LinkedIn: Thinking of Leaving the 'Safety' of the Corporate World?
This is spot on... It's comparable to watch a child's sense of adventure and unreserved ambition in tackling a difficult task. They are untainted by failure or society. As this child grows they "learn" to be less adventurous and more reserved in their actions and ambitions.
I remember when I was in my early twenties, I used to have a great business or product idea each and every day. I used to wake up at night with great ideas and jot them down on a pad next to my bed. I aim to get back to this "untainted" state of mind soon.
If you could do absolutely anything you wanted and knew you could not fail, what would you do?
I offer you a better question.
What is the thing that you would do for your whole life (if you could), even if you have absolute minimal chance to be right? So when you die and look back, you can see no result, no success, no fame - only hard work on a question that worth it?
Because I think this tells who you really are; and I think almost all achievements of the human race came from this kind of work. And not from those who are "too creative to work hard 8+ hours every day in an office" and "save the world with a superhero miracle" ;-)
This is how I work, and it did not matter where: at a star AI startup, a 4-men or a multinational company, or 1.5 years at home with 3 kids but without income. I reached a state when I can't find a single human being who would even try to understand what I say. But it worth.
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I once asked computer entrepreneur Steve Jobs why some people are more creative than others. He replied, “Innovation is usually the result of connections of past experience. But if you have the same experiences as everyone else, you’re unlikely to look in a different direction.”
From my point of view, Jobs did not add anything to the ideas from PARC (mouse, GUI, OOP, etc.): they were invented and put together fine. But at the same time, they looked like crap, were insanely slow and expensive. They simply did not seem to worth the effort buried into them, and I assume nobody wanted another turn in the the dollar auction. They showed it to external guys because they did not see any value in them. However, Jobs started to believe that it can change the world, had the charisma to get new team and new money into the story, was able to motivate or force his people to break their own boundaries, and finally (after desperate struggles and lots of pain) he won.
http://hajnalvilag.blogspot.hu/.../great-artists-steal.html
You forgot again and again all the efforts about making an invention to comsumable, and one of the most popular thing.
For example, Jesus teached almost the same as the Essenes and other Jewish sects, and his teachings about love and acceptations are close to Buddha's speachs. But he - and the followers - succeed to make it to a religion. So Jesus (and the founders of Catolicism later) made no effort? Or they made the best?
Please repeat reading from "However, Jobs..." because as I understand, you just say the same thing. And we are at the focus point: is it OK to ask Jobs (a truly great motivator, salesman, visioner, "evangelist") - about creativity (as he has NOT created those things, but realized and unfold the potentials in them)? Isn't it dangerous to praise the popular salesman instead of the (maybe not so shiny) ones who DO the things?
In short: who will do the job if everyone prefers selling?
Then read the first sentence of the original quote.. It doesn't ask "How can Jobs be so creative?" It just asks "How to make difference?"
Jobs was talented in finding peoples with creative ideas, makes them adorable, and put it in the road of consumption. He had got the answer that was asked.
Well... it says: "why some people are more creative than others?", which, at least for me, is NOT "how to make difference". I still think this "why" question should not be addressed to him - and that the answer is weak. But of course it is nice, and anyone is free to like it
