Full transcript
0:00thank you I'm honored to be with you
0:07today for your commencement from one of
0:09the finest universities in the world
0:11[Applause]
0:14truth be told I never graduated from
0:18college and this is the closest I've
0:22ever gotten to a college graduation
0:26today I want to tell you three stories
0:28from my life that's it no big deal
0:31just three stories the first story is
0:35about connecting the dots I dropped out
0:40of Reed College after the first six
0:42months but then stayed around as a
0:43drop-in for another 18 months or so
0:45before I really quit so why did I drop
0:48out it started before I was born
0:53my biological mother was a young unwed
0:56graduate student and she decided to put
0:59me up for adoption she felt very
1:01strongly that I should be adopted by
1:03college graduates so everything was all
1:05set for me to be adopted at Birth by a
1:08lawyer and his wife except that when I
1:11popped out they decided at the last
1:13minute that they really wanted a girl so
1:16my parents who were on a waiting list
1:18got a call in the middle of the night
1:20asking we've got an unexpected baby boy
1:23do you want him they said of course my
1:29biological mother found out later that
1:31my mother had never graduated from
1:33college and that my father had never
1:35graduated from high school she refused
1:38to sign the final adoption papers she
1:42only relented a few months later when my
1:44parents promised that I would go to
1:46college this was the start in my life
1:50and 17 years later I did go to college
1:55but I naively chose a college that was
1:58almost as expensive as Stanford and all
2:01of my working-class parents savings were
2:03being spent on my college tuition after
2:06six months I couldn't see the value in
2:08it I had no idea what I wanted to do
2:11with my life
2:12no idea how college was going to help me
2:14figure it out and here I was spending
2:16all the money my parents had saved their
2:18entire life so I decided to drop out and
2:22trust that it would all work out okay it
2:26was pretty scary at the time but looking
2:28back it was one of the best decisions I
2:30ever made the minute I dropped out I
2:34could stop taking the required classes
2:36that didn't interest me and begin
2:38dropping in on the ones that looked far
2:41more interesting it wasn't all romantic
2:44I didn't have a dorm room so I slept on
2:47the floor in friends rooms I returned
2:49coke bottles for the five cent deposits
2:51to buy food with and I would walk the
2:54seven miles across town every Sunday
2:56night to get one good meal a week at the
2:58Hari Krishna temple I loved it and much
3:02of what I stumbled into by following my
3:05curiosity and intuition turned out to be
3:07priceless later on let me give you one
3:09example Reed College at that time
3:13offered perhaps the best calligraphy
3:14instruction in the country throughout
3:17the campus every poster every label on
3:20every drawer was beautifully hand
3:22calligraphed because I had dropped out
3:25and didn't have to take the normal
3:26classes I decided to take a calligraphy
3:29class to learn how to do this I learned
3:32about serif and sans-serif typefaces
3:34about varying the amount of space
3:36between different letter combinations
3:37about what makes great typography great
3:41it was beautiful historical artistically
3:44subtle in a way that science can't
3:46capture and I found it fascinating none
3:51of this had even a hope of any practical
3:53application in my life but 10 years
3:56later when we were designing the first
3:58Macintosh computer it all came back to
4:01me and we designed it all into the Mac
4:04it was the first computer with beautiful
4:06typography if I had never dropped in on
4:09that single course in college the Mac
4:11would have never had multiple typefaces
4:13or proportionally spaced fonts and since
4:16windows just copied the Mac it's likely
4:18that no personal computer would have
4:27if I had never dropped out I would have
4:30never dropped in on that calligraphy
4:32class and personal computers might not
4:34have the wonderful typography that they
4:35do of course it was impossible to
4:38connect the dots looking forward when I
4:40was in college but it was very very
4:42clear looking backwards ten years later
4:44again you can't connect the dots looking
4:47forward you can only connect them
4:49looking backwards so you have to trust
4:52that the dots will somehow connect in
4:54your future you have to trust in
4:56something your gut destiny life karma
4:58whatever because believing that the dots
5:01will connect down the road will give you
5:04the confidence to follow your heart even
5:06when it leads you off the well-worn path
5:08and that will make all the difference my
5:17second story is about love and loss I
5:21was lucky I found what I loved to do
5:25early in life woz and I started Apple in
5:28my parent's garage when I was 20 we
5:30worked hard and in 10 years Apple had
5:32grown from just the two of us in a
5:34garage into a two billion dollar company
5:36with over 4,000 employees we just
5:39released our finest creation the
5:40Macintosh a year earlier and I just
5:42turned 30 and then I got fired how can
5:47you get fired from a company you started
5:50well as Apple grew we hired someone who
5:53I thought was very talented to run the
5:56company with me and for the first year
5:58or so things went well but then our
6:00visions of the future began to diverge
