As the 2005 graduates of Stanford look into the rest of their lives, the creator of Apple Computer Company Steve Jobs advised the class in his commencement speech to not be afraid to make mistakes.

The famous entrepreneur is no stranger to making mistakes himself at 50 years old as he had several examples. He was adopted shortly after his birth by his parents Paul and Clara Jobs, who had no college degrees despite what his mom had intended for him. His parents promised he would go to college, and he did end up going. 

Jobs attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon for six months before dropping out due to the financial burden on his parents. Although he stayed on campus as a drop in for 18 months, he still never graduated as his biological mother had desired. But mistake or not, as he said in his speech, it was because of him dropping out and taking classes he actually wanted to take that he discovered typography, which became a major feature in his creation of his innovative computer.

“You have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future,” Jobs said. “You have to trust in something; your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. 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, that will make all the difference.”

That decision to not finish college was a dot that connected later on in his life, as he and co creator Steve Wozniack ended up having a multi billion dollar company. When Jobs and “Woz”, as he called him in the speech, first met working together in an HP factory over the summer, they couldn’t have even dreamed of their success in 1975 with an idea that simply originated in a garage out of an interest in computers and technology.

For Jobs though, that success was stalled when he got fired from his own company by John Sculley, who had worked for Pepsi-Cola as a marketing vice president previously. Sculley was hired by Jobs in 1983 as the chief executive officer of the company, and when he and Jobs had some creative differences two years later, Jobs didn’t have majority stocks in the company anymore and was forced out.

This was another mistake that hit Jobs hard as he said in the speech. He felt as though he had left the future generation of entrepreneurs down. His firing led to him approaching Dave Packard, famous for the creation of the Hewlett-Packard Company, a manufacturer of computers, computer printers, and analytic and measuring equipment as well as Bob Noyce who invented the integrated circuit or microchip.

Jobs felt as though he was lost when he approached the computer pioneers to apologize. After some reflection, Jobs realized he still held a love and passion for computers, and slowly began to feel inspired again. There was something refreshing about “the lightness of being a beginner” for him. He later came up with NeXT, a computer platform development company that specialized in computers for higher-education and business markets.

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith,” Jobs said. “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. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be 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. Don’t settle.”

The loss he experienced was yet again a mistake that led to fortune through his perseverance towards more. Not only did he create a new innovation that later bought him back into Apple, but he also ended up meeting his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, in his step away from the path. In the end, he was able to find love and renew love all from a big loss.

Jobs also said in the speech that life faces people with hard choices. The way he was able to make them was through the mentality that “if you live each day as if it was your last, most certainly you will be right”. He said that in life everyone has something to be embarrassed or scared about, but that it fades with death. 

The computer legend himself had a facing with death in 2003. He was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer which ended up being curable through surgery. He said that was the closest he’s been to death, but surviving showed him exactly what that quote he heard and lived by meant. With that lesson he had yet another life lesson for the graduates.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life,” Jobs said. “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Jobs ended with one sentence for the graduates to take away that he had seen in the last issue of the Whole Earth Catalog in the mid 1970s. He referred to mistakes one last time, saying, “Stay young, stay foolish.”


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