Part 1: Connecting the Dots and Trusting the Unseen

Steve Jobs once said, 

“You cannot connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards.” 

So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. 

And he was really right, and he was on to something, because our brain sometimes pops up with thoughts that are downright idiotic, and we need to somehow tap into a higher authority and wisdom which we can always trust.

Now, this doesn’t mean we look for signs and ignore common sense, but it means when we’re weighing two equally good options, we’ve really thought about it, and we’re just undecided, we can trust in whatever signs the universe shows us. We can stay open to any inclination, any instinct within us, and move forward without questioning, without looking back, without any regret whatsoever.

It’s really a vital way to live. And it’s not just the way Steve Jobs lived; it’s the way all entrepreneurs live. They don’t wait for a decision to be perfect. They become habitualized to move forward, trusting that they will make mistakes. They will make choices that have negative unforeseen consequences. But the habit they have created is trusting themselves to find a solution in every situation they find themselves in. So they never hit a dead end. They never stop. They never quit. They never become paralyzed by fear or anxiety, and they just know how to keep moving forward. Keep building, keep growing. 

Don’t let some idea of perfection, some idea of avoiding future mistakes, prevent us from trying new things, from fearlessly taking chances and coming up with creative, new, innovative solutions to problems that everybody faces.

Part 2: The Union of Spirituality and Success

And the reason I bring up Steve Jobs is because he shatters the misconception that spirituality and ambition, success, and wealth do not go together. Steve Jobs was very spiritual—a Buddhist who had gone to India and learned meditation and spirituality, and largely credits his experiences and what he learned for his success. It is what enabled his clarity, his creative vision, to become so strong that he became a master manifestor and learned how to bend the universe to his will.

And this is a technique we can all learn and develop. At Steve Jobs’s funeral, the book Autobiography of a Yogi was passed out to everyone who came. It was his final gift, signifying the importance of this book and the importance of a spiritual life.

When we are building something new, different, big, and scary, it becomes more important than ever to have a solid foundation underneath us. And that foundation for Steve, myself, and so many others is that peace that is always present underneath the chaotic waves on the surface. 

There truly is, under all conflict and chaos and war and tragedy, a peace and stillness. That is what all of that sits on top of. And when we stay connected to that eternal peace, when we observe the space between the objects that are moving around chaotically, when we notice the silence from which all sound emerges, we don’t get carried away by the stuff. We don’t lose ourselves to the heavy and burdensome emotions that we witness. 

Instead, we touch the witnessing—that always-present awareness that is always stable, still, and calm. And for Steve and myself and so many others, it is connecting to that peace that allows us to take big chances, that allows us to go for our dreams, to be in stressful situations and thrive.

Now, Steve was not perfect—not a perfect husband or father or even businessman, known for losing his temper. He was not enlightened. But he understood that spirituality is not about hiding in a cave, abandoning your family and responsibilities. It is about entering this world with calm and steadiness and bringing some value, some meaning, and purpose to others. 

And that is really, I think, his legacy: that he created the computer for artists and creatives. He created tools for making stuff, not just consuming stuff. And through his tools, those artists created so much more meaning for so many more people that his impact on this world goes far beyond what he’s done for the shareholders of Apple.

Part 3: Visionary Leadership and Living Openly

To live a life of certainty, of total confidence in your own knowledge and abilities with 100% faith in science, is going to be a limited life because science has reached limitations. It doesn’t know what we will discover tomorrow. And so, to ignore that mystery, that incredible, wondrous nature that we had as children, is to live a small and less interesting, less rich, and less fulfilling life than being open to mystery and miracles, to signs and possibility.

And this guy was an engineer; he was very science-oriented. Yet, he didn’t try to build a faster, smarter typewriter. He built a brand new product with brand new capabilities that only he and a few others could even imagine. And that is why he succeeded.

I’m always so amazed by that story of when he was kicked out of Apple and replaced with the former CEO of Pepsi. In a few short years, the CEO of Pepsi did what CEOs often do, which was come out with a ton of new products, a ton of new options for each product, and people got confused and Apple lost its focus. They were days or weeks away from bankruptcy. In their crisis, they called up Steve Jobs, brought him back, and almost immediately, they announced the invention of the iMac—the first computer with the monitor and computer hardware all in one piece, in beautiful bright colors of blue and transparent plastic, creating a work of art for the first time, not just a gray box that would be a personal computer.

Looking back, it’s like, obvious: Why were we making such ugly gray boxes for these personal electronic devices? But it took a person to do that—a person who trusted his gut, who led the way instead of following the trends, who, because of his beliefs, trusted in the universe enough to move forward, that his instincts were right, that destiny could not be avoided. And when everyone said, “You’re crazy. You’re costing the company too much money, you’re taking too long, you don’t need to perfect the corners’ angles,” he said, “No, we do.” He said, “People don’t know what they want. We have to show it to them.”

Everything in our past led us to this moment. And we can be sure that whatever we do in this moment will lead us to our future. If all of our mistakes led to the wisdom we have today, if all of our successes were the stepping stones to reach where we are today, we know we will only go further and achieve more. All we have to do is keep our eyes open, keep our hearts open, stay curious, adventurous, and explore this world we know so little about. Keep trying new things and keep moving forward. And if we keep moving forward, those dots connect and you will go far.

