LESSONS LEARNED: Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

In June, I was speaking to a classroom of students about mentors around the time of commencement ceremonies.  Even though I never met Steve Jobs, I mentioned him as one of my "mentors" as I am an avid student of his business philosophy and regretfully he passed away before I was able to actively reach out to him. During the time Steve Jobs was struggling with cancer, he was asked to be a commencement speaker at Stanford.  It was a heartfelt address as he was coming to terms that he may die soon and the message really was aimed towards his young audience.  Attached is the YouTube video from Stanford and background information about the main quote (Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish).

The two messages that really hit me as a Free Agent and Entrepreneur were as follows.  1)  Follow your heart and intuition.  Many times in life, we follow the "agreed upon" decision based upon family, friends, or colleagues recommendation.  This is so we maintain the relationships and the status quo without "rocking the boat."  But in doing so, we lose our calling and passion.  I almost fell into that trap and kept an acceptable profession other than a Free Agent and Entrepreneur.  2)  Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did.   As we grow older, the voices in our head guide our decisions and we become more risk-adverse.   Steve Jobs encourages entrepreneurs to start businesses when you are young because it is easier to bounce back from failure and because you have less obligations (i.e. family, kids, college debt...).  The biggest risk is not following your dreams and passion.  It's a risk that if you don't take it you will always regret later in life.   So these two messages guide my decision-making and my journey as a Free Agent.  To end my speech to these students, I used the words of my mentor Steve Jobs and told them to Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.

"The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Best Regards & Success,

Chief Free Agent #1

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