Steve Jobs on the value of death - Part 2
Things just "fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."
It's enlightening to hear Steve Jobs talk about death as a way to discover what is truly important, rather than looking at it as permanent loss.
The point is that death will come to us all, there's no escaping it. So worrying about it doesn't matter, neither does worrying about it add any value to us.
What adds value is taking the evenuality of death and turning it into a useful tool.
When Jobs talks about leaving what's truly important on the table when contemplating our mortality, he refers to things like what could embarrass us, pride, external expectations and failures. In the face of death, these things fall away, or should fall away within us.
In other words, being those who are dead to such things because we understand we'll be leaving this planet some day, causes us to be able to push aside those things which hinder us, and go ahead without fear. Dead people don't fear, it's not part of their nature.
When I say dead people don't fear, I'm not talking about the emotion of fear, which all of us one way or the other experience, but I'm talking about that emotion not deterring us from what we're trying to accomplish.
So one of the great values of death, as understood by Steve Jobs, is it eliminates the unimportant and irrelevant things, and allows us to focus on what really matters. Those able to live in this way, have an extraordinary capacity to try all sorts of things without considering the consequences. Sure, we're aware of the consequences, but it's not the deciding factor in why we attempt and do things.
Facing our mortality empowers us to see what the most important things in life and business are, and the result is we pursue that which truly matter to us, giving us far better opportunity for success.
Other Steve Jobs Resources:
You've got to find what you love
Steve Jobs, Business Personality
Steve Jobs' Greatest Presentation
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