<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Bharat Karavadra</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress</link>
	<description>Awareness : Betterment : Growth : Habitability : Joy</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:54:20 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1</generator>
		<item>
		<title>It Is Time To Rise.</title>
		<link>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/it-is-time-to-rise/</link>
		<comments>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/it-is-time-to-rise/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:42:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>BharatK</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Spiritual Awakening]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/?p=149</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Without words. But with space:]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Without words.</p>
<p><span id="more-149"></span>But with space:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/it-is-time-to-rise/"><em>Click here to view the embedded video.</em></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/it-is-time-to-rise/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
<enclosure url="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/2012.02.10.its.time.to.rise.flv" length="6117089" type="video/x-flv" />
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>This Is It.</title>
		<link>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/this-is-it/</link>
		<comments>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/this-is-it/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:03:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>BharatK</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Spiritual Awakening]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/?p=145</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The words “This Is It” on a billboard advert stood out of ordinary day to day experiences of media and &#8230; <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/this-is-it/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The words “This Is It” on a billboard advert stood out of ordinary day to day experiences of media and in a similar way as many usual words and images stood out of the ordinary for me at a time where I was with my now KNOWING of receiving signs from the universe in the form of answers to internal questions of life.</p>
<p><span id="more-145"></span>Such signs that stand out more than usual and for which your initial perception can seem quite out of the ordinary are, I have been informed, transcendental signs from the universe and may also be referred to in the Baghavad Gita.</p>
<p>I, at the time of TRULY KNOWING the words “This Is It” were an answer to an internal question I had within myself, but at the time my self did know what to do about the KNOWING.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-146" title="" src="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/2012.02.10.this_.is_.it_.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="237" /></p>
<p>Therefater being hit hard with the process of <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/what-is-spiritual-awakening/">spiritual awakening</a>, I have now REALISED that no matter what you like or dislike, what you want or do not want, what you have or do not have, what are or not are, what you expect and do no expect, and so on, such thoughts and desires will re-create the same experiences in your perception of life, and in some way you may experience life in different magnitudes (small or large) but with the the same perceptions.</p>
<p>Perhaps more simpler words that may get the message across are that for example if you have a wanting now, you will always have a wanting, and if you are enjoying life now, you will always enjoy life.</p>
<p>When you learn to appreciate what is and can live in harmony with life no matter what your current perceptions are, you will &#8220;<a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/what-is-spiritual-awakening/">wake up</a>&#8221; and TRULY enjoy life and be given the opportunity to grow. A beautiful example of these words can be witnessed by watching and taking in the movie, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/" target="_blank">Groundhog Day</a>.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s the trailer for the movie:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/this-is-it/"><em>Click here to view the embedded video.</em></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/this-is-it/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
<enclosure url="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/groundhog.day.trailer.flv" length="13256577" type="video/x-flv" />
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>India International Office Development</title>
		<link>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/india-international-office-development/</link>
		<comments>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/india-international-office-development/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:07:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>BharatK</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/?p=142</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have been helping people in India to develop a home office both to serve locals in India and my &#8230; <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/india-international-office-development/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I have been helping people in India to develop a home office both to serve locals in India and my self and also International Clients.</p>
<p>As the world seems to be getting smaller, Internet communications seemed to be a requirement and I helped to set-up such.</p>
<p><span id="more-142"></span>Here is where we are at:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-143 aligncenter" src="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/2012.02.03.new_.international.office.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480" /></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/india-international-office-development/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Three Words That Will Change Your Life Forever</title>
		<link>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/three-words-that-will-change-your-life-forever/</link>
		<comments>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/three-words-that-will-change-your-life-forever/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:13:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>BharatK</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Spiritual Awakening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[knowing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reality]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/?p=139</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are three words, when said with devotion, that will change your perception of life and your reality forever. You &#8230; <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/three-words-that-will-change-your-life-forever/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There are three words, when said with devotion, that will change your perception of life and your reality forever.</p>
<p>You may now be looking for such words within yourself or searching your mind to ask others of what such words may be.</p>
<p><span id="more-139"></span>When you know and apply the three words with devotion, and can then accept what comes to you and the effects in your world thereafter, you will truly KNOW what the words are and what they represent.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/three-words-that-will-change-your-life-forever/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Breaking Dawn</title>
		<link>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/breaking-dawn/</link>
		<comments>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/breaking-dawn/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:28:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>BharatK</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Spiritual Awakening]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/?p=130</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I was standing on the roof of a building at the end of a working day and I felt a &#8230; <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/breaking-dawn/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I was standing on the roof of a building at the end of a working day and I felt a calling from the sun of dusk.</p>
<p>The calling was from a being of dawn and not dusk and I felt like taking a photograph of the dusk sun but still with an inner being and knowing of there being a dawn.</p>
