My feelings about Steve Jobs have always been a little mixed. I long admired his entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen and was in sheer awe of his natural instincts for what appeals to consumers.

Now, having finished the 600-plus page Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, I think I finally understand Steve Jobs. Like most of us, his personality had many sides. He could be aloof, super-intense, odd, gross, passionate, creative, driven, unfair, conciliatory and deeply introspective. He lived a rich and unique life.

As I read Steve Jobs biography, I highlighted interesting, surprising and relevant passages. Now, as I look back at them I realize that many help illustrate some of the larger lessons we can all glean from Steve Jobs’ remarkable life.

Don’t Wait

When the young Steve Jobs wanted to build something and needed a piece of equipment, he went straight to the source.

“He began by recalling that he had wanted to build a frequency counter when he was twelve, and he was able to look up Bill Hewlett, the founder of HP, in the phone book and call him to get parts.”

Make Your Own Reality

Steve Jobs learned early that when you don’t like how things are in your life or in your world, change them, either through action or sheer force of will.

“As Hoffman later lamented, “The reality distortion field can serve as a spur, but then reality itself hits.” – Joanna Hoffman, part of Apple’s early Macintosh team.

“I didn’t want to be a father, so I wasn’t,” Jobs later said, with only a touch of remorse in his voice.

Control Everything You Can

Steve Jobs was, to a certain degree, a hippie. However, unlike most free spirits of the 1960s-to-1970s love-in era, Jobs was a detail-oriented control freak.

“He wants to control his environment, and he sees the product as an extension of himself.”

Own Your Mistakes

Jobs could be harsh and even thoughtless. Perhaps nowhere was that more in evidence than with his first daughter. Still, as Jobs grew older and began to face mortality, he more readily admitted his mistakes.

“I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was twenty-three and the way I handled that,” Jobs said.”

Know Yourself

While not always aware of how those around him were reacting to his appearance or demeanor, Jobs had no illusions about his own formidable intellectual skills.

“Then a more disconcerting discovery began to dawn on him: He was smarter than his parents.”

Leave the Door Open for the Fantastic

Jobs was a seeker, pursuing spiritual enlightenment and body purification throughout his life. He wasn’t a particularly religious person, but did not dismiss the existence or something beyond our earth-bound realm.

“I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s the great mystery.” — Steve Jobs

Don’t Hold Back

Apple’s founder was famous for his outbursts and sometimes over-emotional responses. In product development, things were often amazing or sh_t.

“He was an enlightened being who was cruel,” she recalled. “That’s a strange combination.”– former girlfriend and mother of Jobs’ first daughter, Chrisann Brennan

Surround Yourself with Brilliance

Whether he was willing to admit it or not, Steve Jobs could not do everything. Yes, he could have a huge impact on every product and marketing campaign, but he also knew that there were others in the world with skills he did not possess. Jobs’ early partnership with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak perfectly illustrated this fact. His early success with Wozniak provided the template for future collaborations.

“After a couple of months he was ready to test it. ‘I typed a few keys on the keyboard and I was shocked! The letters were displayed on the screen.’ It was Sunday, June 29, 1975, a milestone for the personal computer. “It was the first time in history,” Wozniak later said, “anyone had typed a character on a keyboard and seen it show up on their own computer’s screen right in front of them.”

Build a Team of A Players

Far too often, companies and managers settle for average employees. Steve Jobs recognized talent and decided that any conflict that might arise from a company full of “A”-level players would be counterbalanced by awesome output. He may have been right.

“For most things in life, the range between best and average is 30% or so. The best airplane flight, the best meal, they may be 30% better than your average one. What I saw with Woz was somebody who was fifty times better than the average engineer. He could have meetings in his head. The Mac team was an attempt to build a whole team like that, A players. People said they wouldn’t get along, they’d hate working with each other. But I realized that A players like to work with A players, they just didn’t like working with C players.”– Steve Jobs

“I’ve learned over the years that when you have really good people you don’t have to baby them,” Jobs later explained. “By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things.”

Be Yourself

Steve Jobs was often so busy being himself that he had no idea how people saw him, especially in his early, dirty-hippie days.

“At meetings we had to look at his dirty feet. Sometimes, to relieve stress, he would soak his feet in the toilet, a practice that was not as soothing for his colleagues.”—Mike Markkula, Apple’s first chairman.

