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Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

  • 00:00:07.470This program is brought to you by Stanford University.
  • 00:00:10.470Please visit us at stanford.edu
  • 00:00:22.492Thank You. I am honored to be with you today at your commencement
  • 00:00:30.020from one of the finest universities in the world.
  • 00:00:35.559Truth be told I never graduated from college
  • 00:00:41.560and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.
  • 00:00:47.980Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it.
  • 00:00:52.010No big deal. Just three stories.
  • 00:00:55.850The first story is about connecting the dots.
  • 00:01:01.010I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months,
  • 00:01:03.980but then stayed around as a drop-in
  • 00:01:05.799for another 18 months or so before I really quit.
  • 00:01:09.410So why did I drop out?
  • 00:01:12.230It started before I was born.
  • 00:01:15.250My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student,
  • 00:01:19.240and she decided to put me up for adoption.
  • 00:01:22.360She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates,
  • 00:01:26.309so everything was all set for me to
  • 00:01:28.609be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife.
  • 00:01:31.740Except that when I popped out they decided
  • 00:01:34.150at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.
  • 00:01:37.920So my parents, who were on a waiting list,
  • 00:01:40.160got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected
  • 00:01:44.470baby boy; do you want him?"
  • 00:01:47.430They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that
  • 00:01:53.300my mother had never graduated from college
  • 00:01:55.310and that my father had never graduated from high school.
  • 00:01:59.160She refused to sign the final adoption papers.
  • 00:02:03.430She only relented a few months later when
  • 00:02:05.390my parents promised that I would go to college. This was the start in my life.
  • 00:02:12.540And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college
  • 00:02:19.340that was almost as expensive as Stanford,
  • 00:02:22.470and all of my working-class parents'
  • 00:02:24.310savings were being spent on my college tuition.
  • 00:02:27.610After six months, I couldn't see the value in it.
  • 00:02:30.720I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life
  • 00:02:32.760and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out.
  • 00:02:36.850And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved
  • 00:02:40.289their entire life.
  • 00:02:42.600So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK.
  • 00:02:46.939It was pretty scary at the time,
  • 00:02:49.399but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
  • 00:02:54.080The minute I dropped out I could stop
  • 00:02:56.690taking the required classes that didn't interest me,
  • 00:02:59.740and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
  • 00:03:04.760It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room,
  • 00:03:08.170so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms,
  • 00:03:10.590I returned coke bottles for the 5 cent deposits to buy food with,
  • 00:03:14.720and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday
  • 00:03:17.280night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna
  • 00:03:21.150temple. I loved it.
  • 00:03:23.850And much of what I stumbled into by following
  • 00:03:26.260my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.
  • 00:03:29.689Let me give you one example: Reed College at that
  • 00:03:34.500time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country.
  • 00:03:38.350Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer,
  • 00:03:42.749was beautifully hand calligraphed.
  • 00:03:45.390Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes,
  • 00:03:49.730I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this.
  • 00:03:53.100I learned about serif and san serif typefaces,
  • 00:03:56.300about varying the amount of space
  • 00:03:57.950between different letter combinations,
  • 00:03:59.850about what makes great typography great.
  • 00:04:03.440It was beautiful, historical,
  • 00:04:05.800artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture,
  • 00:04:09.750and I found it fascinating.
  • 00:04:12.210None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.
  • 00:04:17.570But ten years later,
  • 00:04:18.870when we were designing the first Macintosh computer,
  • 00:04:21.880it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac.
  • 00:04:25.470It was the first computer with beautiful typography.
  • 00:04:29.490If I had never dropped in on that single course in college,
  • 00:04:32.960the Mac would have never had multiple
  • 00:04:34.590typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.
  • 00:04:37.400And since Windows just copied the Mac,
  • 00:04:39.700it's likely that no personal computer would have them.
