Steve Jobs wearing jeans and sandals under his black robe at his commencement address at Stanford University challenged the graduating class with three stories from his life.
The first "Connecting the Dots" was about his experience at getting a good quality education. His biological mother was an unwed graduate student who wanted him to go to college. Although she chose a lawyer's family to adopt him, they declined hoping to adopt a daughter. He was later adopted by a working-class couple — neither of whom had college degrees but pledged to send him to college. He said that although he started off in a top class school, he later found that it was not what he was looking for. He found that he was learning things he had no desire to understand. At seventeen he could not see the value in a good quality education at the cost of a heavy financial burden on his middleclass working parents. So after dropping out he decided to drop in to take the courses he really was interested in. His drop ins at Reed College calligraphy classes helped in developing beautiful typography in PCs when he designed the Mac 10 years later.
The second story was about love and loss. Having found what he loved to do, Steve decided to start a company with his friend Steve Wozniak when he was twenty years old. Apple grew from just the two of them in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. A year after he released the greatest PC on earth, the Macintosh, he was fired from his job. The company he created slipped from his grasp into the hands of people he hired to run it for him. Picking up the pieces of his now broken life he started to wonder where or what he would do next. He felt he was going through a phase of public humiliation. Yet he persevered and decided to pursue his beloved profession. Despite the rejection, he was convinced of his love for his job and this prompted him to enter into one of the most creative periods of his life. In the next five years he started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, got married, and started a family. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer-animated feature film, "Toy Story," and today is regarded as the most successful animation studio in the world. He learned that at times life hits you with a brick, but you should never lose faith. Be in love with what you do, and believe that it is great work.
The third story is about death. When he was 17 he 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." When he was fifty he was diagnosed with a terminal cancer. He was asked to say his goodbyes to friends and family. This had a lasting impression on his life. The thought of death made him value his life even more. He realised that every moment of his life was precious. He said, "Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart, and intuition." On further investigation the doctors diagnosed it to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. He ended his speech saying "stay hungry and stay foolish." Pursue your goals with an ardent desire to fulfill your deepest longing to do what you love doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment