"How does somebody know what they want if they haven’t even seen it?"

With the recent release of the iPad Air we thought it would be a good idea to watch the film based on the Apple founder's life. No, of course this was not what we were thinking, I just assumed it would be a great introduction to my blog post. The film "Jobs" left me inspired, not just because of the storyline but because of Job's life philosphy that very often defined my own.

Sadly, people like Steve Jobs only come around once in a while. While most of us just walk around like mindless robots doing things the way they've always been done without questioning the world around us, people like Steve try to do something different. They have figured out the way the world works, or doesn't work. We wake up early to go to work Monday to Friday with a lump in our throats, wishing this day won't be as horrible as the last, and we just do whatever someone tells us to do. When we get home in the evening we might have a couple of hours to do something we actually like to do but we’re too tired so we just end up in front of the TV. The weekend comes and we have to live life as much as possible within those two days (which we obviously never do because we don't have the energy or time).

Okay, this doesn't apply to everyone, there are a few lucky ones out there who actually do what they WANT to do (and probably have worked hard for it), not what they think they HAVE to do, and have the freedom to travel or wake up late or whatever. But most of us are never told that we can change the way the world works. We start school at a certain age, and finish at a certain age, and after that we try to find a job just to have enough money to survive and cash out when we’re 65. After that you’re free to do whatever you want, assuming you can afford to do something else but to watch TV and visit the local hospital. GREAT! Let’s just hope you have at least ten years left to make up for some of the lost time (sorry for the cynical tone of this blog post but it’s the truth. And you know it).

If we all realize that society is just a product of humans, and the way it is set up, the way we do things etc. can be changed, nothing is set in stone, something will happen. We will probably be happier too. Just because it’s been this way for hundreds of years doesn’t mean it is the only or best way. For example, why should we work as much as we do? Wouldn’t it be better if we divided the workload so that more people actually could work too? We would probably get better results and increased prosperity in many areas of society if this was the case. I don’t know about you but quite often I hear people say “you can’t do that” or “you have to do it this way” (unfortunately often from the mouth of bosses and managers) and I just feel like telling them to stop slowing down the world. There is no such thing as right or wrong. One of my favourite quotes from Steve Jobs (maybe my favourite of all) acknowledges this fact:

“When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life and try not to bash into the walls too much…that’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact—everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you…shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just going to live in it versus make your mark upon it. Once you learn that, you will never be the same again.”

So what I want to say is that we should all stop being robots and start being inventors. Don’t adapt to your surroundings, make the surroundings adapt to you.

(Ashton Kutcher does a great Job, by the way. No pun intended.)