  • 00:04:47.070If I had never dropped out,
  • 00:04:51.140I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class,
  • 00:04:54.110and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography
  • 00:04:57.150that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect
  • 00:05:00.520the dots looking forward when I was in college.
  • 00:05:02.450But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
  • 00:05:07.130Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward;
  • 00:05:10.150you can only connect them looking backwards.
  • 00:05:12.920So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect
  • 00:05:15.549in your future.
  • 00:05:16.730You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma,
  • 00:05:20.730whatever.
  • 00:05:22.350Beleiveing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart
  • 00:05:28.100Even when it leads you off the well worn path, and that will make all the difference.
  • 00:05:38.600My second story is about love and loss.
  • 00:05:44.030I was lucky I found what I loved to do early in life.
  • 00:05:48.310Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20.
  • 00:05:51.870We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of
  • 00:05:55.260us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees.
  • 00:05:59.660We had just released our finest creation the Macintosh
  • 00:06:03.350a year earlier, and I had just turned 30.
  • 00:06:06.360And then I got fired.
  • 00:06:09.050How can you get fired from a company you started?
  • 00:06:12.400Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought
  • 00:06:15.900was very talented to run the company with me,
  • 00:06:18.680and for the first year or so things went well.
  • 00:06:20.470But then our visions of the future began
  • 00:06:22.680to diverge and eventually we had a falling out.
  • 00:06:25.770When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him.
  • 00:06:29.150So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out.
  • 00:06:32.730What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone,
  • 00:06:35.890and it was devastating.
  • 00:06:38.530I really didn't know what to do for a few months.
  • 00:06:41.110I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs
  • 00:06:43.870down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me.
  • 00:06:47.210I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce
  • 00:06:50.880and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly.
  • 00:06:54.420I was a very public failure,
  • 00:06:55.840and I even thought about running away from the valley.
  • 00:06:58.570But something slowly began to dawn on me I still loved what I did.
  • 00:07:03.590The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit.
  • 00:07:07.800I had been rejected, but I was still in love.
  • 00:07:12.090And so I decided to start over.
  • 00:07:14.910I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from
  • 00:07:17.910Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.
  • 00:07:21.010The heaviness of being successful was
  • 00:07:23.190replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again,
  • 00:07:26.220less sure about everything.
  • 00:07:27.160It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
  • 00:07:31.420During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT,
  • 00:07:34.530another company named Pixar,
  • 00:07:35.890and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife.
  • 00:07:39.780Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature
  • 00:07:42.610film, Toy Story,
  • 00:07:44.380and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.
  • 00:07:49.980In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT,
  • 00:07:53.890I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at
  • 00:07:56.710NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance.
  • 00:07:59.890And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
  • 00:08:03.880I'm pretty sure none of this would
  • 00:08:05.750have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple.
  • 00:08:08.150It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.
  • 00:08:12.430Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.
  • 00:08:18.300I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved
  • 00:08:21.210what I did. You've got to find what you love.
  • 00:08:24.540And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.
  • 00:08:28.170Your work is going to fill a large part of your life,
  • 00:08:30.100and the only way to be truly satisfied
  • 00:08:32.450is to do what you believe is great work.
  • 00:08:35.080And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
  • 00:08:38.460If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle.
  • 00:08:43.740As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.
  • 00:08:47.510And, like any great relationship,
  • 00:08:49.060it just gets better and better as the years roll on.
  • 00:08:52.260So keep looking. Don't settle.
  • 00:09:05.300My third story is about death.
  • 00:09:09.270When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like:
  • 00:09:12.530"If you live each day as if it was your last,
  • 00:09:15.910someday you'll most certainly be right."
  • 00:09:20.860It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years,
  • 00:09:25.520I have looked in the mirror every morning
  • 00:09:27.140and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life,
  • 00:09:30.020would I want to do what I am about to do today?"
  • 00:09:34.310And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row,
  • 00:09:37.920I know I need to change something.
  • 00:09:40.570Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important
  • 00:09:43.930tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.
