Legacy: A Tribute to Steve Jobs

Today the world shocked at the news of Steve Jobs passed away. The man behind the success of Apple & Pixar, that's what everybody say and that's so true.

Here are few lessons from this great man, and how he created his legacy:

1. Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower

We are created to be creative. If you have any idea, why don't you pursue it!

2. Be a yard stick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellent is expected.

To make excellent your priority is the same as having success knocking at your front door. It just requires patient and perseverance.

3. 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.

When you love what you do, you will do it with passion, and undoubtedly, you will be successful in what you do.

4. You know, we don't grow most of the food we eat. We wear clothes other people make. We speak a language that other people developed. We use a mathematics that other people evolved... I mean, we're constantly taking things. It's a wonderful, ecstatic feeling to create something that puts it back in the pool of human experience and knowledge.

Be someone with contribution, instead of complaining.

5. It's wonderful to have a beginner's mind.

Humility is a trait of every successful person. When you are humble, you learn more!

6. I'm the only person I know that lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year ...  It's very character building.

Successful person do fail, it's their ability to bounce back that makes them successful.

7. We're here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?

Remember, for dent to appear, there must be smaller and continuous impact. Don't expect to become successful overnight. It requires hard work and unyielding sacrifice.

8. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by the dogma - which is living with the result of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinion 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.

Why live a life that people want us to? Be what we want, go and catch our own dreams!

A tribute to Steve Jobs.

God's Way or No Way

(Source: www.hefamily.org)

"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord. "And My way are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. - Isaiah 55 : 8 -9

A lot of times in our lives, I believe we would all feel that we are going the right way, doing the right things and everything that we did are what God wanted us to do. But when things go wrong, we blamed God that He isn't doing His job.

Stop for a moment, and rewind our lives. Are we really going the right way that God wants us to? Or is it just what I wants in life?

At this point, I believe we all thinking the same thing: "How am I supposed to know if it's God's way or my way?"

It's simple, my question for you is: "Can you take some hardship?" When we are doing exactly what /  how we want, things will normally run smoothly. Or it seems so. Until the end, you found out that this is not good at all. But when we go with how God wants, almost every time, you need to take some falls. At the end, you will find that it is all worth it.

Of course God wants us to succeed in life. That's why He gave us problems to face, so that we could learn and grow stronger. The key to this success is trust. It always come to a point where we are faced with a situation, trust God or trust myself?

Once you walk the way God prepared, I urge you to have faith. I myself also learning how to trust God more. It's not as easy as it seems. But aren't we made able by God? Therefore we can do it, have faith.

Not Always

I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn't always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn't always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don't always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time. - Ecclesiastes 9 : 11

I agreed that being skillful, wise, highly educated doesn't really guarantee success in live. But wait, it doesn't mean you shouldn't pursue your study, learn new skills, and pray for wisdom. All those are still needed. In fact, we need to continually sharpen our body, our mind to be able to follow the pace of the world.

But, to be successful it takes chance as King Solomon said. Chance as defined by Oxford Dictionary is "a possibility / probability of something happening, an opportunity, the occurrence of events in the absence of any obvious design or cause."

I got another way of looking at chance, I believe it is an opportunity given by God. We often find ourselves making choices through life. That is just the way God does thing, He is never pushy about choices we make. Those choices will inevitably include chances / opportunities. And it always up to us to make those choices, grab those chances. The the best gift God has given to human is "Freewill"

Being in the right place at the right time is not about luck. It is about your journey that takes you there. And what journey is that? Choice that include chance, or I prefer to call it opportunity. But, the preparation also matters. You can't possibly go on a journey / traveling without bringing any money, go for an exam before studying.

But then again, being prepared does not always guarantee success. Being able to take up the opportunity does, but it always come back to our preparation.

~ Success is when Opportunity meets Preparation ~

No Shortcuts

"Good planning and hard work leads to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty." - Proverbs 21 : 5

The line between prosperity and poverty lies in the choice that we made. Is it the hard way or the easy way?

A lot of times in life, we will face a certain choice. Choices of how we are going to deal with a problem. Believe me, there will always be a shortcut presented before you. Don't take it! Every shortcut may seems pleasing at the moment, but it will only end up in regrets.


Look at what the verse above, we need good planning & hard work. Now this both take time. Even in our planning we mustn't be hasty, a lot of consideration is needed.

Every successful person must have gone through that process. None of them today will tells a story how they succeeded because they take a shortcut. Instead, it will all be the stories of how much hardship they have gone through.

~ Plan Well + Work Hard + Hang On = Success ~

Two Wolves

Recently, I heard this short story again. Heard it before, but this time it gets me to think more.

An old Cherokee chief is teaching his grandson about life:

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.

One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.

The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old chief simply replied, "The one you feed."

The story uses illustration of wolves, and it says the one that we feed will prevail. So, stop feeding our heart with negative thinking. Put more positive attitudes in.

"Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life." - Proverbs 4 : 23

Surely, we all want our lives to be successful. Let me assure you this:

~ Every successful person always keep a positive mind! ~

Facing Goliath!

