Commencement address by Steve Jobs

8/8/2019 Commencement address by Steve Jobs

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This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of AppleComputer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 1 , !!"#

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from

one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduatedfrom college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten toa college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories frommy life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first months, but then

stayed around as a drop!in for another "# months or so before Ireally $uit. %o why did I drop out&

It started before I was born. y biological mother was a young,unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me upfor adoption. %he felt very strongly that I should be adopted bycollege graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adoptedat birth by a lawyer and his wife. ()cept that when I popped out

they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. %omy parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middleof the night as*ing+ -e have an une)pected baby boy do youwant him& They said+ /f course. y biological mother laterfound out that my mother had never graduated from college andthat my father had never graduated from high school. %herefused to sign the final adoption papers. %he only relented a few

months later when my parents promised that I would somedaygo to college.

0nd "1 years later I did go to college. 2ut I naively chose acollege that was almost as e)pensive as %tanford, and all of mywor*ing!class parents' savings were being spent on my college



tuition. 0fter si) months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had noidea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how collegewas going to help me figure it out. 0nd here I was spending all

of the money my parents had saved their entire life. %o I decidedto drop out and trust that it would all wor* out /3. It was prettyscary at the time, but loo*ing bac* it was one of the bestdecisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stopta*ing the re$uired classes that didn't interest me, and begindropping in on the ones that loo*ed interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on

the floor in friends' rooms, I returned co*e bottles for the 45deposits to buy food with, and I would wal* the 1 miles acrosstown every %unday night to get one good meal a wee* at the6are 3rishna temple. I loved it. 0nd much of what I stumbledinto by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be

priceless later on. 7et me give you one e)ample+

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphyinstruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster,every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed.2ecause I had dropped out and didn't have to ta*e the normalclasses, I decided to ta*e a calligraphy class to learn how to dothis. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varyingthe amount of space between different letter combinations, aboutwhat ma*es great typography great. It was beautiful, historical,

artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I foundit fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in mylife. 2ut ten years later, when we were designing the first

acintosh computer, it all came bac* to me. 0nd we designed it



all into the ac. It was the first computer with beautifultypography. If I had never dropped in on that single course incollege, the ac would have never had multiple typefaces or

proportionally spaced fonts. 0nd since -indows 8ust copied theac, it's li*ely that no personal computer would have them. If Ihad never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on thiscalligraphy class, and personal computers might not have thewonderful typography that they do. /f course it was impossibleto connect the dots loo*ing forward when I was in college. 2ut itwas very, very clear loo*ing bac*wards ten years later.

0gain, you can't connect the dots loo*ing forward you can onlyconnect them loo*ing bac*wards. %o you have to trust that thedots will somehow connect in your future. 9ou have to trust insomething : your gut, destiny, life, *arma, whatever. Thisapproach has never let me down, and it has made all thedifference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was luc*y : I found what I loved to do early in life. -o; andI started 0pple in my parents garage when I was <=. -e wor*edhard, and in "= years 0pple had grown from 8ust the two of us ina garage into a >< billion company with over ?=== employees.-e had 8ust released our finest creation : the acintosh : ayear earlier, and I had 8ust turned @=. 0nd then I got fired. 6owcan you get fired from a company you started& -ell, as 0pplegrew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to runthe company with me, and for the first year or so things wentwell. 2ut then our visions of the future began to diverge andeventually we had a falling out. -hen we did, our 2oard ofAirectors sided with him. %o at @= I was out. 0nd very publicly



out. -hat had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone,and it was devastating.

I really didn't *now what to do for a few months. I felt that I hadlet the previous generation of entrepreneurs down ! that I haddropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met withAavid Bac*ard and 2ob Noyce and tried to apologi;e forscrewing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I eventhought about running away from the valley. 2ut somethingslowly began to dawn on me : I still loved what I did. The turnof events at 0pple had not changed that one bit. I had been

re8ected, but I was still in love. 0nd so I decided to start over.I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from 0pplewas the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Theheaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of

being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me toenter one of the most creative periods of my life.

