Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01[Music]
2. 0:07this program is brought to you by
3. 0:08Stanford University please visit us at
4. 0:11stanford.edu
5. 0:20thank
6. 0:26you I'm uh honored to be with you today
7. 0:29for your commencement from one of the
8. 0:30finest universities in the
9. 0:33[Applause]
10. 0:34world truth be
11. 0:37told uh I never graduated from
12. 0:40college and uh this is the closest I've
13. 0:43ever gotten to a college
14. 0:46graduation today I want to tell you
15. 0:49three stories from my life that's it no
16. 0:52big deal just three
17. 0:54stories the first story is about
18. 0:57connecting the dots
19. 1:00I dropped out of Reed College after the
20. 1:02first 6 months but then stayed around as
21. 1:04a drop in for another 18 months or so
22. 1:06before I really
23. 1:08quit so why' I drop
24. 1:11out it started before I was
25. 1:14born my biological mother was a young
26. 1:17unwed graduate student and she decided
27. 1:19to put me up for
28. 1:21adoption she felt very strongly that I
29. 1:23should be adopted by college graduates
30. 1:26so everything was all set for me to be
31. 1:28adopted at Birth by a lawyer and a his
32. 1:30wife except that when I popped out they
33. 1:33decided at the last minute that they
34. 1:35really wanted a
35. 1:36girl so my parents who were on a waiting
36. 1:39list got a call in the middle of the
37. 1:41night asking we've got an unexpected
38. 1:44baby boy do you want him they said of
39. 1:49course my biological mother found out
40. 1:52later that my mother had never graduated
41. 1:54from college and that my father had
42. 1:56never graduated from high school she
43. 1:59refused to signed the final adoption
44. 2:02papers she only relented a few months
45. 2:04later when my parents promised that I
46. 2:07would go to college this was the start
47. 2:10in my
48. 2:12life and 17 years later I did go to
49. 2:16college but I naively chose a college
50. 2:19that was almost as expensive as
51. 2:21Stanford and all of my workingclass
52. 2:23parents savings were being spent on my
53. 2:25college tuition after 6 months I
54. 2:28couldn't see the value in it
55. 2:30I had no idea what I wanted to do with
56. 2:32my life and no idea how College was
57. 2:34going to help me figure it out and here
58. 2:37I was spending all the money my parents
59. 2:39had saved their entire
60. 2:41life so I decided to drop out and trust
61. 2:44that it would all work out okay it was
62. 2:47pretty scary at the time but looking
63. 2:49back it was one of the best decisions I
64. 2:51ever
65. 2:52made the minute I dropped out I could
66. 2:56stop taking the required classes that
67. 2:58didn't interest me and begin dropping in
68. 3:00on the ones that looked far more
69. 3:03interesting it wasn't all romantic I
70. 3:06didn't have a dorm room so I slept on
71. 3:08the floor in friends rooms I returned
72. 3:10Coke bottles for the 5-cent deposits to
73. 3:13buy food with and I would walk the seven
74. 3:15miles across town every Sunday night to
75. 3:18get one good meal a week at the Hari
76. 3:20Krishna Temple I loved it and much of
77. 3:24what I stumbled into by following my
78. 3:26curiosity and intuition turned out to be
79. 3:28Priceless later on let me give you one
80. 3:31example Reed College at that time
81. 3:34offered perhaps the best calligraphy
82. 3:36instruction in the country throughout
83. 3:38the campus every poster every label on
84. 3:41every drawer was beautifully hand
85. 3:44cigraph because I had dropped out and
86. 3:46didn't have to take the normal classes I
87. 3:49decided to take a calligraphy class to
88. 3:51learn how to do this I learned about
89. 3:53serif and Sans serif type faces about
90. 3:56varying the amount of space between
91. 3:57different letter combinations about what
92. 4:00makes great typography
93. 4:02great it was beautiful historical
94. 4:05artistically subtle in a way that
95. 4:07science can't capture and I found it
96. 4:10fascinating none of this had even a hope
97. 4:13of any practical application in my
98. 4:16life but 10 years later when we were
99. 4:19designing the first Macintosh computer
100. 4:21it all came back to me and we designed
101. 4:24it all into the Mac it was the first
102. 4:26computer with beautiful
103. 4:28typography if I had never never dropped
104. 4:30in on that single course in college the
105. 4:32Mac would have never had multiple type
106. 4:34faces or proportionately spaced fonts
107. 4:37and since Windows just copi the Mac it's
108. 4:39likely that no personal computer would
109. 4:41have
110. 4:41[Applause]
111. 4:44[Music]
112. 4:48them if I had never dropped out I would
113. 4:51have never dropped in on that
114. 4:52calligraphy class and personal computers
115. 4:54might not have the wonderful typography
116. 4:56that they do of course it was impossible
117. 4:59to connect the dots looking forward when
118. 5:01I was in college but it was very very
119. 5:03clear looking backwards 10 years later
