Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder is a great engineer and full of wonderful quotes for engineers to take to heart. The autobiography of the Woz is certainly a good read for any engineer. Woz urges engineers to follow their hearts
Wozniak talked about a life driven by his passion for the electronics and computing. And passion can be a more important incentive than money, he said.
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“Sometimes when you’re short of resources it forces you to do better work,” he said. To design the Apple’s logic circuitry, “I couldn’t afford an online timeshare computer system. I had to write down ones and zeros (and simulate the computer’s operations). It was all done by hand, never once on a computer.”
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He offered his computer designs to HP five times, but they never were interested. “I would not sell something for money without my employer getting a cut of it.”
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“Sometimes when you’re short of resources it forces you to do better work,” he said. To design the Apple’s logic circuitry, “I couldn’t afford an online timeshare computer system. I had to write down ones and zeros (and simulate the computer’s operations). It was all done by hand, never once on a computer.”
…
He offered his computer designs to HP five times, but they never were interested. “I would not sell something for money without my employer getting a cut of it.”
Related: Interview of Steve Wozniak – Programmers at Work – The Woz Speaks – Curious Cat Science and Engineering books

This is an advice I really want to go by. I’m definitely a passion-driven engineer.
I don’t think You can achieve anything when You are not passion-driven. You won’t sit 12-14h daily learning new stuff if You don’t love it 🙂
Actualy I think it have to be a mix between a good plan and passion.
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