What it really means to stay hungry and stay foolish

Quora is a cool place to be. The excitement, enthusiasm in writing, business and knowledge and everything. One Drew Davis gave me his thoughts on what it really means to stay hungry and stay foolish, pulled out of the whole world catalog as given in speech at Stanford by the Late Steve jobs. """ Drew DavisDrew Davis, Writer, Polyglot, Hacker to be
This is probably one of my favorite quotes. "Stay hungry" means stay ambitious. Sometimes, people who become successful relax and coast on former glory for the rest of their lives. They are the folks who sell their companies and then retire and hit the beach. Steve Jobs was openly contemptous of such people and he worked until he was literally too sick to be in his office, despite the fact that he became a billionaire years beforehand. This kind of burning, persistent ambition, to continue challenging oneself even after success has been achieved is the meaning of the first part of his famous quote. It is often said, good is the enemy of great. Why? Because when things are good, the temptation is to become satisfied, to leave well enough alone and move on. Only through relentless drive to overcome this temptation can greatness be achieved. The second part, "stay foolish" is about taking risks. How often have we heard parents or counselors tell us to play it safe, to follow the traditonal path: go to school, get good grades, get a good job. Steve Jobs believed that life could be much broader and more interesting than that. Striking out and taking risks that other people find "foolish" is a necessary part of great success. Dropping out of an ivy league to start a company is foolish. Trying to become a professional musician is foolish. Dedicating your life to solving a hard math problem that has stumped everyone else is foolish. But how much more dreary would our world be if nobody took these risks, and achieved these feats? So Jobs' phrase is a timeless call to action, challenging his listeners to pursue their wildest ambitions with tremendous enthusiasm, without regard for the status quo.