Have you ever have the feeling of being trapped in an in-between stage thinking that your current season is not meant to be your destiny, nevertheless, you know it is not the time for next phrase just yet. In those times, did you ever feel a mismatch with your talents or natural inclinations and the current landscape? Have you ever wonder if you are riding in the wrong seat of the bus?
When those feelings surface, it is very easy to fall into the trap of discounting the value of your current seasons. After all, it's human nature to plan ahead, to wanting to know what is next. But if we take a step back to examine our life journey, you may be able to see the dots that connect the lines. If we are mindful, every experience we encounter today can become the foundation of tomorrow's platform; even when they seem totally irrelevant at times.
I remember a talk by Steven Jobs' graduation speech at Standford in 2005 and how he connected a seemingly unrelated calligraphy class with the invention of Mac's typography. The connection is striking, though it may not be obvious at the time. His words may resonate with you if you are journeying the in-between stages. Remember not to discount today's value. Stay humble and hungry. Do the mundane small things with big heart. Learn and absorb like a sponge, and when the opportunity knocks the door, you will be ready to leap over to embrace the next season! Here is the excerpt from Jobs' graduation speech.
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later.
Here are the speech clip and scripts if you are interested for the whole session.