Have you experienced the value of connecting the dots of your life?

In his thought-provoking commencement address at Stanford University in June 2005, Steve Jobs shared several stories. In one, he pointed out that “it’s impossible to connecting the dots of our life looking forward. You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future… this approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

An Example of Steve Jobs Connecting the Dots

As many people know, Steve Jobs attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, for only a semester before dropping out. He wasn’t sure where he was heading and didn’t want to burden his parents with paying for this expensive private college.

However, he decided to stay on campus for another 18 months, taking classes that interested him. One of those classes was calligraphy, which Jobs found fascinating.

Yet, he wondered whether he would ever have a real-world application for what he learned in that class.

In fact, he found the real-world application 10 years later – when he was designing the first Macintosh computer. This was the first computer to have what Jobs called in his speech “beautiful typography.” He connected the dots from the calligraphy class to the computer design.

See his entire speech at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA

My Own Experience of Connecting the Dots

After I became media tutor and trainer, I started to connect the dots of my life. Like many girls who graduated from high school in the 1960s, I became a teacher. At that time, teaching and nursing were two of the most common professional fields open to women.

My short stint of teaching health at the middle and high school level didn’t go well. I quickly realized that the work environment didn’t mesh with my nature. So, I went to work as a public health educator and director of a nonprofit. Neither of those positions worked out very well either.

After taking time to stay home and raise our daughters, I embarked on what turned out to be a 17-year career in sales. While I was moderately successful, I knew I still hadn’t found my true calling. Meanwhile, I got involved with Toastmasters, a leadership and communication organization and learned that I loved public speaking and mentoring others to be speakers and leaders.

I finally found my professional calling when I was 61 years old. That’s when my manager noticed that I was good at explaining social media to our clients. He went on to encourage me to start helping other baby boomers with their social media.

Now I draw upon my training as an educator, my public speaking experience, and my knack for mentoring others to help people master social media for their own needs. I connected the dots of my life to create a company dedicated to social media tutoring and training.

How About You?

How have you connected the dots in your life? Have you used your LinkedIn summary or the About section of your website to share this experience?

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 45 and up, to become more effective using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

She works with business owners, business development professionals, business consultants, job seekers, and more – ranging from entrepreneurs to people in large corporations. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.