--- title: Tech: The Simple Realization That Changed Steve Jobs' Life description: Improve the well-being of society canonical: https://time.com/4036412/steve-jobs-realization/ author: Business Insider article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-16T16:09:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:57:22.070Z og:title: The Simple Realization That Changed Steve Jobs' Life og:description: Improve the well-being of society og:url: https://time.com/4036412/steve-jobs-realization/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2992b206891ef99b/698863d78e060175104625ea/steve-jobs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Steve Jobs at the 2011 Apple World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 6, 2011. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Simple Realization That Changed Steve Jobs' Life twitter:description: Improve the well-being of society twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2992b206891ef99b/698863d78e060175104625ea/steve-jobs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Simple Realization That Changed Steve Jobs' Life > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Drake Baer / Business Insider](https://time.com/author/business-insider/) ## Drake Baer / Business Insider Sep 16, 2015 4:09 PM UTC  Steve Jobs at the 2011 Apple World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 6, 2011. Steve Jobs at the 2011 Apple World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 6, 2011. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images by [Drake Baer / Business Insider](https://time.com/author/business-insider/) ## Drake Baer / Business Insider Sep 16, 2015 4:09 PM UTC Back in 1982, a 26-year-old Steve Jobs gave a speech upon receiving the “Golden Plate” award from the Academy of Achievement in Washington, D.C. It was a chance for Jobs to talk to high-achieving youngsters about how to make their lives and the world better. [He told them about his remarkably accurate theory of creativity.](http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-theory-of-creativity-2015-2) He also detailed a realization that changed his life. “One of the things that I had in my mind growing up — I don’t know how it got there — but that the world was sort of something that happened just outside your peepers, and you didn’t really try to change it,” [he said, according to the transcript provided on Genius.](http://genius.com/Steve-jobs-academy-of-achievement-speech-1982-annotated)“You just sort of tried to find your place in it and have the best life you could. And it would all just go on out there, and there were some pretty bright people running it.” But here’s the thing. **“As you start to interact with some of these people,” he continued, “you find they’re not a lot different than you.”** In other words, the people leading the world — in business, politics, culture — are just people. Therefore, it’s actually within the realm of possibility that you — also just a person — could change the world. “The people actually making these decisions every day, that are sort of running the world, are not really very much different than you,” Jobs said. “And they might have a little more judgment in some areas, but basically they’re the same.” With [the right connections](http://www.businessinsider.com/how-your-network-shapes-your-health-happiness-and-success-2014-4), [the right training](http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-theory-of-creativity-2015-2), and [the right mindset](http://www.businessinsider.com/how-a-growth-mindset-leads-to-success-2014-8), it’s possible to become one of them. To Jobs, this realization brought about a sense of “responsibility” toward the world. If you have the capacity to improve the well-being of society, then you’re obligated to. [Like philosophers have said for centuries, it’s essential to a meaningful life.](http://www.brainpickings.org/2013/04/23/how-to-find-fulfilling-work-roman-krznaric/) _This_ [_article_](http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-realization-on-changing-the-world-2015-3) _originally appeared on_ [_Business Insider_](http://www.businessinsider.com) _More from Business Insider:_ * [This Personality Trait Is The Most Important Driver Of Creative Achievement](http://www.businessinsider.com/the-personality-trait-that-drives-creative-achievement-2014-7) * [Why Attitude Is More Important Than IQ](http://www.businessinsider.com/why-attitude-is-more-important-than-iq-2015-9) * [3 Ways to Schedule Your Workday for Maximum Productivity](http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-schedule-your-day-for-maximum-productivity-2015-9) * [The Secret to Winning an Argument Is Ridiculously Simple](http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-win-an-argument-2014-5) * [18 Things Successful People Do in the First 10 Minutes of the Workday](http://www.businessinsider.com/successful-people-do-these-things-in-the-first-10-minutes-at-work) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4036412/steve-jobs-realization/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4036412/steve-jobs-realization/"},"headline":"The Simple Realization That Changed Steve Jobs' Life","datePublished":"2015-09-16T16:09:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:57:22.070Z","description":"Improve the well-being of society","url":"https://time.com/4036412/steve-jobs-realization/","keywords":["Living","Steve Jobs","Creativity","advice","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2992b206891ef99b/698863d78e060175104625ea/steve-jobs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Drake Baer / Business Insider"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2992b206891ef99b/698863d78e060175104625ea/steve-jobs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Steve Jobs at the 2011 Apple World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 6, 2011.","caption":"Steve Jobs at the 2011 Apple World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 6, 2011.","creditText":"Justin Sullivan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4036412/steve-jobs-realization/","name":"The Simple Realization That Changed Steve Jobs' Life"}}]}] ```