Steve Jobs…The Ultimate Vision & Faith

By Kevin Urban

“We can only connect the dots looking back…we have to have faith (vision) that they will connect in the future.” – Steve Jobs

 This month celebrates two special birthdays. Steve Jobs and my own. Come on, I’m allowed! Steve was born on February 24^th and I’m the 25^th.  Being a Mac fan all my life, his influence on my technological life was huge (aside – For those of you who have seen me teach, you know there are always a few Mac examples. For those of you who haven’t taken our weekend, put it on your list!) As I started to reflect on my birthday and all that we’ve accomplished as Savvy and me personally, I remembered the Steve Jobs quote from above. Connecting the dots of the past is easy. Faith is not always the easy part.

When I think of Steve Jobs two things come to mind – Visionary and Genius.

I was psyched when I first heard that Steve Jobs was, like myself, a Piscean male.  For those who don’t follow the zodiac, typically Pisces are considered dreamers. I consider myself to be a dreamer/big vision thinker as well, consistently looking for how two supposedly different things can be put harmoniously together. For actors it’s the merge of their passions and interests with their art.

The difference between dreamers and visionaries is that visionaries put plans into action. As actors we have goals but we sometimes fail to take specific actions or put that ultimate dream into a plan. Often when we think we’re being specific enough, we may only have scratched the surface. When I look at Steve Jobs’ specificity, his ideology and vision pushed boundaries. He was fearless which allowed him to move forward, but he also had specificity in what he wanted to accomplish. That coupled with the faith in himself and his vision was very powerful. Even through his failures, (he was also fired from Apple) his faith in his vision kept him moving forward.

Faith and specificity in the vision is something that we don’t always cultivate as actors. We don’t get instant results so we stop or even change our focus. Sometimes it’s only in the future that we realize we were on the right path when we lost faith and stopped.

Steve never second-guessed his vision. He believed in it to the depths of his soul. As actors we can take a nod from him and realize that specificity and commitment to our vision are two keys to success.

Dare to set your vision and follow through with discipline and passion. Dare to be super specific about what it is you want. Dare to claim the career of your dreams – not the career that is safe.

In homage to Steve Jobs, our vision at the Savvy Actor is to create a movement in our community, if you will, of like-minded actors who use sound business principles, passion and specificity to move their career forward.

But we can’t do this without your personal genius and the vision that you set forth for yourself.

If you won’t do it for you, do it for your fans and loved ones. Put your vision in the world with commitment and passion and specificity. And then be an active participant and see what happens. I promise you great things will come.

Tags: Business, Discipline, Empowerment, Passion, Persistence