Showing posts with label Leadership. Show all posts

Cockroach Theory- A beautiful speech by Sundar Pichai

Posted by Evan , Thursday, March 17, 2016 at 12:20 PM Labels: Leadership

The cockroach theory for self development

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady.

She started screaming out of fear.

With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach.

Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky.

The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but ...it landed on another lady in the group.

Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama.

The waiter rushed forward to their rescue.

In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter.

The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt.

When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior?

If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed?

He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos.

It is not the cockroach, but the inability of those people to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach, that disturbed the ladies.

I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or my wife that disturbs me, but it's my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me.

It's not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me.

More than the problem, it's my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life.

Lessons learnt from the story:

I understood, I should not react in life.

I should always respond.

The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded.

Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always well thought of.

A beautiful way to understand............LIFE.

Person who is HAPPY is not because Everything is RIGHT in his Life..

He is HAPPY because his Attitude towards Everything in his Life is Right..!!

Source: Divya Brahmbhatt (CSWE)

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Full Body Leadership Medical Evaluation

Posted by Evan , Friday, February 6, 2015 at 12:17 AM Labels: Leadership

When last have you stopped to take a full body leadership medical examination? This is absolutely crucial for diagnosing existing ailments acts as a preventative measure for discovering other conditions in their early stages.

It is imperative that you first seek a Physician Consultation – Do you have a Mentor or a strong Support Network you can confide in? Early detection is key. Leadership can be stressful at times. How well do you handle the dissenting voices? Do you crumble under pressure? To begin with, you will be required to undergo a blood test to determine your blood type and pressure. If your blood type is “Be Positive.” (B+) and your pressure is normal, this a great starting point.

Depending on the results of your consultation (MRI / CT Scan), the following 10 Examinations could be recommended.

1) Pulmonary Function Test –The cells of the human body require a constant stream of oxygen to stay alive. The respiratory system provides oxygen to the body’s cells. Do you breathe Passion and Purpose? Passion is the “breath of life. Lack of passion is fatal. Passion is an intense emotion, compelling enthusiasm or desire for something. It’s the fire that burns within. Is your fire still burning bright or has it gone dim? “Passion is oxygen of the soul.” Bill Butler

2) Electrocardiogram (ECG) -The heart represents the seat of emotions. Do you display Empathy, Compassion and Authenticity? Leaders with empathy use their knowledge to improve their companies in subtle, but important ways. This doesn't mean that they agree with everyone's view or try to please everybody. Rather, they ‘thoughtfully consider employees' feelings – along with other factors – in the process of making intelligent decisions." Dr. Daniel Goleman

3) Brain Intelligence Test(IQ) - Do you think outside the box? Do you surround yourself with smart, passionate and competent individuals? An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. It’s important to build a strong team and welcome fresh opinions, perspectives and honest feedback. Creativity and Innovation are the lifeblood of any organization.“If we do not employ creativity as a core cultural imperative in business, we will be stuck in yesterday’s success” Erik Wahl)

4) Ultrasound of Abdomen - The intestines function are to digest food and to enable the nutrients released from that food to enter into the bloodstream. Does truth reside in your inward parts? Does Honesty and Integrity run through your veins? A leader needs to be trusted and be known to live by ethical principles.

5) Speech and Hearing Assessment. Is your speech seasoned with salt? Do practice passive or active listening? Active listening is simply being receptive by paying attention to the meaning behind the speaker’s words. A good leader is a good listener. Developing excellent Communication skills is absolutely essential to effective leadership. "If a leader can't get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn't even matter." -Gilbert Amelio. Emotional Intelligence – (relational wellness) plays a big part in effective communication. You may be also required to take this test which is a subset. Leaders possessing high EQ are able to communicate more effectively and therefore influence and inspire others.

6) A Comprehensive Eye Exam is crucial to avoid the classic “blind leading the blind” syndrome. Do you have sight or vision? Sight is confined to your current environment, while Vision sees beyond your now to your future possibilities. Great leaders understand the power of vision and they capitalize on it by painting a clear vision of the future. Having good vision is necessary, it will keep you on track. It also illuminates the whole body and serves as a beacon to your employees.

