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Steve Jobs: Everything Around You Was Made Up by People No Smarter Than You

By Steve Jobs · Founder Stories · 2 min read

Jobs said life gets radically bigger the moment you realize one thing: the people who built the world you live in were not geniuses. They were just people who decided to act.

Key Points

Everything you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
You can change it, influence it, build your own things
Once you learn this, you will never be the same again

Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use.

The Limited Life

When you grow up, the world hands you a script. Get a job. Have a family. Save money. Try not to break anything.

Jobs called this a very limited life. Not because those things are bad. But because most people never question whether the script itself was written by someone worth listening to.

You tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world.

The One Simple Fact

Jobs said life gets much broader the moment you discover one thing: everything around you was made up by people no smarter than you.

The roads. The rules. The companies. The products. The systems. All of it was invented by someone who just decided to do it.

Once you see that, you realize you can poke life. Push in on one side and something pops out the other. You can change it. You can mold it.

You can poke life and actually something will pop out the other side.

Embrace It

The most important shift is going from living inside life to embracing it. Changing it. Improving it. Making your mark on it.

Jobs said once you learn this, you will want to change life and make it better. Because it is kind of messed up in a lot of ways.

And once you learn it, you will never be the same again.

Shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you're just going to live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.