To: The Great Leaders Who Have a Passion for Continuous Learning
On June 14, 2005, Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple and Pixar delivered the Stanford University commencement speech. He tells his audience three stories about his life and the lessons he learned, and urged others to learn from them.
· Connecting the dots – dropping out of college and learning calligraphy (the inspiration for MAC ‘s multiple typefaces and proportionally spaced fonts)
“If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personals computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, 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--because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.”
· Public humiliation being fired from Apple, and subsequently founding PIXAR and NeXT
“Sometimes life's going to hit 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 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, and 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. Don't settle.”
· Facing death on learning he had cancer
“When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. 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…. Your 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, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
His concluding message he took from the final editions of The Whole Earth Catalogue. Beneath a photo of “an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous” was written a thought he had always wished for himself: “Stay hungry, stay foolish.”
Believe that the dots you are creating will be connected to give yourself confidence and passion. Relentlessly pursue and find what you love in life, and don’t settle. Live each day as though it were your last. Enjoy life’s magnificent journey by being more than you ever dreamed you could be, and “Stay hungry, stay foolish.”
Have a beautiful day and a magnificent week!!!
Mike