Steve Jobs – Stanford Commencement Speech

Steve Jobs passed away yesterday.
He left behind him the most amazing of business legacies.

One that will be spoken of for a long time.

His famous Stanford Commencement speech from 2005

says a LOT about who the man was…

And who we can aspire to be

As entrepreneurs and visionaries.

Steve Jobs Speech – Connecting the Dots

Steve Jobs – CEO of Apple Computers, creator of the iPod, the iMac, the iTouch…

creator of iTunes…

is a college drop-out.

How did this happen?
And how did he still manage to change the computing, education, and entertainment industries – with the iMac, iPod, and iTunes?

It started before birth – he adopted parents graduated from college. He went to an expensive college, that strained the family financially.

And so after 6 months of college, having no idea what he wanted to do in his life, and no idea how college was going to help him figure that out…

he dropped out.

It was very scary at the time, but turned out being one of the best decisions he ever made.

• He started dropping in on more interesting classes, and dropped the requisite ones
• He slept on friends dorm room floor
• He returned soda cans for the 5 cent refund
• He got one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple

One of the classes he picked up was calligraphy. This ended up being the foundation for great design, that has established Apple’s brand today.

The Lesson?

Maybe you also have an iMac, iPod, and iTunes empire within you.

If only you can find the courage to be true to yourself.

Steve Jobs Speech – Love and Loss:

Steve Jobs says he was lucky – he found what he loved early in life.

Wozniak and Jobs started Apple in his garage when he was 20. In 10 years, it was a 4,000-person company worth $2 billion. And then he got fired – He had a falling out with the co-leader of the company. And the board of directors sided with him.

The heaviness of success was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again.
He entered the most creative period of his life.
He created NEXT, Pixar, and got married.
(Pixar is the now most successful animation studio in the world)

Then – Apple bought NeXT.
Steve returned to Apple, and he has a wonderful marriage.

The Lesson?

Steve Jobs Speech – Death:

“If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.”:)

Since hearing that quote, Steve has been asking himself every day: “If today were the last day in my life would I want to do what I’m about to do?”

Remembering that he’ll be dead soon has the most useful tool for making the most important choices in his life. All pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things fall away.
Only what is truly important remains – when faced with death.

Steve was diagnosed with incurable cancer in 2004. He was advised that he would live no more than 6 months.

Later that evening, they re-examined him and determined that the cancer was CURABLE!

He had the surgery, and he’s fine now. Steve says:

Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent.It clears out the old, to make room for the new.Right now the new is you.But you won’t always be. Someday, you’ll be the old.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.

 

RIP, Steve.

The full transcript of the speech is here:Steve Jobs Standford 2005 Commencement Speech

How did Steve’s speech affect you?