7) Rheumatoid Factor Test- Arthritis can cause joint pain and stiffness in your hands and may greatly affect your ability to complete simple tasks. Competence goes beyond words. It’s the leader’s ability to say it, plan it, and do it in such a way that others know that you know how ~ John. C. Maxwell

8) Blood Glucose Test – If you have diabetes, your feet are vulnerable to a variety of problems. Do you prefer “sweet” settings and so keep in your comfort zone? Are you a Risk Taker? Do you embrace change? "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

9) Muscle Strength, Endurance and Flexibility Test – Muscles are the "engine" that your body uses to propel itself. It would be impossible for you to do anything without your muscles. Perseverance - To build muscle, you will have to complete the Ironman Leadership Triathlon: Swim through failure, Jump over rejection and Climb above obstacles. "Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other" Walter Elliott

10) Skeletal X- Ray- The skeletal system provides the base framework to which all the other tissues and organs attach, giving shape to the human body. Where do you get your Self Worth from? Do you separate who you are from what you do? Many leaders lose their sense of self / identity in their leadership function and depend on their title to define them.

Acceptance and Admittance is fundamental to dealing with unwholesome leadership.

Depending on your diagnosis the following may be proposed:

Body Cleanse - Harboring toxic emotions can lead to a buildup of harmful pathogens which can thwart your thought and problem solving process. If you have been burned (betrayed) just apply ice. It’s also important to undergo a detoxification programme to flush the body of viruses thus ensuring proper PH (acid-alkaline) balance. To maintain equilibrium you can either be administered an injection of Life lessons Successful Leaders wished they had learned Earlier or be referred to a psychologist in severe cases.

Exercise coupled with Diet Counseling is important if you have lifestyle diseases. (10 Exercise Tips for Professionals). A healthy diet will build up your body and sustain your strength. Remember to drink plenty of water and other fluids to stay hydrated. The temperature at the top can sometimes soar to record highs. You don’t want to get heat stroke. Additionally, if your daily nutritional intake is insufficient, you may require an additional vitamin and mineral supplement: The Three pills every Leader should take – Stillness, Silence and Solitude.

However, if your leadership has flat-lined it may require a dose of Electric shock by a defibrillator (employee surveys) to wake you up into reality. You then will be transported to the operating theatre to view 10 Tips to Boost Employee Morale.

Consequently, if you do not heed the physician’s coaching, this can be very costly to the company, resulting in falling share prices. By not taking prescribed medication such as antibiotics on time, your condition can become life-threatening which can abruptly conclude your leadership presence. Therefore, placing a pint-size adhesive bandage on a severe infection is pointless. You will have to go under the knife (surgery). Surgical removal of negative growths is essential to stop them from spreading. It can be painful but it will be well appreciated by all those under your care.

Source: Brigette Hyacinth

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Are you a Change Manager or a Change Leader?

Posted by Evan , Monday, December 29, 2014 at 10:07 PM Labels: Entrepreneurs , Leadership

Change is constant, and as we move into the future we find change happening around us impacting both our personal and professional lives. Embracing change and being able to cope with the circumstances is one thing, but managing or leading change is another thing completely.

Here’s something for you to mull over-Most people often ask about the difference between change management and change leadership. The difference between the two is actually quite significant and those terms are not interchangeable.

The term Change Management is what most everyone is used to. This refers to structures to keep change under control by managing change as it comes to minimize distractions or obstructions. It doesn’t refer to creating or anticipating the need for change.

Change Management involves thoughtful planning and sensitive implementation, but most importantly, the consultation and involvement of those who will be impacted by the change. We often fail to ask ourselves the question: How will those affected by this change react?

Change Leadership on the other hand concerns those driving forces and visions that fuel the transformation. It is the engine that makes the process go faster, smarter and more efficiently. It is mostly associated with large-scale changes.

Most people you talk to will talk about change management and managing change. This is what they’re used to. They’re usually trying to push things through at a very high speed and minimize disruption. It’s sometimes done through external consultants that are good at that in collaboration with task forces that are basically given the whole goal of “push this thing along”.

And change leadership is just fundamentally different—it’s an engine. It’s more about the big vision and what change an organization needs to move all its forces from good to great. It’s more about masses of people who want to make something happen. It’s about empowering lots and lots of people.

However, change leadership has the potential to get things a little bit out of control. You don’t have the same degree of making sure that everything happens in a way you want at a time you want when you have the 1,000 horsepower engine. What you want to do, of course, is have a highly skilled driver and a heck of a car, which will make sure your risks are minimum. But it is fundamentally different.

The world, as we all know it right now, talks about, thinks about, and does change management.-it doesn’t do much change leadership, since change leadership is associated with the bigger leaps that we have to make, associated with opportunities that are coming at us faster, staying open for a shorter period of time, bigger hazards and bullets coming at us faster, so you really have to make a larger leap at a faster speed.

Change leadership is going to be the big challenge in the future, and the fact that almost nobody is very good at it is—well, it’s obviously something to think about.

Source: Haitham Mattar

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Leadership Lesson: The Wisdom of Failure

Posted by Evan , at 9:53 PM Labels: Leadership

Looking back, as we approach another year end and tabulating whether my successes have been more than my failures. It’s clear that failure has left its imprint.

The hardest blow came in the form of failing a major exam. The pain was crippling. It did knock me out for a bit. But after all, how do you climb back onto the saddle when the horse has flung you off: when your plans fall to pieces? Life will constantly test your resolve and level of commitment.

If only we could have patience in the midst of our trials. Coping with rejection and apparent failure is a serious matter. The tragic death of John Kennedy Toole (American novelist born in 1937) screams this truth. No publisher would touch Toole’s book. He began suffering from paranoia and depression. In a vain attempt to kill the pain, he committed suicide at the age of 31. Toole's novels were rejected during his lifetime. However, posthumously, he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1980.

If you focus on positive thinking, even the harshest defeat is only a stepping-stone.

Never let Success get to your Head. Never let Failure get to your Heart. “I didn’t get consumed by losses,” said the legendary NFL coach Don Shula, “and I didn’t get overwhelmed by successes.”

Many of us have stifled our life by heeding some misguided critic who implied we were not good enough. Few things in life are certain but failure is.

Failure seems as something to be avoided at all cost. Although it leaves a sour taste, we should embrace failure for the learning opportunity it is. Failure is the oldest teacher, and perhaps the wisest of them all. Some things are impossible to completely grasp without first falling down.

We live in a culture that values perfectionism and failure is often viewed as a sign of weakness. People become so fixated on not failing that they never move forward. When it comes to failing, our egos are our own worst enemies. It's easier to accept failure in private, but once the failure is obvious to everyone around you, it's becomes harder to accept it. Holding onto failures for way too long is destructive.

The Importance of Failure

· It’s a learning Experience – Failure drives us to change. It represents opportunity and growth. It gives new direction. There is always one or more lessons to learn in what you may see as a failure.

· It builds Character – We learn how to behave when we finally accomplish our goals. The humility we gain through our failures allows us to better handle and appreciate success.

· It makes you Stronger – It’s with persistence we overcome failure to achieve success . When people fail, they feel unaccomplished, and so they try again and again, until they finally reach success.

· Your chances of Succeeding Increases – Failures are the pillars for success. You gain experiences you could not get any other way. Some things can only be learned through trial and error.

· Failure is a type of Freedom – Why? Because the worst has happened. Now, you can relax and rebuild again.

Success does not come easy. Everyone must face one hurdle after another. If you think that once you have the success you crave, you can relax, you are sadly mistaken.

Failure can be costly, not only emotionally but financially as well. Some industries are very unforgiving as one or more failures may instantly get you the boot. The worse thing anyone can do, is not learn from failures.

In recent years, more and more executives have embraced the point of view, that failure is a prerequisite to invention. The fastest way to succeed,” IBM’s Thomas Watson, Sr., once said, “is to double your failure rate.” The growing acceptance of failure is changing the way companies approach innovation.

However, distinguishing between excusable and inexcusable failure is crucial. Managing failure is key. Some mistakes are unpardonable for example producing and marketing a dysfunctional product caused by poor quality control. Encouraging failure doesn’t mean abandoning or supervision or respect for sound practices. Managing for failure requires leaders to be more engaged, not less.

