Use Your Environment:
The Steve Jobs Strategy
Every place you go, every person you meet, every job you
have is a chance to gain greater clarity in your self-
education. Life is the classroom, and if you are paying
attention, you can recognize the daily lessons available.
Each day is a new page in a textbook you never complete,
and as you sit in the student’s seat, you realize the
apprenticeship has already begun.
The smart way to begin this process is by practicing with
the tools available to you. Traditional mentors are hard to
come by, but you already have access to wisdom and
experience, teachers who will guide you in making
decisions that will help you find your way. Who can you
call on the phone and talk to right now? What friend or
former coach would meet you for coffee this week if you
asked? We all want to find someone who wants to invest in
us, someone who cares, without realizing those people are
already in our lives. The worst way to get a mentor is to go
find one. The best way is to see the one that’s already there.
Ginny Phang spent years trying to find her way, barely
surviving. She wasn’t searching for some great calling; she
was fighting for her life. But this is how we encounter our
life’s work: in the midst of some other pursuit, while striving
to pay the bills or simply make it through another day. At