Make Something Wonderful

Finished reading: Make Something Wonderful, Steve Jobs in his own words by Steve Jobs 📚

“Don’t be a career. The enemy of most dreams and intuitions, and one of the most dangerous and stifling concepts ever invented by humans, is the “Career.” A career is a concept for how one is supposed to progress through stages during the training for and practicing of your working life.

There are some big problems here. First and foremost is the notion that your work is different and separate from the rest of your life. If you are passionate about your life and your work, this can’t be so. They will become more or less one. This is a much better way to live one’s life.”

A holiday is finishing, and I found some time to work on this blog and continue to work on a personal project. My family tends to wake up late, I can wake up a bit earlier, and that’s a one-two hour period I could spend on my laptop every morning. I only regret realising it towards the second half of the holiday and not doing it every day.

At the same time I’ve been finishing reading the book and that’s where I discovered the quote. I now understand what Steve meant. There’s no healthy work-life balance for some of us. True meaningful creative work requires you to dedicate your entire life. When my family doesn’t need me, it is my time. The time I owe to myself. There can be no rest or holidays, there can be no stopping. Now I know it’s not just me. I don’t need to change. Because days when I did nothing for myself, I felt a little depressed, sometimes even angry. Because I knew I missed a day where I could advance a little, I missed a little opportunity to make some progress. Every day counts.