I would like to share 20 Powerful Quotes on failure:

1. "You always pass failure on your way to success." ~Mickey Rooney

2. "A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience." ~Elbert Hubbard

3. "Failure is the tuition you pay for success." ~Walter Brunell

4. "Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have. ~Dale Carnegie

5. "Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure." ~Soichiro Honda

6. "The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.” ~Paramahansa Yogananda

7. "Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes it’s built on catastrophe." ~Sumner Redstone

8. "Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor." ~Truman Capote

9. "There is no failure. Only feedback." ~Robert Allen

10. "Remember that failure is an event, not a person." ~Zig ziglar

11. "Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough." ~Og Mandino

12. "Its fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure." ~Bill Gates

13. "Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again." ~Richard Branson

14. "I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying." ~Michael Jordan

15." Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." ~Napoleon Hill

16. "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." ~Henry Ford

17." My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure." ~Abraham Lincoln

18. "I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward." ~Thomas Edison

19. "Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. "~F. Scott Fitzgerald

20. Our best success often come after our greatest disappointments. ~Henry Ward Beecher

Finally, don’t let the fear of failure hold you back.

Remember to take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise. Always find joy in your journey for as George Bailey said it best “It’s a Wonderful Life!”

Source: Brigette Hyacinth

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7 P’s Leaders use to Achieve Goals

Posted by Evan , at 9:33 PM Labels: Leadership

A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and deadline. Ask yourself if what you are doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow. Here are 7 P's Leader's use to achieve their goals:

Purpose is the reason you journey. A purpose serves as a lighthouse. It gives instant focus and direction. A life without purpose is like a ship without a sail drifting aimlessly. Have a vision and mission statement. Ask yourself what's really important to you, what are you good at, and what you would like to have achieved when you look back at the end of your life? "Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction." - John F. Kennedy

Passion is the fire that lights your way. Thomas Edison failed more than 1,000 times when trying to create the light bulb. When asked about it, Edison allegedly said, "I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb."

Perseverance - Probably one of the greatest example of persistence is Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was faced with defeat throughout his life. He lost eight elections, twice failed in business, his fiancee died. He suffered a nervous breakdown. However in 1860, he was elected the 16th President of the United States. Pain – Get accustom to rejection and failure and take it in good stride. Never take things personally and no pity–parties allowed. The road to success is not smooth. “When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”- Abraham Lincoln

Planning - Preparation -Positioning- Les Brown worked as an errand boy in a radio station. He often stayed in the control rooms and soaked up whatever he could until the deejays would ask him to leave. Then, back in his bedroom at night, he practiced. One day while Les was at the station an opportunity presented itself and he was ready. He blew away the audience and the station manager. “It's better to be prepared for an opportunity, and not have one than to have one and not be Prepared” - Les Brown

People – Invest and form meaningful relationships. Have a good supportive network of people you can really trust, who believe in you, are honest with you and will encourage you. Networking is key. The friendship between Henry Ford and Thomas Edison spanned more than 30 years. “Iron sharpens iron”. From their earliest meetings, they encouraged and inspired one another, often contributing to each other's work.“If you want to be a lion, you must train with lions.” - Carlson Gracie

Patience - For everything there is a time and season. ”No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can't produce ababy in one month by getting nine women pregnant” - Warren Buffett

Positive Thinking - Always believe in yourself and have confidence in your abilities. “Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade.Your mind will seek to develop the picture... Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.” ― Norman Vincent Peale.

Personal development is a vital part in a person’s growth and maturity. It is like how you nurture a plant. People give more importance to academic and professional achievement rather than personal growth. This has caused a lot of emotional struggles. “Personal development is a major time-saver. The better you become, the less time it takes you to achieve your goals” Brian Tracy

Pray - Prayer brings Peace of mind in the midst of turmoil. Just trust God and have Faith that all things work out for your good. Praise Him and be Thankful. Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. Never underestimate the power of prayer. “Every time I have had a breakthrough in my life, it has been because of Prayer” John Maxwell

Source: Brigette Hyacinth

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The Full Text Of Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech

Posted by Evan , Friday, December 6, 2013 at 7:37 PM Labels: Leadership

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. 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.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

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.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Source: Business Insider