Katsushika Hokusai

Passion & lifelong kaizen

The ukiyo-e master (1760–1849) created roughly 30,000 works and used over 30 artistic names — later calling himself Gakyō-Rōjin, “The Old Man Mad About Art.”

At 75, in One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, he wrote that everything before seventy was not worth bothering with, and imagined still improving at ninety and beyond. On his deathbed near ninety he asked for five more years to become a true artist.

His life maps passion sustained by craft rather than early peaks or mere enrichment.

Thus, by the time I am eighty, I will have made some real progress… when I’m a hundred and ten, everything I do, be it a dot or a line, will be alive.

Steve Jobs

Passion meeting profession

In his 2005 Stanford commencement address, Jobs urged graduates to seek work they love: great work requires loving what you do, and if you have not found it yet, keep looking.

He also framed mortality as a clarifying force — aligning with Mogi’s “releasing yourself”: expectations, pride, and fear fall away, leaving what matters.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.

Marie Curie

Mission & vocation

Curie’s research on radioactivity pushed scientific frontiers under hardship — a convergence of what the world needed and what she could contribute through skill.

Her outlook — “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood” — echoes forward-facing attitudes measured in purpose psychometrics.

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.