If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later.
This is an excerpt from the commencement speech that Steve Jobs made to the graduating class of 2005 at Stanford. He is talking about his experience in college AFTER he dropped out and it greatly impacted his vision of what is possible. If you haven’t seen the video, it is 15 minutes of awe-inspiring, motivational and genius commentary–worthwhile.
I was reading a commentary this morning about Steve and his impact on technology and the world as we know it. What impacted me most about this comment is his journey that took him into a calligraphy class. At the time, it seemed so unimportant and whimsical.
And in retrospect, it was pivotal and the perfect journey to give him the experience he needed to have the impact he did.
I have often pondered the questions “Why is this happening to me?” and “Why did I do that?” as I know most of us have. I often get frustrated at not understanding the path I am on even when I fully submit to the process.
And with hindsight, I see how the path was SO important to my own learning, understanding and ability to empower others from a real place inside me. And as I live the path, even when I know it is what I need, I can’t ever see the “why” until later….sometimes years later.
I don’t know if Steve Jobs fretted about taking a calligraphy class instead of something more important like a business class. Probably.
He says in the video that instead of following logic, he followed intuition. And in the long run, it worked out quite well.
So I wanted to share. Have you had this same experience? Have you ever had to wait 10 years to be able to connect the dots and understand why?
Here is the video in case you wanted to watch it…it’s good!