Be Persuasive

While it’s true that early Steve Jobs was a somewhat smelly and unpleasant person to be around, this same Steve Jobs also trained himself to stare without blinking for long periods of time and found that he could persuade people to do the seemingly impossible.

“If it could save a person’s life, would you find a way to shave ten seconds off the boot time?” he asked. Kenyon allowed that he probably could. Jobs went to a whiteboard and showed that if there were five million people using the Mac, and it took ten seconds extra to turn it on every day, that added up to three hundred million or so hours per year that people would save, which was the equivalent of at least one hundred lifetimes saved per year.”

Show Others the Way

Jobs wasn’t truly a programmer or technologist, certainly not in the way that Microsoft founder Bill Gates is, yet he had an intuitive understanding for technology and design that ended up altering the world’s expectations for computers and, more importantly, consumer electronics.

“To be honest, we didn’t know what it meant for a computer to be ‘friendly’ until Steve told us.” — Terry Oyama, part of the early Macintosh design team.

Trust Your Instincts

I have, in my own career, navigated by gut on more than one occasion. Steve Jobs, though, had a deep and abiding belief in his own tastes and believed with utter certainty that if he liked something, the public would as well. He was almost invariably right.

“Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?” — Steve Jobs

Take Risks

Throughout his career, Steve Jobs took chances, first with the launch of Apple, then in walking away from it and then returning in 1997. In an era when most companies were figuring out ways to diversify, Apple — under Job’s leadership — shed businesses and products, and focused on relatively few areas. He was also willing to steer the entire Apple ship (or at least some aspects of it) in a single direction if he thought it would generate future success.

“One of Jobs’ management philosophies was that it is crucial, every now and then, to roll the dice and ‘bet the company’ on some new idea or technology.”

“I had this crazy idea that we could sell just as many Macs by advertising the iPod. In addition, the iPod would position Apple as evoking innovation and youth. So I moved $75 million of advertising money to the iPod, even though the category didn’t justify one hundredth of that. That meant that we completely dominated the market for music players. We outspent everybody by a factor of about a hundred.” — Steve Jobs.

Follow Great with Great

In everything from products to movies (under Pixar), Steve Jobs sought to create great follow-ups. He wasn’t so successful in the early part of his career (see Lisa), but his third acts to Pixar and Apple proved he had the sequel touch.

“There’s a classic thing in business, which is the second-product syndrome,” Jobs later said. It comes from not understanding what made your first product so successful. “I lived through that at Apple. My feeling was, if we got through our second film, we’d make it.”

Make Tough Decisions

Good managers and leaders are willing to do hard work and, often, make unpopular decisions. Jobs apparently had little concern about being liked and therefore was well-equipped to make tough choices.

“The most visible decision he made was to kill, once and for all, the Newton, the personal digital assistant with the almost-good handwriting-recognition system.”

Presentation Can Make a World of Difference

The Apple founder hated PowerPoint presentations, but perhaps somewhat uncharacteristically, believed elegant product presentation was critical.

“Packaging can be theater, it can create a story.” — Jony Ive, Apple designer.

Find a Way to Balance Your Intensity

It’s unclear if Steve Jobs ever truly mellowed, but he did learn that a buffer between him and the rest of Apple could be useful.

“In a company that was led by a CEO prone to tantrums and withering blasts, Cook commanded situations with a calm demeanor, a soothing Alabama accent, and silent stares.”

Live for Today

Even as Steve Jobs struggled with cancer, he rarely slowed down. If anything, the disease helped him focus his efforts and pursue some of his grandest dreams.

“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.” — Steve Jobs

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” — Steve Jobs

Share Your Wisdom

Steve Jobs was not a philanthropic soul. He had a passion for products and success, but it wasn’t until he became quite ill that he started reaching out and offering his wisdom to others in the tech community.

“I will continue to do that with people like Mark Zuckerberg too. That’s how I’m going to spend part of the time I have left. I can help the next generation remember the lineage of great companies here and how to continue the tradition. The Valley has been very supportive of me. I should do my best to repay.” — Steve Jobs

Source: Mashable.com by Lance Ulanoff

Muammar Gaddafi

1. There is no electricity bill in Libya; electricity is free for all its citizens.

2. There is no interest on loans, banks in Libya are state-owned and loans given
to all its citizens at 0% interest by law.