120. 5:07again you can't connect the dots looking
121. 5:09forward you can only connect them
122. 5:11looking backwards so you have to trust
123. 5:13that the dots will somehow connect in
124. 5:15your future you have to trust in
125. 5:17something your gut Destiny Life Karma
126. 5:20whatever because believing that the dots
127. 5:22will connect down the road will give you
128. 5:25the confidence to follow your heart even
129. 5:27when it leads you off the well-worn path
130. 5:29path and that will make all the
131. 5:37difference my second story is about love
132. 5:41and
133. 5:42loss I was lucky I found what I love to
134. 5:46do early in life W and I started Apple
135. 5:49in my parents garage when I was 20 we
136. 5:51worked hard and in 10 years Apple had
137. 5:53grown from Just the Two of Us in a
138. 5:55garage into A2 billion doll company with
139. 5:57over 4,000 employees we just released
140. 6:00our finest creation the Macintosh a year
141. 6:03earlier and I just turned
142. 6:0530 and then I got
143. 6:07fired how can you get fired from a
144. 6:09company you
145. 6:11started well as Apple grew we hired
146. 6:14someone who I thought was very talented
147. 6:16to run the company with me and for the
148. 6:18first year or so things went well but
149. 6:20then our visions of the future began to
150. 6:22diverge and eventually we had a falling
151. 6:24out when we did our board of directors
152. 6:27sided with him and so at 30 I was out
153. 6:30and very publicly out what had been the
154. 6:33focus of my entire adult life was gone
155. 6:35and it was
156. 6:37devastating I really didn't know what to
157. 6:38do for a few months I felt that I had
158. 6:41let the previous generation of
159. 6:42entrepreneurs down that I had dropped
160. 6:44the Baton as it was being passed to me I
161. 6:47met with David Packard and Bob noise and
162. 6:50tried to apologize for screwing up so
163. 6:53badly I was a very public failure and I
164. 6:55even thought about running away from the
165. 6:57valley but something slowly began to
166. 6:59dawn on me I still loved what I
167. 7:03did the turn of events at Apple had not
168. 7:06changed that one bit I'd been rejected
169. 7:09but I was still in
170. 7:10love and so I decided to start
171. 7:13over I didn't see it then but it turned
172. 7:16out that getting fired from Apple was
173. 7:17the best thing that could have ever
174. 7:19happened to me the heaviness of being
175. 7:21successful was replaced by the lightness
176. 7:24of being a beginner again less sure
177. 7:26about everything it freed me to enter
178. 7:28one of the most creative periods per of
179. 7:29my life during the next 5 years I
180. 7:32started a company named next another
181. 7:34company named Pixar and fell in love
182. 7:36with an amazing woman who would become
183. 7:37my wife Pixar went on to create the
184. 7:40world's first computer animated feature
185. 7:42film Toy Story and is now the most
186. 7:44successful Animation Studio in the
187. 7:48world in a remarkable turn of events
188. 7:51Apple bought next and I returned to
189. 7:54Apple and the technology we developed it
190. 7:56next is at the heart of Apple's current
191. 7:58Renaissance and L and I have a wonderful
192. 8:01family
193. 8:02together I'm pretty sure none of this
194. 8:05would have happened if I hadn't been
195. 8:06fired from Apple it was awful tasting
196. 8:08medicine but I guess the patient needed
197. 8:10it sometime life sometimes life's going
198. 8:13to hit you in the head with a brick
199. 8:15don't lose faith I'm convinced that the
200. 8:18only thing that kept me going was that I
201. 8:20loved what I did you've got to find what
202. 8:23you love and that is as true for work as
203. 8:25it is for your lovers your work is going
204. 8:28to fill a large part of your life and
205. 8:30the only way to be truly satisfied is to
206. 8:32do what you believe is great work and
207. 8:34the only way to do great work is to love
208. 8:37what you do if you haven't found it yet
209. 8:40keep looking and don't settle as with
210. 8:43all matters of the heart you'll know
211. 8:45when you find it and like any great
212. 8:47relationship it just gets better and
213. 8:49better as the years roll on so keep
214. 8:52looking don't settle
215. 8:57[Applause]
216. 9:04my third story is about
217. 9:07death when I was 17 I read a quote that
218. 9:10went something like if you live each day
219. 9:13as if it was your last someday you'll
220. 9:15most certainly be
221. 9:19right it made an impression on me and
222. 9:22since then for the past 33 years I
223. 9:25looked in the mirror every morning and
224. 9:26asked myself if today were the last day
225. 9:29of my life what I want to do what I am
226. 9:31about to do today and whenever the
227. 9:34answer has been no for too many days in
228. 9:36a row I know I need to change
229. 9:39something remembering that I'll be dead
230. 9:41soon is the most important tool I've
