Stay hungry, stay foolish. Was one of the messages that 50-year-old Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple Computer wanted to send to the graduates of Stanford University earlier today. Jobs was the commencement speaker at the graduation and talked for a little more than 15 minutes.
The main message that Jobs wanted to give these graduates was that no matter what they did in life and how successful they were, that they should do what they love and love what they do. Jobs knows first-hand that this matters and that it is very important.
Jobs spoke about three different stories and all three had the same type of message. That message being that everything happens for a reason and to do what you love.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them backwards.” Jobs said. He was referring to the fact that no matter how much something doesn’t make sense or seems unfair when it happens, that it will eventually
Everything that happens good or bad, will eventually make sense in the grand scheme of things. This was a major message that Jobs was trying to convey to these graduates. All three stories that Jobs talked about had this message and they all had an optimistic approach to them.
Jobs knows now that everything that has happened to him, turned out to benefit him and that giving up was not an option. He feels that all of the decisions he made helped shape him and shape who he is today and what he is today.
“The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again.” Jobs explained as he referred to being fired from Apple and starting over again. Even though this was a tough time for Jobs, he got over the initial shock and started anew.
He said this was one of the most creative times of his life and that being fired let him be that way and let him be even more successful than before. In hindsight, he explained that being fired was one of the best things to happen to him.
Talking about himself was not the only thing that Jobs did. His stories all came back to the message that everything does happen for a reason and to do what you love. Without doing what you love, then your best work will not happen.
Jobs left these graduates with thoughts of their future and how nobody truly knows what will happen to them or around them. But he did tell them that settling is not an option.
“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you want to become, everything else is secondary.” Jobs said.
That about summed up everything that he had said. It let the graduates know that finding what you love in life is the most important thing and that until that is reached, you have to keep looking.