I’m always amazed when I hear the stories of celebrities or super successful people, and they almost all share one thing in common: They almost all believe since childhood that they were destined for greatness.

Part 4: The Psychology of Believing in Your Destiny

They believed they were special. They believed with 100% certainty that they were going to be incredibly successful. And we may look at that and say that’s arrogant or egotistical, not very humble. But it doesn’t mean they thought they were so great they never had to work; it doesn’t mean they thought they were so special that it would just be handed to them. Quite the opposite: it meant that on those long, lonely, hard nights toiling away, they knew it was worth it because it would get them to where they knew they were going.

And there is nothing arrogant about believing in yourself. There is nothing noble about thinking badly of yourself. We all have greatness within us. We all have extraordinary, unique gifts. Our fun and exciting job on this earth is to discover them so we can share them with the world.

To do this, all we have to do is that one simple thing that improves every aspect of our lives: heighten our awareness. Stay aware of what your mind is naturally attracted to, what you have a natural interest in. Follow your curiosity. Try new things you don’t even think you’d like. Don’t be afraid to look foolish, because we all look foolish at the beginning, and the people who become great at anything aren’t afraid to look foolish for months and years. All of the smartest, most successful, and talented people were not afraid to ask for help, look stupid, and ask dumb questions until they figured it out better than everyone else who was afraid to ask stupid questions.

Part 5: Returning to Center and Clearing the Mind

If you are really lost, if you’re really unsure where to start, it’s always turning inward and rediscovering ourselves. Our balanced center at the core of who we are is where all the answers lie. When we feel like we’re being tugged in a million different directions, we lose that balanced center, and we need to rediscover it. When the mind is too chaotic, those answers cannot appear to us because our mind is blocking them with constant chaotic thinking.

When we close our eyes, we don’t have to go to India. We don’t have to go to a cave somewhere. We can close our eyes wherever we are. And we can spend time with ourselves, allowing that storm inside to settle. We can free ourselves from all the conditioning, all the influences of the world around us, everything we’ve ever heard from society, our family, and our friends. And we can start to hear that quiet whisper within us. What is it urging us to do? Which direction does it want us to go?

Then we can allow the universe to speak through us. We can understand that the thoughts that we have when we are truly calm and present and communing with the present moment of this universe, that it will speak through us—not from fear, not from external pressure from others in our society, but our true voice and calling.

Every answer appears when we stop asking and we become silent; when we start to listen instead of think. A full jug of mud cannot receive clean water. We have to empty it, and we have to clean it. And this goes for our mind. 

We often accumulate so much junk—so much worries, fears, and suffering from the world—that we can’t even think straight, and we certainly can’t become free from thinking. So instead of what we’ve been doing all our lives—constant input, constant listening, watching, reading, scrolling—it’s time to sit in still silence.

Part 6: The Mechanics of Inner Stillness and Wisdom

This is that spiritual dimension that’s non-physical, that’s not of spacetime, that’s not of this universe, that is not affected by anything in this physical dimension. It doesn’t age, it doesn’t change. It is the only changeless thing in this ever-changing universe. And this is where we can put our mental focus and allow it to become still.

A mantra can help us go from chaotic, wild thinking to being focused on one thought. Our breath can help us go beyond thought and focus on just the breath once we’ve been able to focus on a mantra. And then eventually, we can sit in pure stillness.

This is where wisdom lies. It will never come from thoughts, which are only words, which are only representations of reality—a low-bit, low-fi, low-quality, simulated representation of this infinite universe. But when we become still, understanding—true understanding—arises. Not just learning facts and knowledge, which are only partially true, but a deeper understanding which sees all levels of reality at once. And we can see how to manipulate reality to achieve our goals, how to work within the laws of physics and nature to move the chess pieces off the board around to achieve our goals.

If they are in harmony with the world around us, if they enrich the lives of most people in this world, the universe conspires to help us succeed, because no one wants to stand in the way of their own betterment. And people, luck, and circumstances come together to make it happen.

Just like we achieve in meditation, it requires deep focus, deep presence, and deep clarity that comes from deep peace. Spirituality is not just for the caves, not just for the monasteries. It may have been preserved there, but it was only preserved there because it benefited the people in the cities, the workers in the farms who supported those monasteries to maintain their wisdom and jewels that benefit the rest of us. It is not only useful for succeeding in business, for succeeding in relationships and in life in general—it’s essential.

It is essential that the people who are successful, the people who are powerful, understand the oneness that connects us; how we are all deeply interconnected; how what affects one person affects them and the world entire—maintaining the awareness of the consequences of their actions and how the karma they create will come back to them. 

We need a more peaceful world, a more harmonious world, one that lives together, one that takes care of one another, and one that enriches the lives of others and leaves the world a better place for our future generations.

Spirituality and financial success are not mutually exclusive. And if we want to become master manifestors like Steve Jobs, if we want to change the world for the better, if we want to think different and lead the way, then we have to change our thinking fundamentally. We have to change the level of our thinking, and we can only do that by raising our consciousness.