What’s the story?

Steve Jobs gave a great speech to university students some years ago about the importance of finding work you truly love.

He starts the talk by describing how he dropped out of uni. But then snuck back to attend the classes that really interested him, even though he had no idea how he was ever going to make a living out of the area.

Jobs’s point is that you’ve got to follow your gut. Sometimes it’s hard to see how it’ll work at the time, but you have to trust that the “dots will connect will connect” down the track. This is how you end up doing your best work – when you follow your heart and do what you love.

Instead of watching some rubbish on TV tonight, do yourself a favour and watch Steve Jobs talk about life, death, work and success.

I loved seeing that speech for the first time. Incredibly it came just 6 months after I’d worked all this stuff out anyway. I say incredible because I reckon I’d been searching and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life for about 2 decades before that.

Earlier that year (2007) my mum died suddenly of a heart attack. Something snapped for me. A realisation that life doesn’t go on forever. That there really wasn’t much time left to do the things I’d merely toyed with for years.

So I threw myself into the stuff I was passionate about, irrespective of whether or not they would make money.

I loved the environment and the natural world. I wanted to do something useful. Make a difference, even if only in a small way.

Many of my skills related to the media. My affinity for it stretched back a long time, but somehow I’d ended up on the business side of advertising, when my heart was probably more in writing, telling stories and communicating something more substantial.

So I decided, despite having few qualifications, I’d put my skills and interests together and launch into environmental journalism. I walked into a community radio station and just started one day.

I’ll never forget the feeling of completing my first story and getting it to air. Liberation. Jubilation. At last, I was doing something I loved. From then on, I learned to trust my gut more and take risks. To go after work that felt right. It came late for me, in my 40’s, but better then than not at all.

I went on to start my own program ‘The Environment Show’ at 2SER (Sydney Educational Radio). And then podcast interviews online. In short time, the program became the most downloaded environment podcast in Australia. (If you’re into it, have a listen to Environment Show podcasts on itunes and check out the Environment Show blog.)

Then I put my interest in the environment together with something else I’d dabbled with over the years – events. (In my youth I’d had a blast running dance parties.)

In early 2009 Sydney Green Drinks was born. It took off straight away. We’ve never had less than 100 people at each event (which are monthly) and in a couple of years we’ve amassed thousands of members. (Again mostly as a result of using social media to spread the word.)

It’s been great fun and I’ve met some terrific people through it. After years of feeling like a fish out of water in Sydney, I finally found my tribe. (If you’re ever in Sydney and are interested in meeting green thinking people, this link will help you find where and when Sydney Green Drinks is on.)

But after all this, I also started thinking about the many others who struggle with the same thing I did for decades. Finding their niche in the world. This ranges in age by the way from the students I still teach at university (who are 18 years old) – to people my age (late 40’s) – to someone I know nearing the end of his life. My Dad who is in 80’s. (That’s a personal story for another time.)

My next project is running courses to help people work out what they’re really passionate about and find work they love. (So they can do what Steve Jobs is talking about.)

And to help them use the incredible digital tools we now have to broadcast to the world who it is they really are and what they want to do. (I’ve made a start on this – setting up courses on how to use social media at Media School Australia.)

Finally, quotes are something I’ve been interested in for awhile. I used to go travelling with a little diary of them. But when the diary began to fall apart a few years ago, I had the brainwave to store them on a blog.

I hope what’s here helps inspire you – to go your own way and follow your heart. For me these quotes are like mantra’s to help me stay on track.

There’s more about me and my weird combination of dots (my experience and interest in the environment, media, personal development and education) via the Phil Stubbs LinkedIn profile.

There’s also more about why I’m doing a quotes blog on my first post.

Good luck with it.  And as my Mum said (when one of her friends passed away):

“It only goes to show – you just have to make the most of it (this life).”

Phil

ps. If you have your own story or quotes, you’re welcome to post them here on this blog as a comment.