In Fortune Magazine, Steve Jobs said, "We don't get a chance to do that many things, and everyone should be really excellent. Life is brief and then you die... So it'd better be damn good."  How can we make our lives that damn good?                    Anonymous

A: Ever life can be a damn good one

Dear Anonymous

Steve’s quote is interesting because it reveals a model that I think Steve didn’t followed himself.  The model is, “Be excellent, so you can do great things in a short lifetime.”  Is that how Steve did it?  No.

Steve Jobs a driver who is also a visionary.  He has high standards and demands excellence from others.   He never settles for ordinary. 

That is not the same thing as being excellent.  Steve has never been about “being”; Steve’s life is all about “doing”, not about being excellent, but about making excellence.

I love the quote from Joe Sabah, “You don’t have to be good to start, but you have to...

start to be good.” 

In the end, we can’t be effective if we aren’t good, but becoming good is a journey.  Steve is excellent today at product development and promotion because he’s done it repeatedly.

If Fortune magazine had instead asked me...

(I can dream, can’t I?), I would have said, “Leave the world a better place than you found it.”

Everyone can contribute to a better world.  It might be cleaning up a city park, taking in orphans and loving them as your own, donating millions to eliminate malaria, or giving people, with no hope, a chance to move out of poverty.  Sure, it might be creating the next iPhone.  There are many paths that make the world a better place. 

As others here have said, it’s a matter of blending our passions with our talents and directing our focus toward solving some problem.  Every contribution to a better world is welcomed and appreciated.

Some will dare to think big.  Some will develop the skills to enroll others, because many of the tough problems require a collective solution.  For example, “educating every child in the world for free”, can not be accomplished alone.

The difference between a hero and movement is the ability to enroll others.

Steve Jobs is an example of someone with the skills to enroll others.  Much of his success has been in creating fans for his products.  Just as important, many people are everyday heroes.  They quietly make the lives of others better. 

Dear Anonymous, in the end, it doesn’t matter which of a 1000 paths we choose. If we leave the world a better place, we have led a life that’s “damn good.”

One person’s opinion. 

Kind regards
Michael

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Michael Cushman, The Engaging Guru, wants you to master enrolling others in your truth, get the goodies of life, and change the world.  www.engagingchange.com