Stanford University graduates were pleased to see a very special guest appear and give the commencement speech for the Class of 2005.
Steve Jobs, 50, the founder of the Apple Computer Company, gave his own Commencement speech on June 12, 2005, citing three personal stories that he knew changed his life, and could inspire change in those graduating.
In his first story, Jobs talks about how he attended Reed College in Portland, OR for only six months, before taking drop-in classes for another 18 months, before finally dropping out. He goes on to tell the graduates a story of how he was raised, and the mess that he had to endure when he was just a child. He was put up for adoption, only to be taken in by his adoptive parents only a short while later.
College was not any better for Jobs, as he spent only six months in an institution that he says that he “chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford.” During that time, he says that he slept on the floors of his friends’ dorm rooms, all while collecting and returning Coca-Cola bottles for only five cents per bottle, which was enough for him to buy his food with, and would “walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.” Hare Krishna is a movement that features a Hindi belief system, one that Jobs is a big believer in.
Jobs does give the graduates some advice after his first story, in which he tells them,”You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”
Jobs goes on to talk about the constant battle between love and loss. He tells of how he and Woz (whose real name is Steve Wozniak), started the Apple Computer Company when he was only 20 years old in his parents’ garage, and how it turned into the multibillion-dollar company that it is today. He also released the Macintosh computer at that same time as well, only to be terminated from his position by former Pepsi-Cola president John Sculley after a long power struggle. He felt powerless and hopeless, and felt like giving up on his dream. However, he soon came to realize that he loves what he does, and he decided to start from scratch, starting a new company called NeXT. Around this same time, he also met his wife, Laurene Powell. He concludes his second story by telling the graduates, “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.”
Finally, Jobs goes on to talk about his diagnosis of a rare form of pancreatic cancer, one of which that had no cure, and was only given a few months to live. However, he does tell us that even though the cancer is rare, there was a way to cure it via surgery. He tells us that our “time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life, and to “have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”
For the graduates, he wishes that all of them follow one simple message: Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. With such an interesting background and inspiring messages to live by, Jobs’ words are ones that will forever remain with those who heard him utter those words.
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