3. Home considered a human right in Libya – Gaddafi vowed that his parents
would not get a house until everyone in Libya had a home. Gaddafi’s father has
died while him, his wife and his mother are still living in a tent.

4. All newlyweds in Libya receive $60,000 Dinar (US$ 50,000 ) by the government to buy their first apartment so to help start up the family.

5. Education and medical treatments are free in Libya. Before Gaddafi only 25%
of Libyans are literate. Today the figure is 83%.

6. Should Libyans want to take up farming career, they would receive farming
land, a farming house, equipments, seeds and livestock to kick- start their farms
– all for free.

7. If Libyans cannot find the education or medical facilities they need in Libya,
the government funds them to go abroad for it – not only free but they get US
$2, 300/mth accommodation and car allowance.

8. In Libyan, if a Libyan buys a car, the government subsidized 50% of the price.

9. The price of petrol in Libya is $0. 14 per liter.

10. Libya has no external debt and its reserves amount to $150 billion – now
frozen globally.

11. If a Libyan is unable to get employment after graduation the state would
pay the average salary of the profession as if he or she is employed until
employment is found.

12. A portion of Libyan oil sale is, credited directly to the bank accounts of all
Libyan citizens.

13. A mother who gave birth to a child receive US $5 ,000

14. 40 loaves of bread in Libya costs $ 0.15

15. 25% of Libyans have a university degree

16. Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project, known as the Great
Man-Made River project, to make water readily available throughout the desert
country.

“I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming
toward me swinging this bird cage. On the bottom of the cage were
three little wild birds, shivering with cold and fright.

I stopped the lad and asked, “What do you have there, son?”

“Just some old birds,” came the reply.

“What are you going to do with them?” I asked.

“Take ‘em home and have fun with ‘em,” he answered. “I’m gonna tease
‘em and pull out their feathers to make ‘em fight. I’m gonna have a
real good time.”

“But you’ll get tired of those birds sooner or later. What will you do
then?”

“Oh, I got some cats,” said the little boy. “They like birds. I’ll
take ‘em to them.”

The pastor was silent for a moment. “How much do you want for those birds,
son?”

“Huh?? !!! Why, you don’t want them birds, mister.

They’re just plain old field birds. They don’t sing. They ain’t even
pretty!”

“How much?” the pastor asked again.

The boy sized up the pastor as if he were crazy and said, “$10?”

The pastor reached in his pocket and took out a ten dollar bill. He
placed it in the boy’s hand. In a flash, the boy was gone. The pastor
picked up the cage and gently carried it to the end of the alley where
there was a tree and a grassy spot. Setting the cage down, he opened
the door, and by softly tapping the bars persuaded the birds out,
setting them free. Well, that explained the empty bird cage on the
pulpit, and then the pastor began to tell this story:

One day Satan and Jesus were having a conversation. Satan had just
come from the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting. “Yes,
sir, I just caught a world full of people down there. Set me a trap,
used bait I knew they couldn’t resist. Got ‘em all!”

“What are you going to do with them?” Jesus asked.

Satan replied, “Oh, I’m gonna have fun! I’m gonna teach them how to
marry and divorce each other, how to hate and abuse each other, how to
drink and smoke and curse. I’m gonna teach them how to invent guns and
bombs and kill each other. I’m really gonna have fun!”

“And what will you do when you are done with them?”

Jesus asked.. “Oh, I’ll kill ‘em,” Satan glared proudly.

“How much do you want for them?” Jesus asked.

“Oh, you don’t want those people. They ain’t no good. Why, you’ll take
them and they’ll just hate you. They’ll spit on you, curse you and
kill you. You don’t want those people!!”

“How much? He asked again.

Satan looked at Jesus and sneered, “All your blood, tears and your life.”

Jesus said, “DONE!” Then He paid the price.

The pastor picked up the cage and walked from the pulpit.

I pray, for everyone who Shares this on facebook or retweets, whether to their entire
friends/followers or just a few, that God will bless them in a special way.

And for those that just deleted it……… and I KNOW there will be…… ?

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?

I thank God everyday for my blessed life. I’m not rich, don’t live in
a mansion and don’t have the nicest of material things, but, I’m
healthy, have , a roof over my head, clothes on my back, food on my
table, a family that loves me and lifelong friends to get me through.
I’d say I have a lot to be thankful for.

