Powerful Speech 009 - Steve Jobs Stanford University 2005

in freedom •  7 years ago  (edited)


With this post I started a series of speeches of important for me people that have helped me forge the values that I carry.

Today's choice is one of the greatest free-thinking minds, Steve Jobs.


I am sure he doesn't need any introduction you all know who he was. In my opinion, he was the only founder of this new cyber religion which had the intention to use it for the greater good. With this new religion came a new robotized futuristic era that brought decay to our world by removing all traditions and values from mankind. Like a perfect enslaving tool for the masters of the perfect prison. A prison in which almost all prisoners are happy to stay and they will fight with all they got to stay in it. A prison in which the poor few souls that want to escape are being ridiculed. In this demonic place, a speech like the one at Stanford University is like showing a window with a nice view from an underground cell to the new inmates. I feel this speech very personal because in a way we share a similar path(if interested you can take a look at my introduceyourself post)
On Dtube you have the audio below there is the entire speech in written form.

"I am honored to 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 to a college graduation. Today I want to 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, and 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 to 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 call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and 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 do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to 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, and 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 to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to 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 and 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 and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and 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, and 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 to 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. And 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, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to 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 to 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, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple 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, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do 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 and tried to 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 dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. 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.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, 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, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT 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 lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to 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, like any great relationship, it just gets better and 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, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am 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’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 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.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and 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, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to 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 and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and 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 be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and 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 to heaven don’t want to die to 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 to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to 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 to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to 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 to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: It was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and 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, and 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. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

Powerful Speech 001 2PAC -1992 interview
https://steemit.com/tupac/@sofia1000/iiqnjawl

Powerful Speech 002 - Jiddu Krishnamurti(In Total Silence The Mind Come)
https://steemit.com/freedom/@sofia1000/tkvib732

Powerful Speech 003 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy (Secret Societies - 27 April 1961)
https://steemit.com/freedom/@sofia1000/bvr8snwg

Powerful Speech 004 - George Carlin 2007 Interview
https://steemit.com/freedom/@sofia1000/2ukir129

Powerful Speech 005 - Immortal Techniques
https://steemit.com/freedom/@sofia1000/powerful-speech-005-immortal-techniques

Powerful Speech 006 - Dr. Ron Paul interview 2008
https://steemit.com/freedom/@sofia1000/powerful-speech-006-dr-ron-paul-interview-2015

Powerful Speech 007 - Osho about drugs
https://steemit.com/freedom/@sofia1000/ec3qhq19

Powerful Speech 008 - Charlie Chaplin The great dictator 1940
https://steemit.com/freedom/@sofia1000/d0a9gp06

If you have enjoyed my series so far please upvote, resteem and follow me!


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I have seen this numerous times. And today i have watched this once again. Never to much.
I thank you for bringing me to this again today.
I am not a fan of Apple products, never had even one single piece of them. I really HATE when manufacturer is trying to decide what I shall like and how to use my gadgets (NO external SD card slot ????!) . No way! I will protect my freedom. !
And that is why I will never own any iPhone in my life. Their philosofy of deciding they know better what client wants - is disgusting.
But i love Steve's passion and power.
It is a mixed feelings....
RIP Steve.

@onealfa Thank You for the comment my friend :) I couldn't agree more with you on Apple(even if I own an iPhone if I have to be honest), however, I believe that we shouldn't put Apple as equivalent to Steve, I believe that they stole his company because he would have brought a new tomorrow to the world, which the masters couldn't control.

Btw Nice Blog, I hope I can bring you some adrenalin with my future posts.

Everytime I hear this speech I feel motivated

"Your time is limited. Don't waste it living someone else's life" -steve jobs.. I am learning a lot from your posts. Keep sharing. Thanks @sofia1000

@crickitufu Hey buddy, 10x for the support once again:) It's one of my favorite moments of the speech as well :) I am glad that I was able to enrich you somehow with my posts, it gives me the motivation to continue :)

This is such a great speech i've listened to this speech probably 10 times through the years you can learn a lot from it! Thanks for the post followed and upvoted if you get the chance check my blog out I think you will enjoy it!

Indeed you have a cool blog :)

Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head
with a brick. Don't lose faith.
#SJ

Yep, life is a bitch but we cannot give up, never! thanks for the comment my friend :)

Really powerful speech and so sad that he has gone :(

RIP.

Hallo @sofia1000, I already follow your account, do not forget follow back , so that we can mutually upvote, i wanna talk with you again

Rialnasution thank you for the support :)

There you go, i'm waiting for this speech to come out, thanks by the way. Hey, my new post will be scheduled next week, sorry about that. :)

Hey Cortexx :) thank you for the support my friend :) You shouldn't be sorry, whenever you can, do it. Steemit shouldn't be an obligation but a pleasure :)

Like Steve Jobs very much !!
try to follow him !!

10x for the support and the comment my friend :)

you are wellcome dear !!

Its just so amazing what life could bring to us and how we think and handle the issues of life is what pays off in the end. I really enjoyed the great speech. Well done for a good job

thank you Peter :)

I'm close with IT and I like Steve :D Good speech :) Like always upvote for good content @sofia1000

BTW are you close with this IT?

Just kiddin :)

No :D I like my life and IT's not good company :D

Thank You Matt for all the support :)

Had watched this a few years ago and like you, find Jobs address quite inspirational. I first learned about, "Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward" and use this line when helping someone through a difficult turning point in their lives

I also love this quote and use it often, "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

GREAT SHARE!! Thank you for posting

@zkhan, Thank you for the comment. I was thinking to cut a part of the speech but it would be a dishonest choice since the entire speech is epic and every sentence makes you think about life.

couldn't agree with you more that this is an EPIC speech and great introspection of life

look forward to reading your future posts :)

What a powerful speech! Thank you for sharing it here, I can see why it is one of your favorites. As I was reading it, Steve Jobs' poignant last words came to mind. He is reported as looking over the shoulders of his loved ones, saying, "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow." And then he graduated this life.

hey love your description :D Resident ologist, background in psychology, technology, cryptology, lover of people, beauty, and life

I took a closer look at your blog and it is really inspiring :)

Great speech. thanks for sharing this. :)

thank you buddy :)

This post has received a 21.93 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @sofia1000.