CeCe Marizu, Account Executive
Growing up in Reno, Nev. you learn to be creative. You learn that a 21 and over town is meant for opportunities that kids in the suburbs or small towns never get to experience. You learn what gambling can do to people by seeing some win big and others lose it all in a manner of seconds. You learn that love isn’t always like the movies when you see people walk into a casino wedding chapel and out of the courthouse the next day. But what you learn the most in Reno is that it’s just a place where you grow up and not your destiny.
In honor of the legacy that Steve Jobs left and the one-year anniversary of his death I realized the life we choose can be ridiculously confusing, questionably scary, ‘lol’ funny, and completely amazing all at the same time.
In 2005 at Stanford’s commencement, Steve Jobs told three stories. He told one about connecting the dots, one about love and loss, and the last about death. As a young professional Steve Jobs’ words are constantly echoing in the back of my head. He said:
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
I have learned that starting a career is like starting over and learning something new. I slowly will learn what I’m great at and what I may never be good at even if I dream that I will. I’m learning what I love and also what I should learn to do now in order to know what I’m better at later.
He also said:
I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
So why should we settle? Find out what flaws will make you a more creative and driven person. Learn to fail. Learn to LOVE what you do. Learn that if you grow up in Boise, Reno, Chicago, or any other city in the world there are plenty of opportunities for great adventures. There are adventures that are essential to “connecting the dots” as Steve Jobs put it. So to honor Steve Jobs today, I want to say thank you for inspiring so many of us to follow our hearts in our careers, but even more in our lives.