I just thought I’d post up this quite popular commencement speech that Steve Jobs delievered to Stanford University. I won’t post the whole transcript of his speech, but I did want to point out of my favorite parts…

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

No matter who you are, or where you are in life right now, I think this statement above is worth reading a few times. Think hard about this message and the take action toward becoming who YOU are. Know yourself. Be true to yourself. Be authentic.

Next thing you know… The Tipping Point, which appeared to me to be guy number 3.  Guy number 3 was definitely the catalyst, and when guys 4 and 5 joined… it was on!  People not only wanted to join, they ran to join.

This lone, crazy guy started a dance party all on his own at the top of a hill at the Sasquatch Music festival, as far away from the music and main crowd as you could be….

What can you do?      What can you start?

In order to understand just how far from the stage this guy was, and how small this one guy was on the outskirts of a sea of people… see a longer version here showing the bigger picture…

Enjoy…

I thought this was good… just thought I would share since I found it to be inspirational.

You can learn about this story at: YouTube video

Or, just google it

He stood outside a convenience store with a sign and sold his dog to someone that negotiated with him on the price. Apparently, this was very difficult for Stallone as he reports crying as he walked away from the sale.

Eventually, Stallone bought the dog back a few weeks later after selling the script to Rocky (Which is another story you should look up). He sold the dog for about $25 or something like that… then when he went to buy it back, he paid thousands for it, and gave the guy who he bought it back from a part in the movie (little Mike, the guy sweeping up the floors at one point in the movie).

The point is, those hard times he had… selling his dog, refusing the first offer for his movie, and the next, and the next,… until he was allowed to star in the movie, is an amazing story of determination. I find it all so inspiring, but this same story, when told to a friend yesteday, brought upon comments like, “poor dog”… “how stupid, I would have taken the first offer”, or “I would never pay $15,000 to buy my dog back”, etc….. similar comments peppered me during my story telling and after. I just don’t get how people don’t understand the inspiration they can draw from stories like this. Stallone wanted to be an actor… “they” wouldn’t let him! He tried out for agent after agent, part after part… it didn’t work. So he turned to writing… he sold one script for something like $100. Then he wrote Rocky. They wanted it, but he wouldn’t give it to them for $50,000, the first offer. He wouldn’t give it to them for $100,000… not even $250,000…. Not unless he could star in it. So, in the end, he took $35,000 and got the staring part… bought his dog back for $15,000, and look where he is now.

If you don’t find committment and determination in that story… I don’t know where you will find it.

Make it a great day!

This phrase is used by people all the time as an excuse as to why they don’t have a better job, didn’t start the business they wanted to, or why they never ran a marathon, or learn to shoot par golf, or… , or… , the list goes on and on. Well, here is what I have to say about that….

Who cares?!? Shut up about it already! If you really want to do this “thing” that was on that magic boat, then you would have done it. You would have set the alarm, you would have left early just in case you ran into traffic, you would have prepared in every way possible. So, obviously, you really didn’t want it like you thought you did.

But, there are cases where you didn’t realize you wanted on that boat, until now. In that case, then I have something very important to tell you. Are you listening? This truly is very important….

Again, who cares?!? That “magic boat” may be gone but there are a million ways to get there… fly there, walk there, run there, drive there, build a raft out of sticks, float on an intertube…. whatever it takes. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and just make it happen. My guess is that you really do know what it will take and how to get there. So just do it.

{Think about it!}