Anyone who's been with the blog since it started will know that one of the people to inspire me the most was Steve Jobs. No, this post isn't entirely about him and yes, his death knocked the wind out of me. I'm not an Apple fanatic, I've never owned the iPhone and probably never will because I find the touch screen irksome. So why would Steve Jobs fascinate me? Here's why.
All my life I was told I was different. For whatever reason, everything I did stood out like a sore thumb. And I felt strange. I even felt unwanted. Until, I read this.
Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore.
They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough
to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
That was the light bulb that went off in my head, 1 May 2010. See, I even remember the date. I stopped trying to fit in. I stopped doing what other people wanted because it was "their" right thing to do. I started being me. Granted, it was a little late in life but better late than never. This is also how the blog description came about. The {un}spectacular moments of a not so famous writer on a journey of self-change, instead of world change.
Unlike Steve Jobs, I don't want to change the world. I will be content with looking in the mirror and changing myself. But if along the way on this extraordinary journey we come to know as life - if I were to find out that my words did indeed change someone's day and that my writing reached out to change someone else's life then I am blessed. How will I know when I'm done?
I probably never will. I'll keep changing to the day death will sneak up on me, when I'll open the door expecting a long lost friend but instead find the certainty of life. And I'll leave, hopefully with less regrets and more with a sense of having succeeded as the only person I was capable of being - me.
I guess, that's the plus point of having had brain surgery, you aren't afraid to talk about death. You can talk about it like you're planning afternoon tea. And it changes a lot inside you. The way you see things. The way you look at people and the way they look back at you. Everything changes.
And yes, there's that word that keeps popping out again and again isn't it? Change.
What did Steve Jobs do so different in his life? He had 24 hours a day, just like all of us. A human body frame that most of us do. His was even riddled with cancer. What made him tick more than you and I? I don't know. I wasn't fortunate enough to have known him personally. But I know this. He didn't fight change.
Now, read the title of this post again. It's "What" have you changed not "Who". We spend so much time thinking about the people we can change instead of thinking what we can change in ourselves. If she was like that ... If he was better at doing this ... I'm guilty of it too. But these days, when I catch myself at it, I walk away.
Some lessons are best learnt in stinging solidarity and still some lessons cannot be taught where change cannot be accepted. By default, we cannot rest until we have made things more complicated and we run around like headless chickens, changing the way this person does this and that person does that.
But what if ... just what if, we took a deep breath and reached out to change something within ourselves. How would that work? Love and light.
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