Steve’s 2005 Stanford commencement address – Inspiration for the soul!

Staying motivated all the time is not easy. Everyone has ups and downs. Everyone needs something to look forward to, to be wanted and considered useful – in isolation or  to gain others or one’s own self approval. While the world thinks children are readily impressionable, adults too need their dose of inspiration from different places – a recipe for success or happiness or nirvana. This is why successful individuals are tapped upon to recount their life’s experiences and their secret recipes to large gatherings all the time – starry eyed adults end up paying big sums (sometimes) to listen to them in the hope of gaining something new or bringing awareness to their life that has whirred past ever so quickly!

One such successful individual is Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. College dropout to one of the most successful CEOs in recent times. The guy who has created products time and again that have stood out from the rest in such a unique manner. Recently, on Steve’s 55th birthday on Feb 24, 2010, “Cult of Mac” – a website dedicated to all things Apple, congratulated Steve & ran the YouTube video of Steve’s 2005 Stanford University Commencement address. I saw the speech for the nth time and was totally inspired all over again. Hoping to share that great feeling with everyone else here..

Here’s Steve’s speech:

Key takeaways:

Steve’s speech serves as a reminder to graduating students on approaching key things in life – find what you love, follow your heart, live everyday as it were your last. Steve talks about three stories in his life to make his points.

1. Connecting the dots – he talks that how various points in life converge. He sums it up -

“you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”

2. Love & Loss – he talks about finding what he loved early on, building something around it, losing it all and then regaining it. He sums it up

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

3. Death – his survival from the jaws of death, his realizations from it and he contends that this is the only eventuality. This quote inspired him when he was 17 -

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

On finding out he has cancer -

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Sums it up as -

“our 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.”

Final message to the graduating students -

“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

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