This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of táo bị cắn dở Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.
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I am honored to lớn be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten lớn a college graduation. Today I want lớn tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, & she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me khổng lồ be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a hotline in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; vày you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college và that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused lớn sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to lớn college.
And 17 years later I did go lớn college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, & all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to vì with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. & here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided lớn drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, & begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits khổng lồ buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night khổng lồ get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity & intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out & didn’t have lớn take the normal classes, I decided to lớn take a calligraphy class lớn learn how to vì chưng this. I learned about serif và sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, & I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back khổng lồ me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. Và since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, và personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible lớn connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later.
Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have lớn trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, và it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love và loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to vì early in life. Woz & I started táo bị cắn in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, & in 10 years táo khuyết had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, & I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as táo khuyết grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to lớn run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began lớn diverge và eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. & very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, và it was devastating.
I really didn’t know what to vì for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down — that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce & tried lớn apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to lớn dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at hãng apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. Và so I decided lớn start over.
I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from táo khuyết was the best thing that could have ever happened lớn me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me khổng lồ enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named Ne
XT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, & is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, táo apple bought Ne
XT, I returned to lớn Apple, and the công nghệ we developed at Ne
XT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t thảm bại faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got khổng lồ find what you love. Và that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going khổng lồ fill a large part of your life, and the only way lớn be truly satisfied is to vị what you believe is great work. Và the only way to bởi vì great work is khổng lồ love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, lượt thích any great relationship, it just gets better và better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, và since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning và asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to bởi what I am about to do today?” và 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’ve 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 khổng lồ die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something khổng lồ lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to lớn follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, và it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, và that I should expect lớn live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me khổng lồ go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to lớn try lớn tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years lớn tell them in just a few months. It means lớn make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach & into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas & got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to lớn be a very rare size of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.
This was the closest I’ve been khổng lồ facing death, và I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go khổng lồ heaven don’t want lớn die to lớn get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old lớn make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old và be cleared away. Sorry lớn be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
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 khổng lồ follow your heart và intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want lớn become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it lớn life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers & desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors và Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: It was idealistic, và overflowing with neat tools và great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, & I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. & now, as you graduate lớn begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry Stay Foolish: In this article, we explain the meaning of Steve Jobs’ quote – Your time is limited, don’t waste living someone else’s life. Key themes explored in this discussion are – identifying your own values và creating your personal vision for life. We also cảm biến upon the meaning of staying hungry & living life by your own standards.
Steve Jobs Quote:Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
In this segment, while exploring the meaning of Steve Jobs’ quote – Stay hungry stay foolish. There are 2 parts to lớn this quote:Living life by someone else’s standards & goals
Staying Dissatisfied – stay hungry stay foolish
We explore a little bit about each of these segments in relation to the society và its influence on you. Most importantly, this article is about highlighting the importance of your life và its values.
Living by your own standards
Being yourself is one of the toughest challenges. We constantly face opposition from the world which seems to lớn have so many expectations from us. However, unless we set a baseline of standards of what we expect, it is easy khổng lồ fall into the trap of someone else’s plan.
Unfortunately, this means that it leaves very little opportunity for you lớn define your own standards. And without doing this, it is easy to keep slipping into the definitions given by someone else. The first thing we need to vày is khổng lồ become good at recognising what we truly want.
Once we become good at observing what we want, the next step is lớn find a way to lớn establish this need. Build your own strength and make sure that you consistently define & elevate your values. These values và standards help you find your moral và purpose compass. Without these, we will easily fall into the trap of doing something that the herd does.
Being yourself
However, at some stage, we need to lớn put ourselves a little ahead. We must think about what is more important to us. Is it just society, the way it feels about us or what we want to vì chưng with our lives? I agree with Steve Jobs’s thoughts when he says – your time is limited in this world. It is hard enough that we have our own set of aspirations và standards và try to lớn live by those. Added khổng lồ that, the expectations of society become too much.
The beauty of being a part of the social culture is maintaining balance. This balance is about being a part of it, yet being sufficiently distant. Ultimately, the purpose is to lớn find a way to define and live up lớn your individuality. Be yourself, and don’t let the rat race consume you. Your purpose, values and character will help you create a compass of what you truly want or not. Keep listening to it & find out your next moves.
Stay Hungry Don’t let your desires be taken over
The quote – stay hungry stay foolish at first seems a bit different from the first part. I’m not too sure if I am completely convinced that it is an integral part of the quote. Staying hungry shows an image of hunger, the desire to lớn do và be something. It elevates our aspirations from ourselves while nurturing the desire to lớn reach higher standards. I love the belief that we’re capable of more things than we mix our eyes to.
However, the only caution I’d advise against is to lớn separate this from happiness. The desire should enable us to bởi vì more with our life. But, if it is making us feel unhappy about ourselves or making us constantly agitated – then there’s a problem, right? Your aspirations cannot come at the cost of your mental peace.
Related: Creating a personal vision và baseline standards for your life
Stay Foolish: Make mistakes, be naive & explore your possibilities
Now this serves as the most important aspect of the quote for me. I can stay hungry, but why do I have to lớn stay foolish?
Then again I wonder about the context in which he has used “stay foolish” when he says stay hungry stay foolish. Maybe it is just a way khổng lồ say that sometimes it is worth being intellectually a little foolish to ask the silly questions which most of them take for granted. Maybe it is about asking “Why” và “How” và most importantly “Why Not” when most people seem to go along with the rules.
It might be about being the đen sheep in society who wants to vì something different without being afraid of being an outcast. It might be about living up khổng lồ what you think is right even though it means you can be wrong at times.
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I guess that is what Jobs meant when he said stay hungry stay foolish. These were pretty much our thoughts as the quote critic to understand what the quote means. Of course, this post is never complete without your views and thoughts as khổng lồ what it means khổng lồ each of us. Please vày share your views & we would love a nice debate on it.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.. Stay Hungry Stay Foolish”
Steve Jobs (Source)Steve Jobs on connecting the dots
I think it was a wonderful reminder about the Stanford commencement speech. A short 14 minute đoạn clip by Steve Jobs talking about connecting the dots which I think is an extremely powerful one which makes us think. Sharing the link to the đoạn clip below: