STEVE JOBS'S SPEECH TO THE GRADUATES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF STANFORD (2005)
Steve Jobs told the neo-graduates of the University of Stanford three stories. The first was about connecting the dots. Jobs's biological mother was a young university student and had decided to put his son up for adoption. She had wanted this son to be adopted by college-graduated parents. First, a lawyer and his wife had offered themselves as parents, but at the last minute, they had decided to adopt a girl. So, he had been given to other people.
17 years later Jobs had gone to the college. He had naively chosen a very expensive one and all their parents' savings had been spent on his college tuition. After six months, he had realized he had had no certain idea of what he would do in the future and was spending all the money of his parents; thus he had decided to drop out of school. However, he had continued to attend informally the college and had followed only the classes which interested him, even of other courses. One of these had been the calligraphy lesson, where he had learned the bases of the typing fonts. Apparently the class had seemed useless. On the contrary, it had turned out very useful, when he had designed the typography of Macintosh ten years later (which had inspired also the one of Microsoft). If Jobs had not dropped out of school, computers would not have the same interface they have now. At that time, it had been impossible connecting the dots looking forwards, while then it was very easy connecting them looking backwards. Therefore, it is necessary to trust that the dots will somehow connecting in the future.
The second story was about love and loss. Jobs affirmed he had found early in life what he loved to do. He and Wozniak had started Apple in his parents' garage and, ten years later, it had grown into a $2 billion company. He had just turned 30 and released the Macintosh when he had got fired from the company he had created. This had happened because a year before he had hired a new and talented director; at the beginning they had got on well, but later their ideas had begun to diverge. The other directors had sided with him, and Jobs had been excluded publicly. First he had been very demoralized, but then he had decided to start again: he still loved his work. This period had been very creative: he had started two new companies, the Pixar, an animation studio, and the NeXT. Meanwhile, he had known a woman who would become his wife. Afterwards, Apple had bought NeXT, Jobs had returned to it and the technology who he had developed at NeXT had given a new birth to Apple. Thereby, Jobs invited not to lose faith when life is hard, because, if you love what you do, you will find a solution. If you have not find your ideal work yet, do not settle: work is a main part of human life and you will be satisfied of your existence only if you believe in what you do.
The third story was about death. Jobs told the graduates that at 17 he remained very impressed by a quotation which says: "If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." Since then he had looked in the mirror every morning and asked himself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" Whenever the answer had been "No" for too many days consecutively, he knew something has to be changed. Remembering the nearness of the death makes us think we have nothing to lose and there is no reason not to follow our heart. In 2004 Jobs had been diagnosed with cancer on pancreas. The doctors had said it was almost incurable and in no longer than three or six months he would die. Later he had had a biopsy, from which had turned out the tumor was curable with surgery. He had had the surgery and then was fine. After that, Jobs continued reflecting on death. It is the destination we all share, the Life's change agent; it removes old to make way for the new. Our time is limited and we cannot waste it living a life of somebody else; we must follow our heart and intuition.
Jobs concluded telling the graduates about a publication of the Sixties, The whole earth catalogue, a small encyclopaedia. On the back cover of the final issue there was a photo of a country road with a message: "Stay hungry. Stay foolish". He had always wished that for himself, and then he wished that for its audience.