  • 00:09:47.920Because almost everything all external expectations, all pride,
  • 00:09:52.890all fear of embarrassment or failure -
  • 00:09:54.870these things just fall away in the face of death,
  • 00:09:58.180leaving only what is truly important.
  • 00:10:00.830Remembering that you are going to die is the best
  • 00:10:03.670way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
  • 00:10:08.200You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
  • 00:10:13.950About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer.
  • 00:10:16.980I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning,
  • 00:10:20.280and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas.
  • 00:10:23.600I didn't even know what a pancreas was.
  • 00:10:26.270The doctors told me this was almost
  • 00:10:28.540certainly a type of cancer that is incurable,
  • 00:10:30.790and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months.
  • 00:10:35.840My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order,
  • 00:10:40.320which is doctor's code for prepare to die.
  • 00:10:42.910It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought
  • 00:10:47.960you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months.
  • 00:10:51.850It means to make sure everything is buttoned
  • 00:10:53.750up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family.
  • 00:10:56.710It means to say your goodbyes.
  • 00:11:01.460I lived with that diagnosis all day.
  • 00:11:04.130Later that evening I had a biopsy,
  • 00:11:06.590where they stuck an endoscope down my throat,
  • 00:11:08.830through my stomach and into my intestines,
  • 00:11:11.260put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor.
  • 00:11:14.480I was sedated, but my wife, who was there,
  • 00:11:18.550told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope
  • 00:11:21.740the doctors started crying because it turned out to be
  • 00:11:24.500a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery.
  • 00:11:29.000I had the surgery and thankfully I'm fine now.
  • 00:11:40.800This was the closest I've been to facing death,
  • 00:11:43.560and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades.
  • 00:11:46.860Having lived through it,
  • 00:11:48.620I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when
  • 00:11:51.250death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
  • 00:11:55.419No one wants to die.
  • 00:11:58.260Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there.
  • 00:12:02.390And yet death is the destination we all share.
  • 00:12:06.190No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be,
  • 00:12:10.370because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life.
  • 00:12:15.020It is Life's change agent.
  • 00:12:16.630It clears out the old to make way for the new.
  • 00:12:19.870Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now,
  • 00:12:24.570you will gradually become the old and be cleared away.
  • 00:12:28.530Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
  • 00:12:32.149Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.
  • 00:12:38.110Don't be trapped by dogma which is living
  • 00:12:40.410with the results of other people's thinking.
  • 00:12:42.769Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner
  • 00:12:46.190voice. And most important,
  • 00:12:48.640have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
  • 00:12:51.580They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
  • 00:12:55.870Everything else is secondary.
  • 00:13:09.720When I was young,
  • 00:13:11.290there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog,
  • 00:13:15.330which was one of the bibles of my generation.
  • 00:13:18.260It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here
  • 00:13:21.770in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch.
  • 00:13:25.839This was in the late 1960's,
  • 00:13:27.590before personal computers and desktop publishing,
  • 00:13:30.440so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras.
  • 00:13:34.680It was sort of like Google in paperback form,
  • 00:13:36.94035 years before Google came along: it was idealistic,
  • 00:13:41.570overflowing with neat tools, and great notions.
  • 00:13:45.490Stewart and his team put out several
  • 00:13:47.090issues of The Whole Earth Catalog,
  • 00:13:48.480and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.
  • 00:13:53.400It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age.
  • 00:13:58.720On the back cover of their final issue
  • 00:14:00.430was a photograph of an early morning country road,
  • 00:14:04.320the kind you might find yourself
  • 00:14:05.319hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous.
  • 00:14:08.930Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."
  • 00:14:13.140It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry.
  • 00:14:18.560Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself.
  • 00:14:23.750And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
  • 00:14:28.680Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
  • 00:14:31.731Thank you all very much.
  • 00:14:57.500The preceding program is copyrighted by Stanford University.
  • 00:15:01.080Please visit us at stanford.edu

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