<ul>
<li>Was the dawn a knowing of breaking dusk, as night and day?</li>
</ul>
<p><span id="more-130"></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-131 alignnone" src="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/2011.12.dusk-dawn.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480" /></p>
<ul>
<li>Is the butterfly breaking out the cocoon of being a caterpillar?</li>
<li>Is my recent experience of life of the cocoon that the caterpillar experiences?</li>
<li>Is the dusk a reflection of the dawn to come, but having to enter the cocoon of the dark night?</li>
<li>Are human beings finding <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/kill-your-self-to-maintain-life/">life in death</a> forever?</li>
</ul>
<p>I simply do not know but it feels like the scariest and loneliest time of my life. Everything of me is being ripped apart and somewhat shed and for which my self cannot do anything for.</p>
<p>I can somewhat relate to how the caterpillar may feel in the cocoon, but I KNOW <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/what-is-spiritual-awakening/">a new emergence is happening</a>.</p>
<p>And the timing of seeing a trailer of the Breaking Dawn Movie (part 1) seems quite apt, as below, and please do not consider sexuality nor your self (i.e he,she,me,you) but more so the feelings of what is happening:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/breaking-dawn/"><em>Click here to view the embedded video.</em></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/breaking-dawn/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
<enclosure url="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/breaking.dawn.love.forever.flv" length="2251664" type="video/x-flv" />
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>What is Love?</title>
		<link>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/what-is-love/</link>
		<comments>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/what-is-love/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:51:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>BharatK</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Spiritual Awakening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accepting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[giving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[love]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/?p=124</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Love is a quantum leap in faith and from my self&#8217;s experience of life I can say: Love is wanting &#8230; <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/what-is-love/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Love is a quantum leap in faith and from my self&#8217;s experience of life I can say:</p>
<p>Love is wanting to be with people you do not know and situations of life you have no experience of.</p>
<p>Love is being compassionate of yourself, others and life situations for which there is no mind&#8217;s desire, and for which you KNOW you cannot do anything for.</p>
<p>Love is having a KNOWING of a future your mind does not know but one that your heart desires.</p>
<p><span id="more-124"></span>Love is KNOWING that you will never make mistakes, being able to make and accept your mistakes, being able to carry on making the same mistakes and both you and others accepting mistakes.</p>
<p>Love is KNOWING that you will do no wrong.</p>
<p>Love is KNOWING there will be <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/kill-your-self-to-maintain-life/">another day</a>.</p>
<p>Love has been and is giving, to all.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/what-is-love/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Kill Your Self To Maintain Life.</title>
		<link>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/kill-your-self-to-maintain-life/</link>
		<comments>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/kill-your-self-to-maintain-life/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 05 Nov 2011 13:33:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>BharatK</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Personal Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[death]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[illusion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[knowing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reality]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[truth]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/?p=122</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When you know how and when to kill your self, and by the self I do not mean your body &#8230; <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/kill-your-self-to-maintain-life/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When you know how and when to kill your self, and by the self I do not mean your body but more so perceptions of your self, then only your untrue self dies, but the REAL YOU and all else will live as life will be, and hence you know the TRUTH of life because you know what you ARE and, at any moment, what you need to be.</p>
<p>Any other other truth is only an illusion (a lie), because you are what you ARE and when you really KNOW that, that is when YOUR cries and laughter become ONE.</p>
<p><span id="more-122"></span>See an extract from the The Dark Knight movie below as an audio and visual pointer to the words above and for which there seems to be a desire to refine the extract, and also perhaps the words above, however the following words may give you an overview of the extracted scene.</p>
<p>The extract shows where Batman took it up on his self to take the responsibility of murders which were in fact done by a perceived White Knight, but where Batman realised that if the general people, who somewhat looked up at the White Knight as their saviour, in fact discovered that &#8220;their&#8221; White Knight became a murderer through revenge, all perceptions of saviour would have been extinguished in the people.</p>
<p>If you have not seen the movie then please watch it, all. I also recommend the previous movie, Batman Begins.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/kill-your-self-to-maintain-life/"><em>Click here to view the embedded video.</em></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/kill-your-self-to-maintain-life/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
<enclosure url="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011.11.05.dark.knight.ending.words.flv" length="13279601" type="video/x-flv" />
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Live Internet Server Transplant.</title>
		<link>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/live-internet-server-transplant/</link>
		<comments>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/live-internet-server-transplant/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:52:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>BharatK</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Internet Hosting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[creating]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[death]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[doing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/?p=118</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For many years I have used the same internet server supplier to run both my site and client sites. Time &#8230; <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/live-internet-server-transplant/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>For many years I have used the same internet server supplier to run both my site and client sites.</p>
<p>Time has now come to move to a new internet server supplier where the service is somewhat future proof in terms of client hosting requirements, as something in me tells me that I may not be doing hosting for clients for many years to come.</p>
<p><span id="more-118"></span>So in some terms, the server situation is experiencing death and <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/creation-and-destruction/">destruction</a> (of the old servers) in order to <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/creation-and-destruction/">create space to re-create</a> a server situation and for a better future.</p>
<p>Now, if you are a client and reading this then please do not despair. If I do not host your site in future, the hosting will be transitioned to more or less the same servers with similar features and with no change to perception by the audience of your site(s) but you will simply be serviced directly by the same people who run the servers, and in fact you will probably get a better support service as there will be a call centre to handle your queries rather than just me.</p>
<p>So, the next couple of weeks will be spent performing the Live Transplant, and I have used those words as the sites need to be kept live while the server is changed so that there is no loss of service.</p>
<p>If you do not know much about Internet Servers then the task is a bit like having to move the broadcasting station of a live television show without the audience being aware at all, or not much, and there being no disruption to the broadcast.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve already &#8220;transplanted&#8221; the server for this site as a test and the process went very well as there have been no comments of the transition, but you may notice that the gallery on the old site is no longer functional as there seems to be need for it.</p>
<p>So now, the task is to move client sites which I envisage as regular transplant operations over the coming weeks, and so for the time being I&#8217;ll be with me, my clients, and the surgical keyboard, mouse and phone.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/live-internet-server-transplant/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Creation and Destruction.</title>
		<link>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/creation-and-destruction/</link>
		<comments>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/creation-and-destruction/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:26:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>BharatK</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Spiritual Awakening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[appreciating]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[creating]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[death]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/?p=116</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When there is nothing in you that wants to create or appreciate, you and your expressions will not be appreciated &#8230; <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/creation-and-destruction/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When there is nothing in you that wants to create or appreciate, you and your expressions will not be appreciated but be destroyed and depreciated, and hence you will no longer experience creation nor appreciation.<span id="more-116"></span>Create, not destroy, but if you have to destroy, then <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/live-internet-server-transplant/">destroy to create space</a>. When you learn how and when to <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/kill-your-self-to-maintain-life/">destroy your self</a>, you have TRULY mastered life.</p>
<p>See a definition of <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recreation" target="_blank">recreation</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/creation-and-destruction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>To Steve Jobs; Thank You and Farewell for Being Yourself.</title>
		<link>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/to-steve-jobs-thank-you-and-farewell-for-being-yourself/</link>
		<comments>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/to-steve-jobs-thank-you-and-farewell-for-being-yourself/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:45:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>BharatK</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[appreciating]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[being]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[death]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[love]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/?p=110</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[That&#8217;s all I can say at the moment, but Steve Jobs&#8217; own words given at the Commencement Address at Stanford &#8230; <a href="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/to-steve-jobs-thank-you-and-farewell-for-being-yourself/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>That&#8217;s all I can say at the moment, but Steve Jobs&#8217; own words given at the Commencement Address at Stanford University on June 12, 2005 probably have more meaning than anything I can say at the moment.</p>
<p><span id="more-110"></span></p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-111" title="" src="http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-06-steve-jobs.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426" /></a>&#8220;&#8230;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&#8217;ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s it. No big deal. Just three stories.</p>
<p>The first story is about connecting the dots.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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: &#8220;We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?&#8221; They said: &#8220;Of course.&#8221; 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.</p>
<p>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&#8217; savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn&#8217;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&#8217;t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.</p>
<p>It wasn&#8217;t all romantic. I didn&#8217;t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends&#8217; 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:</p>
<p>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&#8217;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&#8217;t capture, and I found it fascinating.</p>
<p>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&#8217;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.</p>
<p>Again, you can&#8217;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.</p>
<p>My second story is about love and loss.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>I really didn&#8217;t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down &#8211; 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.</p>
<p>I didn&#8217;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.</p>
<p>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&#8217;s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn&#8217;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&#8217;t lose faith. I&#8217;m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You&#8217;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&#8217;t found it yet, keep looking. Don&#8217;t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you&#8217;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&#8217;t settle.</p>
<p>My third story is about death.</p>
<p>When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: &#8220;If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you&#8217;ll most certainly be right.&#8221; 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: &#8220;If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?&#8221; And whenever the answer has been &#8220;No&#8221; for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.</p>
<p>Remembering that I&#8217;ll be dead soon is the most important tool I&#8217;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 &#8211; 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.</p>
<p>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&#8217;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&#8217;s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you&#8217;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.</p>
<p>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&#8217;m fine now.</p>
<p>This was the closest I&#8217;ve been to facing death, and I hope it&#8217;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:</p>
<p>No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don&#8217;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&#8217;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.</p>
<p>Your time is limited, so don&#8217;t waste it living someone else&#8217;s life. Don&#8217;t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people&#8217;s thinking. Don&#8217;t let the noise of others&#8217; 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.</p>
<p>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&#8242;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.</p>
<p>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: &#8220;Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.&#8221; 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.</p>
<p>Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.</p>
<p>Thank you all very much&#8230;.&#8221;</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs" target="_blank">Steve Jobs</a><br />
1955-2011</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.karavadra.net/wordpress/to-steve-jobs-thank-you-and-farewell-for-being-yourself/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

