While on the subject of Steve Jobs, one other thing he mentioned in his commencement speech was about how looking backward, you can connect the dots in your life’s events. Briefly, Steve’s example was about how he dropped out of Reed College, but he went back and took a course in calligraphy. Later in life, his understanding of calligraphy led to the use of typography in developing the Macintosh. When Steve took that calligraphy course, he had no idea how important it would be 10 years later when developing the Macintosh computer.

Here is how I connect the dots.

I didn’t like high school very much and I especially didn’t like English. Diagramming sentences; who uses that? English was a waste of my time. After working a few years in a factory, I went to college at age 24 to get a computer science degree. Ugh! English writing was a required course!

One of the best professors I ever had taught the course, Dr. Richard Strojan at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. I enjoyed his classes so much, I elected to take 2 more writing classes with him. I loved it. I loved Dr. Strojan’s classes. I often thought that if I didn’t take up computers, I may have had a career in journalism. I enjoy writing. I’m not Ernest Hemmingway, but I think I do an OK job.

Years later, I went on to Pitt to get my MBA. I wasn’t sure what I would do with my MBA. Two years later, I started my own stamp business. I use things that I learned in my MBA to operate my business. I’m not a millionaire, but I am successful.

The MBA led me into the stamp business. Dr. Strojan’s classes fueled my love for writing. The commentary I write in each pricelist pulls all of that together. All from the kid who hated high school English. Who would have thought? The dots are connected.