Limiting beliefs.

Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs founded Apple, arguably the greatest company of our time. He was responsible for its success. Apple wouldn’t have happened without him. He had a lot of help from brilliant engineers and fellow employees who actualise his vision, don’t get me wrong. But at the end of the day, it was his vision. He planted the seeds of the vision in those that succeeded him and shared it with those who actualised it from an engineering standpoint. It was his vision and h. His why. His passion that rubbed off on the employees and ran through the veins of those that worked under him.

Steve Jobs had no engineering, marketing or business degree. He was a college dropout in-fact. He often didn’t wear shoes, was a hippie of sorts and in his early days listened to Bob Dylan and dropped LSD. He was an intelligent man, yes. But he didn’t possess an un-worldly intelligence. He just believed and actioned a vision with a passion that saturated his very body, mind and soul. And because of this he was indisputably  successful in his endeavours.

Steve Jobs has been written about ad tedium. Both from the standpoints of admiration and criticism about himself and Apple. One thing I feel cannot be disputed though, is he was the backbone of a company that in varying degrees changed the world as we know it. An achievement only a handful of people in history can add to their resume.

From an objective standpoint, you wouldn’t pick a young Steve Job’s to be a prime candidate to achieve what he did. Whilst from all accounts charismatic, intelligent and confident (border-lining narcissistic and arrogant), Steve Job’s didn’t have all the trimmings you’d expect of a man that achieved what he did. Yet he did.

Think Different.

In 1997, when Steve Job’s returned to Apple, he launched an advertising campaign known as ”Think Different”. The most noted feature of this campaign was an advert featuring photos of mankinds brightest visonaries and thinkers. It was an ode to those throughout history who hasn’t seen the world the the way the average man does. They saw it as a blank canvas to paint and express to the world their vision. To challenge the status quo. To change things – ”because those that are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that do”.

While the ”Think Different” campaign was a brilliant piece of advertising and marketing, there was also a deeper message to be taken away from it. It highlighted the fact that more often than not, it is our own thoughts that limit us from the success of actualisation our dreams and that stops us dead in our tracks.

Limiting beliefs.

I have read a lot of business and self help books on the power of thinking big and how we become what we think about, most of the time. Being the man of science I am, I approach such things cautiously. In saying that, I believe there is definitely something in it. A great number of human beings in our society limit themselves through their short sighted and narrow-mindedness. They believe the people out there doing all the great things were given something they weren’t given or stumbled upon something they didn’t. They believe other people were born smarter, or they had fortunate upbringings, or they were just lucky. Whilst sometimes the aforementioned is true, more often than not it is just the case that the people doing it are crazy enough to believe they can do it and often do. They don’t limit themselves with their beliefs and don’t soak themselves in the excuses of mediocrity.  Jobs is a perfect example of this. He never believed that the people out there doing all the great things were so much smarter and gifted than him. Look how that turned out. Jobs is also an extreme example, but the underlying message is there.

Don’t limit yourself, you are smarter and more capable than you think. You are more gifted than you think – the people out there doing the things you wish you could more than likely started out no better than you. But you have to understand the craziness that allows you to think you can change the world, or stops you from limiting yourself, doesn’t stop just there. It has to extend into your vision, work ethic and passion. You can’t just think and achieve – it’s harder than that. But casting aside the beliefs that cripple you and destine you for a life of mediocrity is the first step.

Thinking big.

Thinking big for me just doesn’t extend to business either. It’s an all encompassing mindset that allows you to see all. It’s like an arial view vs a picture from the ground. You see the landscape, where it ends and where it starts and you see the lay of the land in which you find yourself. Thinking big should be a mindset for how you view your own existence, how you view the future of the world, and how you view your own mortality even.

In Steve Jobs iconic Stanford commencement speech, he talks about what a motivator death is for him – having at the time just been cleared of pancreatic cancer. He mentions a quote:

”If you live each day as if it was your last, one day it will be true”.

We are all terminally ill in a sense. The clock is ticking for us all. Whilst most weak minded people shy away from such thoughts and hide in a life of box sets and nights out at the local club – big thinkers use the awareness of impending death as the greatest motivator of all. To see the power of this, just see the many examples of what people achieve when they are told they only have a short time to live. Don’t fear death, embrace it. Use its potency. Death is such a motivating force that it basically governs and shapes our whole society with very few being willing to admit it. Tap into this and all the pettiness, all the self limiting beliefs will strip away.

In Short Conclusion:

Free yourself from the constraints of limiting beliefs. Those out there doing what you wish you could are probably not smarter, nor more gifted, nor were they more fortunate. What have you got to lose? The biological clocks ticking. Think big. Think different and die more satisfied.