20 Years +1 Day
Probably at the top of the names who will always remain a great idol for me is Apple founder Steven Paul Jobs, and he even influenced my choice of career.
Believing that effort is required to achieve anything, and that this effort will eventually bear fruit, Jobs was ultimately proven right, taking the company he founded in his garage—Apple—to what it is today. Behind this great success lie these words he believed in with all his heart:
Never give up, never quit, believe, listen to your heart, and love what you do!
These words, which have also been a great source of motivation for me, have played a significant role in my loving the work I do and always aiming for better. Looking briefly at Jobs's life, even when he was fired from Apple—the company he himself had founded—he never gave up; he went on to acquire what became Next and Pixar, turning them into successful companies in a short time, and was eventually offered a job again by Apple, which at that point was nearly on the brink of collapse.
So if we too want to chase our dreams, we must keep going without giving up and love the work we do. Every problem that makes us think of quitting is actually a step that helps us decide how to take the next one. If there is no problem, there is no effort. That is why do not be afraid to make mistakes!
I want to share a short but powerful memory from my university years related to this.
The fact that Flappy Bird—a game that took only a few days to make and earned a huge sum within a week—achieved such massive success so quickly made me curious, and I discussed it with my teachers. The answer my teacher Özgür gave deeply affected me and, much like what Steve Jobs said, greatly encouraged me to chase the things I believe in. The dialogue went like this:
- Me: Sir, how can a game written in one day become this popular? If that much money can be earned with one day of work, aren't we wasting all this effort?
- Teacher Özgür: That money wasn't earned in one day of work, Fatih—it was earned in 20 years +1 day. Who knows how much time the person who coded that game spent learning to do those things in a single day. And he got the return on that hard work by becoming popular quickly and earning a serious amount.
Believing in the truth of those words, I keep improving myself every day and chase my dreams, trusting that one day they will become real. As I explained in my earlier article on the Reinforcement method, human beings shape their personality and character by learning from their mistakes. What matters is drawing lessons from mistakes, never giving up on learning, and loving the work we do. In the information age we live in, researching and drawing on accumulated experience is much easier than in the past, so we can reach our goals in far less than 20 years. In other words, we live in an era where we really do not have many excuses for not achieving things.
Thank you for reading this piece that inspires me and that I believe in wholeheartedly. Take care, friends—see you in the next posts..!
I've found that half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from unsuccessful ones is simply perseverance.
- Steven P. Jobs