Join the dots...

Hey WF!

I am a HUGE fan of TED Talks and I recently saw Steve Jobs' talk at Stanford University. He gave all the students advice in 3 different stories. I won't bore you with the details but the one piece of advice that struck me was when Jobs said "join the dots...".

You see, Jobs was a college dropout. He didn't find any value in the courses he was studying at Reed College and he felt guilty about it because his parents spent their life savings on him. The one course he did find amazing was calligraphy class. He learnt about the art of beautiful font and at the time he had no idea how he would use this knowledge and more importantly make money from it.

10 years after that moment, Jobs & Woz released the Mac - the game changer. One of the things about the Mac is the beautiful design, the amazing user interface and the ease of use. Jobs implemented everything he learnt in calligraphy class and made it work. He used his intuition and trusted his instincts.

The point of this thread is remember to join the dots. IM is a long journey and you will come across so many different ideas, tools and opinions. Add them to your bookmarks, your spreadsheet, rolodex - whatever! Then every so often go back and join the dots.

What have you learnt? How can it help you? A tool you know is cool but doesn't help you today - how can it help you tomorrow? What makes no sense today can be the last piece in the puzzle some time in the future. Evaluate and audit your skills set. Use them to move forward.

I hope this helps you today. Don't discard anything and keep on learning - join the dots my friends.

Sanj.

PS - I highly recommend you check out the TED Talks. There's an app for the iPad/iPhone too.