Lessons to learn from 1 Samuel 17
 As usual, every morning I'll read my Bible according to my Bible reading plan. As I read, there is this chapter that I red, truly challenged my mind. It's the story about David, in his youth defeated the giant Goliath that no one in Israel even dare to face. It's a story that almost everyone of us have heard, but how many of us have really learned the meaning behind this story. How many of us really believe we could slay the giant? How can a young man like David, who never had any experience in war dare to face the giant? The answer is simple. Follow me!

V 1-3 Israel and Philistine are gathering, ready to battle each other out.

V 4-7 Goliath showed himself to Israel, with his armor and weapon, to show how big & tough he is.

V 8-11 Goliath comes out and taunt Israel, to make them scared.

V 16 For forty days, Goliath has been coming out to taunt Israel, yet there's none that dare to step out and fight.

V 24 And whenever he comes out, everyone will fled in great fear and despair.

V 25 Saul even willing to give out such reward to anyone who can kills Goliath, yet still none of them dare.

V 26 So one day, David saw how Goliath taunt Israel, he got angry and asked, 
“What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

V 28 David's own brother discouraged his heart for God.

V 32-34 But David still believes in his heart, even though Saul try to talk him out of it.

³² David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” ³³ Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” ³⁴ But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, ³⁵ I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. ³⁶ Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. ³⁷ The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.”

V 38-40 Saul tried to give David his armor, his sword. But it was all to heavy for him and he took them off. He ends up taking his own staff, a slingshot and 5 smooth stones "from the stream".

V 41-44 Goliath walks closer to David and despised him, looking at his weapon.

V 45-47 But David kept his faith, and stand still. It is not important what weapon that he brings to the battle "... I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel ... , for the battle is the Lord's ..."
V 48 David ran towards the giant! Even I can't believe it.
"As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him."

V 49-51 When David successfully bring down Goliath, he didn't just wait. He ran towards Goliath, used Goliath own sword to kill him.

What are the lessons? What is the secret?
1. Problems / Obstacles will always be there waiting for us. Unless we  make a move and go through it, we are stuck! Problem will always seems tough, but we must always stand firm and be tougher. Don't we all believe that God is bigger than anything in the world.
2. When nobody is willing, doesn't mean we should also be unwilling. Every obstacles are chances for us to grow, for promotion.
3. When we are doing thing for God's cause, God will see us through. That's Yes and Amen! And that's why David is called a man after God's own heart. This story show us how true that is. He can't stand Goliath humiliation on Israel, as it would be the same as  humiliating God.
4. We need to choose what other tells us wisely. Every once in a while, we will face discouragement from people around us. And it doesn't matter how close they are, how senior they are. That's why we need to always keep a clear and positive mind.
5. Remind ourselves of the past, when God saves us. Always remember how God saves us, not how we become successful because of our own power. Don't let it become a stumbling blocks for us, don't let it make us prideful. Remember this: Our past experiences are training for the next obstacles!
6. Prepare well, prepare the best. Notice that David choose five smooth stones from the stream. Why must he go all the way down to the stream to collect the 5 smooth stones, while at that area, stones are said to be everywhere. David choose the smooth stones because it flies faster. Those are the best to use with a sling. But why 5, when with God even 1 is enough? Because we will never know God's plan. That's why we need to prepare only the best!
7. Give our best shot. See how David run towards Goliath. When we have prepared well, all we need to do is go forward and face the obstacle.
8. Don't leave room for complacency. When David bring down Goliath, he didn't just stand there. He run forward, take Goliath sword and kill him. Don't be too smug because we have conquered half of the problems. Keep on pushing forward!
9. Trusts in God fully. None of this would happen if David didn't trusts in God. If we trusts God, do it with all our heart, our soul and our mind. Even though sometimes God's way can be uncomprehending, but remember that it always bring the best result.

~ Problems Defy, People Discourage, but God Saves ~

Quotes to motivate your day... Stay positive!!!

Success: Success doesn't come to you. You go for it!
Greatness: The price of greatness is responsibility.
Leadership: He that cannot obey cannot command!
Challenge: Don't be afraid of opposition. Remember a kite rise against, not with the wind.
Achievement: Never mind what others do, you do better than yourself. Beat your own record from day to day, and you are a success!
Determination: We cannot direct the wind...but we can adjust the sails.
Wisdom: Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living, but others help you make a life.
Ability: The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigator.
Comfort: Kind words do not cause much, yet they accomplish much!
Ingenuity: Instead of crying over spilt milk, go milk other cow!
Leadership: A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.
Adventure: Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.
Goals: Success is not final, failure is not fatal, and it is the courage to continue that counts.
Spirit: Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Enthusiasm: Enthusiasm releases the drive to carry you over obstacles and adds significance to all you do.
Attitude: A positive attitude may not solve every problem but it makes solving any problem a more pleasant experience.
Commitment: The quality of a person's life in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.
Strength: Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from God and an indomitable will.
Discovery: The greatest discoveries have come from people who have looked at a standard situation and seen it differently.
Responsibility: It is the responsibility of leadership to provide opportunity, and the responsibility of individuals to contribute.
Respect: Treat others as you want them to treat you because what goes around comes around.
Growth: There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination and wonder.
Vision: Vision without action is dream. Action without Vision is simply passing the time. Action with Vision is making a positive difference.
Change: If you don't change, reality in the end forces that change upon you.
Innovation: Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity - not a threat.
Optimism: A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.