scan for Contact Info  ArchivesJanuary 2012 CategoriesAll |
RSS Feed