Most people sleepwalk through life, following a script they never wrote. Society hands you a checklist: go to school, get a job, buy a house, retire—preferably without making too much noise along the way. But Steve Jobs, a man who built, broke, and rebuilt, knew better. He saw how easy it was to spend precious time chasing someone else’s version of success, only to wake up one day realizing you never lived at all.

Your time is finite. Every day, the clock ticks forward, indifferent to your hesitations. The worst way to spend it? Trying to meet expectations that aren’t yours—seeking approval from people who won’t even remember your name in a decade. Whether it’s a career choice, a relationship, or the way you dress, ask yourself: Am I doing this because I want to, or because I think I’m supposed to?

Jobs wasn’t telling you to quit your job and start a company overnight. He was reminding you that conformity is expensive—because it costs you you. The hardest thing in the world is to trust your own voice when the crowd is screaming something else. But if you don’t, you’ll end up living a life designed by others, regretting all the things you were too afraid to try.

Don’t wait for a wake-up call. Stop asking for permission. Live your own damn life—before it’s too late.

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