5 Love Lessons We Have Learned From Steve Jobs

RIP Steve Jobs, who gave us not only the iPhone but lessons like "You've got to find what you love."

By Monica Green — Written on Oct 06, 2011

My first experience with an Apple product was in 2003, when my parents got me one of the old-school bulky iPods for Christmas. For a music lover, it was hard to believe that after years of carrying around tapes or CDs, you could have all your songs in one little device — little did I know just how little it would get once the nano arrives. That Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who died today, Oct. 5, 2011, was a visionary on a large scale is undisputed, but it's the small-scale personal ways in which he has affected all of our lives that really resonate. And not just by making our lives more convenient with his products, but by inspiring us to live better with his own life. How Will The New iPhone Change Your Love Life?

Yes, Steve Jobs has made important contributions to the world of love and relationships. The 2005 Stanford University commencement address he made that everybody's quoting on Twitter is full of proof. Here is what we've learned about love from Steve Jobs:

1. Don't give up on love. After getting fired from Apple when he was 30 years old, Jobs was clearly devastated. "But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over." Don't ever give up on love, even if things go wrong in one relationship.

2. Love can come during times of greatest adversity. Being fired from Apple freed Jobs to enter "one of the most creative periods of my life." During the next five years, he started two companies and "fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife." He and Laurene had a wonderful family together.

3. You have to find what — and who — you love. "I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do."

4. Don't settle for second-best. "Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."

5. The most satisfying relationships get better as time goes on. "And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on."

So as I type this on a MacBook Pro, I try to imagine what life would be like without love and without my iPod. It would be unspeakably bleak and miserable. Thank you, Steve Jobs. Rest in peace.