231. 9:43ever encountered to help me make the big
232. 9:45choices in life because almost
233. 9:48everything all external expectations all
234. 9:51Pride all fear of embarrassment or
235. 9:53failure these things just fall away in
236. 9:56the face of death leaving only what is
237. 9:58truly important
238. 10:00remembering that you are going to die is
239. 10:02the best way I know to avoid the Trap of
240. 10:05thinking you have something to lose you
241. 10:07are already naked there is no reason not
242. 10:10to follow your
243. 10:12heart about a year ago I was diagnosed
244. 10:15with cancer I had a scan at 7:30 in the
245. 10:19morning and it clearly showed a tumor on
246. 10:21my pancreas I didn't even know what a
247. 10:23pancreas was the doctors told me this
248. 10:27was almost certainly a type of cancer
249. 10:29that is incurable and that I should
250. 10:31expect to live no longer than 3 to 6
251. 10:34months my doctor advised me to go home
252. 10:37and get my Affairs in order which is
253. 10:40doctor's code for prepare to die it
254. 10:43means to try and tell your kids
255. 10:45everything you thought you'd have the
256. 10:47next 10 years to tell them in just a few
257. 10:50months it means to make sure everything
258. 10:52is buttoned up so that it will be as
259. 10:54easy as possible for your family it
260. 10:57means to say your goodbyes
261. 11:00I live with that diagnosis all day later
262. 11:03that evening I had a biopsy where they
263. 11:06stuck an endoscope down my throat
264. 11:08through my stomach and into my
265. 11:09intestines put a needle into my pancreas
266. 11:12and got a few cells from the tumor I was
267. 11:15sedated but my wife who was there told
268. 11:18me that when they viewed the cells under
269. 11:19a microscope the doctor started crying
270. 11:22because it turned out to be a very rare
271. 11:24form of pancreatic cancer that is
272. 11:26curable with surgery I had the surgery
273. 11:29and thankfully I'm fine
274. 11:39now this was the closest I've been to
275. 11:41facing death and I hope it's the closest
276. 11:43I get for a few more decades having
277. 11:46lived through it I can now say this to
278. 11:48you with a bit more certainty than when
279. 11:50death was a useful but purely
280. 11:52intellectual
281. 11:54concept no one wants to die even people
282. 11:58who want to go to heaven don't want to
283. 11:59die to get there and yet death is the
284. 12:03destination we all share no one has ever
285. 12:06escaped it and that is as it should be
286. 12:09because death is very likely the single
287. 12:12best invention of life it's life's
288. 12:14change agent it clears out the old to
289. 12:17make way for the new right now the new
290. 12:20is you but someday not too long from now
291. 12:23you will gradually become the old and be
292. 12:25cleared away sorry to be so dramatic but
293. 12:29it's quite
294. 12:30true your time is limited so don't waste
295. 12:34it living someone else's life don't be
296. 12:37trapped by Dogma which is living with
297. 12:39the results of other people's thinking
298. 12:42don't let the noise of others opinions
299. 12:44drown out your own inner voice and most
300. 12:47important have the courage to follow
301. 12:48your heart and intuition they somehow
302. 12:51already know what you truly want to
303. 12:54become everything else is secondary
304. 13:00[Applause]
305. 13:08when I was young there was an amazing
306. 13:11publication called the whole earth
307. 13:13catalog which was one of the Bibles of
308. 13:15my generation it was created by a fellow
309. 13:18named Stuart brand not far from here in
310. 13:21Meno Park and he brought it to life with
311. 13:23his poetic touch this was in the late
312. 13:2660s before personal computers and
313. 13:28desktop publishing so it was all made
314. 13:30with typewriters scissors and Polaroid
315. 13:32cameras it was sort of like Google in
316. 13:35paperback form 35 years before Google
317. 13:37came along it was idealistic overflowing
318. 13:41with neat tools and great
319. 13:43Notions Stewart and his team put out
320. 13:45several issues of the whole earth
321. 13:47catalog and then when it had run its
322. 13:49course they put out a final issue it was
323. 13:52the mid 1970s and I was your
324. 13:56age on the back cover of their final
325. 13:59issue was a photograph of an early
326. 14:01morning Country Road the kind you might
327. 14:04find yourself hitchhiking on if you were
328. 14:06so
329. 14:07adventurous beneath it were the words
330. 14:10stay hungry stay foolish it was their
331. 14:13farewell message as they signed off stay
332. 14:16hungry stay foolish and I have always
333. 14:20wished that for
334. 14:21myself and now as you graduate to begin
335. 14:25a new I wish that for you stay hungry
336. 14:29stay foolish thank you all very
337. 14:32[Applause]
338. 14:50[Music]
339. 14:55much the preceding program is
340. 14:57copyrighted by Stanford University
341. 15:00please visit us at stanford.edu