Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

Today, I watched a video on Youtube where someone was filming a speech by Steve Jobs at a Stanford Graduation Ceremony in 2005. Steve Jobs was the creator of Apple and died yesterday… He told the audience at the ceremony 3 stories:
The 1st story was about “connecting the dots” as he called it. It goes like his: He dropping out of Reed College after the first 6 months… But, he stayed around, and since he had dropped out he decided to take a calligraphy course. 10 years later, when Apple was designing the 1st Macintosh, he applied the calligraphy onto the computer, saying that it was the 1st computer with beautiful typography. He also said that you can’t connect the dots going forward, only looking back. So this was how he connected the dots: If he hadn’t dropped out of college, he wouldn’t have attended the calligraphy class, and as he said- computers might not have the beautiful typography they have now…

Steve Jobs’ 2nd story was about love & loss. It’s like this: He started Apple with his friend, Woz, but 10 years later, he got fired from the company he started. He was fired because Apple hired someone he thought would be good to run Apple with him, but they fell out, and the Board of Directors didn’t side with Steve Jobs, so he got fired. Afterwards, he started a company called NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with his future wife. Then, Apple bought NeXT, and he was back with Apple. He also told us that we have to find what we love, and that really made me think.

His 3rd story was about death. He said that everyday he’d ask himself “If today was the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today”, and if the answer was “No” too many days in a row, then he knew something needed to be changed. He also said that remembering that he was going to be dead soon helped him to make the big choices in his life. But then one day, he was diagnosed with cancer, and the doctors said that it was almost certainly impossible to cure, and that he’d be dead in 3-6 months! Luckily, they found out that the cancer was a very rare type and could be cured with surgery. He underwent surgery, and that was his near brush with death.

Steve Jobs was a huge part in the tech world, and since he passed away yesterday, there are sure to be many changes…