Steve Jobs was one of the founders of Apple Inc. He died at a relatively early age of 56 due to pancreatic cancer in 2011. Steve was certainly one of the pioneers of 21st century technology. I love the quote from him that people don’t know what they want until you give it to them. I have been intimately enmeshed in Apple products from the start. As far as I am concerned, they still are the only products that continue to hold the number one spot in human engineering. In other words, they just work the way you think they ought to.

I think my favorite words in this quote above are “Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your inner voice. He chose the words “inner voice”, whereas I most often use “outside-of-the-box”. I kinda think they are one and the same thing.

I don’t have much to back this up but, I think that every one of us have an innate nature of outside-the-box thinking. It is just that too many of us have had “do what you are told”, or “always follow the rules” drilled into us for so long that it has been driven deep into our souls. It’s still there but covered up with mud to make it unrecognizable.

The second lesson I learned from Steve’s quote is that we should never get trapped into thinking that there is only one way to do things. Follow your heart and gut feelings about everything, especially things involving religion and politics. Don’t let con-men lead you around by the nose. There is always another, often better, way to react to the world around you.

Do you have any favorite quotes that help you stay grounded in life?