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Staff post about: Steve Jobs Become an Author

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When Jobs was 17 years old, he read a quote that would stay with him forever: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.” Since then, he has looked himself in the mirror every morning and asked himself whether or not he would do the same thing that day if it were his last day alive. “Whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something,” he says.

It has been Jobs’ willingness to seize new opportunities and take the road less traveled that has allowed him to rise above his competitors for so many years. He has refused to let time pass him by and has tried to make the most out of his life, both personally and professionally. “Don't be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people's thinking,” he advises. “Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.” Instead, everyone should have the courage to follow their heart and intuition; “they somehow already know what you truly want to become.”

Jobs learned the importance of making the most of his time when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2004. After doctors found a tumor on his pancreas, he was told that it was incurable and that he should expect to live no longer than three to six months. “My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die,” recalls Jobs. It was only after a biopsy later that day revealed that his cancer was a rare form that could be cured with surgery that Jobs knew he would have a second chance at life.

When Jobs spoke at the summer convocation of Stanford University in 2005, one of the major points he tried to hammer home to these students who were about to embark on their own careers was to constantly be aware of the fragility of life. “Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life,” he says now. “Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

Making the most of his time, both personally and professionally, has helped Jobs not only become one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the 20th century, but has also let him live his dream life. He is both a workaholic and a devoted family man and never loses any opportunity to improve upon both. Since facing death, Jobs has gained new aspirations for what he can accomplish in life. “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose,” he says. “You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

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