Trouble in marriage often starts when a man gets so busy earnin’ his salt, that he forgets his sugar.

Too many couples marry for better, or for worse, but not for good.

When a man marries a woman, they become one; but the trouble starts when they try to decide which one.

If a man has enough horse sense to treat his wife like a thoroughbred, she will never turn into an old nag.

On anniversaries, the wise husband always forgets the past – but never the present.

A foolish husband says to his wife, “Honey, you stick to the washin’, ironin’, cookin’, and scrubbin’. No wife of mine is gonna work.”

The bonds of matrimony are a good investment, only when the interest is kept up.

Many girls like to marry a military man – he can cook, sew, and make beds, and is in good health, and he’s already used to taking orders.

Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age, and start bragging about it.

The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know “why” I look this way. I’ve traveled a long way and some of the roads weren’t paved.

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?

When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to your youth, remember about Algebra.

I don’t know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it is such a nice change from being young.

Ah, being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.

Old age is when former classmates are so gray and wrinkled and bald, they don’t recognize you.

If you don’t learn to laugh at trouble, you won’t have anything to laugh at when you are old.

Please read the security alert below and share this information with relatives, friends and colleagues, and ask them to exercise vigilance at all times.  Please be informed that armed thieves have recently come up with a
more “efficient” method of disarming people in the CBD.  They extend their Arm for a handshake after asking for directions, making it seem as though they are thanking their victim but they have a needle, dipped in some sort
of sedative, under their sleeve that makes one feel drowsy.  When their victim falls asleep, which seems to the general public as one who has fainted, they go ahead and move their victim to a convenient location posing as Good Samaritans, only to rob them!  Other than the loss of personal effects, there is also the risk of Contracting HIV/Aids or hepatitis since the needles in use are highly Unlikely to be sterile!   PLEASE be aware of strangers who insist on shaking hands or coming too close to you in the city streets!   On Saturday someone personally witnessed a man in recovery mode along a lane off Mfangano Street. He had been robbed of even his shoes and yet it was broad daylight – around 5 p.m.  Please be VERY careful.

Kindly notify the people around you and tell them what you know.

Who is your HERO?  Who inspires you? Who is your role model?

~William Havard

He must be quick to break those habits that can break him and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires.

~J. Paul Getty

It enriches those who receive, without making poor those who give-
It creates sunshine in the home,
Fosters good will in business,
And is the best antidote for trouble-
And yet it cannot be begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is of no value
Unless it is given away.

Some people are too busy to give you a smile-
Give them one of yours-
For the good Lord knows that no one needs a smile so badly
As he or she who has no more smiles left to give.

After that we’re frustrated that we 
have teenagers to deal with, 
we will certainly be happy 
when they are out of that stage.

We tell ourselves that our life will be complete 
when our spouse gets his or her act together, 
when we get a nicer car, 
are able to go on a nice vacation, 
when we retire. 
The truth is there’s no better time 
to be happy than right now. 
If not now, when?

Your life will always be filled with challenges. 
It’s best to admit this to yourself 
and decide to be happy anyway. 
One of my favorite quotes comes 
from Alfred D Souza.

He said, “For a long time it had seemed 
to me that life was about to begin -real life. 
But there was always some obstacle in the way, 
something to be gotten through first, 
some unfinished business, 
time still to be served, 
a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. 
At last it dawned on me that these 
obstacles were my life.”

This perspective has helped me to see 
that there is no way to happiness. 
Happiness is the way, 
so, treasure every moment that you have. 
And treasure it more because you shared it 
with someone special, 
special enough to spend your time… 
and remember that time waits for no one.

So stop waiting until you finish school, 
until you go back to school, 
until you lose ten pounds, 
until you gain ten pounds, 
until you have kids, 
until your kids leave the house, 
until you start work, 
until you retire, 
until you get married, 
until you get divorced, 
until Friday night, 
until Sunday morning, 
until you get a new car or home, 
until your car or home is paid off, 
until spring, until summer, 
until fall, until winter, 
until you are off welfare, 
until the first or fifteenth, 
until your song comes on, 
until you’ve had a drink, 
until you’ve sobered up, 
until you die, until you are born again 
to decide that there is no better time 
than right now to be happy… 
Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

So, work like you don’t need money. 
Love like you’ve never been hurt and 
dance like no one’s watching.