Junha Kim · June 5, 2025
Life is not handed to you. It's crafted by you.
This is a translation of part of an interview between Steve Jobs and John McLaughlin, president of the SCVHA, held at NeXT headquarters on November 11, 1994. It is also known from the YouTube videos "Steve Jobs Secrets of Life" and "Steve Jobs on Failure."
I chose this topic for my first translated newsletter for the following reasons.
Looking back on my experiences since childhood, I have often felt that many people in modern society live passive lives. In Korea, for example, most people blindly follow the path of school, employment, and marriage. Of course, many believe they are living independently, but even they often do not fully break out of the framework society has built.
Far more often than fiercely asking what kind of life they truly want, choosing for themselves, and making their own lives, people seem to live toward the environment they were given, the eyes around them, and the happiness society has defined. Watching this, I felt, "Most people are already thinking only within a system someone else built."
This way of living reminded me less of humans with a sense of self and more of NPCs (Non-Player Characters) in a game.
Literally, a non-player character.
NPCs live inside a game by repeating preprogrammed lines and actions, not by following a will of their own. Players, by contrast, explore the world, make decisions, and meaningfully influence the course of the game.
In other words, a person.
I, too, once lived like an NPC.
This piece is not meant to blindly criticize that kind of life. Nor is it meant to argue that being a Player is necessarily more correct. Rather, for individuals who must change with a technically, politically, and socially turbulent era, I wanted to share a story from Steve Jobs that became a decisive turning point for me as I moved from a passive life toward a self-directed one.
Through this piece, I hope Steve Jobs's wisdom becomes a small spark for those striving to live self-directed lives, and further, for those who dream of changing society or the world.
Steve Jobs Secrets of Life John McLaughlin:
I will ask this with the thought that this interview will be shown forever to young high school and college students, especially young people who dream of going out into the world at an early age to start something. More than anyone, you know the advantages of starting a business young, and your actions opened up a completely new path for young entrepreneurs. What advice would you give them?
Steve Jobs:
What I want to say is... this.
As you grow up, you are often told, "The world is the way it is, and you just need to live your life within it as best you can."
Things like, "Try not to run into the walls too much, try to have a nice family life, have fun, and save a little money."
But that life, that kind of life, is a very limited one.
Life can become much broader once you realize one simple fact.
That fact is...
Everything around you that you call life was made by people who were no smarter than you.
You can change it.
You can influence it.
You can build things that other people can use.
In other words, the moment you understand that life is something someone made, and you can poke it, you realize that something actually happens, and when you push in, something can pop out the other side.
In other words, life can be changed and molded.
Maybe the most important thing is this.
To shake off the mistaken idea that life is simply given to you, and you only have to live inside it.
Instead, embrace life, change it, improve it, and leave your mark.
I think this is... truly important.
And however you come to realize it, once you do, you will want to change life. For the better. Because in many ways, this world is pretty broken.
Once you realize that,
you will never be the same person again.
Steve Jobs on Failure
John McLaughlin:
Tell me if this question is wrong. When you first started Apple, or even before that, what I had heard about you was that you personally went to places like Gordon Moore (co-founder of Intel), Bob Noyce (another co-founder of Intel), and Xerox PARC (Xerox's innovation research lab). And the amazing thing is that those people really opened their doors to you. Compared with many other parts of the world, it is not common to call a CEO and get that kind of opportunity. How was that experience possible?
I have always found one very clear fact. That fact is,
The reason most people never have those experiences is that they do not even try to ask.
I have never seen anyone who was unwilling to help when I asked them for help.
I just picked up the phone. This dates me, but when I was 12, I called Bill Hewlett (co-founder of HP). He lived in Palo Alto, and his number was in the phone book.
He answered the phone himself and said, "Yes?"
So I said,
"Hello, my name is Steve Jobs. I'm 12 years old, and I'm a high school student. I want to build a frequency counter. Do you happen to have any spare parts?"
He laughed and sent me the parts, and that summer he gave me a job at Hewlett-Packard (HP). I worked on the production line assembling frequency counters, tightening screws and putting things together. I was incredibly happy.
And after that, whenever I called someone, not one person ever said no or hung up on me.