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Tech legend Steve Jobs presented an inspirational commencement address at Stanford University in 2005. His life story is compelling, beginning as an adopted child and now Co-Founder and CEO of Apple Inc. Apple is now the largest technology company in the USA, and overall second only to Exxon, by market capitalization. He tells three stories from his life: connecting the dots, love, and death.
Dropping out of college, but how he used what he learned to aid in designing the first Macintosh computer
"You can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path and that will make all the difference."
Getting fired by the Board of Directors of Apple, the company he started
"The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced the only thing that kept me going is that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. Keep looking, don't settle."
Being diagnosed with terminal cancer: "If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you will most certainly be right"
Since reading this quote, "Since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, 'If today was the last day of my life, would I want to do what I'm about to do today?'. And whenever the answer has been 'no' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I have ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die, is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked, there is no reason not to follow your heart."
Final thoughts on death and life
"Death is the destination we all share, no one has ever escaped it. Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent, it clears out the old to make way for the new. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
Whole Earth Catalog farewell message: stay hungry, stay foolish
"I always wished that for myself: stay hungry, stay foolish. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you."
(Stanford University) Drawing from some of the most pivotal points in his life, Steve Jobs, chief executive officer and co-founder of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life's setbacks -- including death itself -- at the university's 114th Commencement on June 12, 2005.
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