Auring the ne)t five years, I started a company named Ne T,another company named Bi)ar, and fell in love with an ama;ingwoman who would become my wife. Bi)ar went on to create theworlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story , and isnow the most successful animation studio in the world. In aremar*able turn of events, 0pple bought Ne T, I returned to0pple, and the technology we developed at Ne T is at the heartof 0pple's current renaissance. 0nd 7aurene and I have awonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't beenfired from 0pple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the

patient needed it. %ometimes life hits you in the head with a



bric*. Aon't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that*ept me going was that I loved what I did. 9ou've got to findwhat you love. 0nd that is as true for your wor* as it is for your

lovers. 9our wor* is going to fill a large part of your life, andthe only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe isgreat wor*. 0nd the only way to do great wor* is to love whatyou do. If you haven't found it yet, *eep loo*ing. Aon't settle. 0swith all matters of the heart, you'll *now when you find it. 0nd,li*e any great relationship, it 8ust gets better and better as theyears roll on. %o *eep loo*ing until you find it. Aon't settle.

My third story is about death.-hen I was "1, I read a $uote that went something li*e+ If youlive each day as if it was your last, someday you'll mostcertainly be right. It made an impression on me, and since then,for the past @@ years, I have loo*ed in the mirror every morningand as*ed myself+ If today were the last day of my life, would Iwant to do what I am about to do today& 0nd whenever theanswer has been No for too many days in a row, I *now I needto change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important toolI've ever encountered to help me ma*e the big choices in life.2ecause almost everything : all e)ternal e)pectations, all

pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure ! these things 8ust fallaway in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I *now toavoid the trap of thin*ing you have something to lose. 9ou arealready na*ed. There is no reason not to follow your heart.



0bout a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at1+@= in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my

pancreas. I didn't even *now what a pancreas was. The doctors

told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that isincurable, and that I should e)pect to live no longer than three tosi) months. y doctor advised me to go home and get myaffairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. Itmeans to try to tell your *ids everything you thought you'd havethe ne)t "= years to tell them in 8ust a few months. It means toma*e sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as

possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. 7ater that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuc* an endoscope down my throat, throughmy stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my

pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, butmy wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cellsunder a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned

out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curablewith surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's theclosest I get for a few more decades. 6aving lived through it, Ican now say this to you with a bit more certainty than whendeath was a useful but purely intellectual concept+

No one wants to die. (ven people who want to go to heavendon't want to die to get there. 0nd yet death is the destination weall share. No one has ever escaped it. 0nd that is as it should be,

because Aeath is very li*ely the single best invention of 7ife. Itis 7ife's change agent. It clears out the old to ma*e way for thenew. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from



now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away.%orry to be so dramatic, but it is $uite true.

9our time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.Aon't be trapped by dogma : which is living with the results ofother people's thin*ing. Aon't let the noise of others' opinionsdrown out your own inner voice. 0nd most important, have thecourage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehowalready *now what you truly want to become. (verything else issecondary.

-hen I was young, there was an ama;ing publication called TheWhole Earth Catalog , which was one of the bibles of mygeneration. It was created by a fellow named %tewart 2rand notfar from here in enlo Bar*, and he brought it to life with his

poetic touch. This was in the late "D ='s, before personalcomputers and des*top publishing, so it was all made withtypewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of li*eEoogle in paperbac* form, @4 years before Eoogle came along+it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and greatnotions.

%tewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole EarthCatalog , and then when it had run its course, they put out a finalissue. It was the mid!"D1=s, and I was your age. /n the bac*cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morningcountry road, the *ind you might find yourself hitchhi*ing on ifyou were so adventurous. 2eneath it were the words+ %tay6ungry. %tay Foolish. It was their farewell message as theysigned off. %tay 6ungry. %tay Foolish. 0nd I have alwayswished that for myself. 0nd now, as you graduate to beginanew, I wish that for you.



%tay 6ungry. %tay Foolish.

Than* you all very much.

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Commencement address by Steve Jobs