6:01and eventually we had a falling out when
6:04we did our Board of Directors sided with
6:06him and so at 30 I was out and very
6:10publicly out what had been the focus of
6:12my entire adult life was gone and it was
6:15devastating I really didn't know what to
6:17do for a few months I felt that I had
6:20let the previous generation of
6:21entrepreneurs down that I had dropped
6:23the baton as it was being passed to me I
6:25met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and
6:28tried to apologize for screwing up so
6:31badly
6:32I was a very public failure and I even
6:34thought about running away from the
6:35valley but something slowly began to
6:38dawn on me I still loved what I did the
6:43turn of events at Apple had not changed
6:45that one bit
6:46I'd been rejected but I was still in
6:48love and so I decided to start over I
6:52didn't see it then but it turned out
6:55that getting fired from Apple was the
6:56best thing that could have ever happened
6:58to me
6:58the heaviness of being successful was
7:01replaced by the lightness of being a
7:03beginner again less sure about
7:05everything it freed me to enter one of
7:07the most creative periods of my life
7:09during the next five years I started a
7:11company named next another company named
7:13Pixar and fell in love with an amazing
7:16woman who would become my wife
7:17Pixar went on to create the world's
7:19first computer animated feature film Toy
7:21Story and is now the most successful
7:23animation studio in the world in a
7:28remarkable turn of events Apple bought
7:31next and I returned to Apple and the
7:33technology we developed it next is at
7:35the heart of Apple's current Renaissance
7:37and Laureen and I have a wonderful
7:39family together I'm pretty sure none of
7:43this would have happened if I hadn't
7:44been fired from Apple it was awful
7:47tasting medicine but I guess the patient
7:49needed it sometime life sometimes life's
7:52gonna hit you in the head with a brick
7:54don't lose faith I'm convinced that the
7:57only thing that kept me going was that I
7:59loved what I did you've got to find what
8:01you love and that is as true for work as
8:04it is for your lovers your work is going
8:07to fill a large part of your life and
8:08the only way to be truly satisfied is to
8:11do what you believe is great work and
8:13the only way to do great work is to love
8:15what you do if you haven't found it yet
8:18keep looking and don't settle as with
8:22all matters of the heart you'll know
8:24when you find it and like any great
8:26relationship it just gets better and
8:28better as the years roll on so keep
8:31looking don't settle
8:36[Applause]
8:42my third story is about death when I was
8:4817 I read a quote that went something
8:49like if you live each day as if it was
8:53your last someday you'll most certainly
8:55be right it made an impression on me and
9:00since then for the past 33 years I've
9:03looked in the mirror every morning and
9:05asked myself if today were the last day
9:07of my life
9:08what I want to do what I am about to do
9:11today and whenever the answer has been
9:13no for too many days in a row I know I
9:16need to change something
9:18remembering that I'll be dead soon is
9:20the most important tool I've ever
9:22encountered to help me make the big
9:24choices in life because almost
9:26everything all external expectations all
9:29pride all fear of embarrassment or
9:32failure these things just fall away in
9:34the face of death leaving only what is
9:37truly important remembering that you are
9:40going to die is the best way I know to
9:42avoid the trap of thinking you have
9:44something to lose you are already naked
9:47there is no reason not to follow your
9:50heart about a year ago I was diagnosed
9:54with cancer I had a scan at 7:30 in the
9:57morning and it clearly showed a tumor on
9:59my pancreas I didn't even know what a
10:02pancreas was the doctors told me this
10:06was almost certainly a type of cancer
10:07that is incurable and that I should
10:09expect to live no longer than three to
10:12six months my doctor advised me to go
10:15home and get my affairs in order which
10:18is doctors code for prepare to die it
10:21means to try and tell your kids
10:23everything you thought you'd have the
10:26next 10 years to tell them in just a few
10:28months it means to make sure everything
10:31is buttoned up so that will be as easy
10:33as possible for your family it means to
10:36say your goodbyes
10:37I live with that diagnosis all day later
10:42that evening I had a biopsy where they
10:45stuck an endoscope down my throat
10:46through my stomach and into my
10:48intestines put a needle into my pancreas
10:51and got a few cells from the tumor I was
10:53sedated but my wife who was there
10:56told me that when they viewed the cells
10:58under a microscope the doctor started
11:00crying because it turned out to be a
11:02very rare form of pancreatic cancer that
11:05is curable with surgery I had the
11:07surgery and thankfully I'm fine now
11:11[Applause]
11:18this was the closest I've been to facing
11:20death and I hope it's the closest I get
11:22for a few more decades having lived
11:25through it I can now say this to you
11:27with a bit more certainty than when
11:29death was a useful but purely
11:30intellectual concept no one wants to die
11:35even people who want to go to heaven
11:37don't want to die to get there
11:39and yet death is the destination we all
11:43share no one has ever escaped it and
11:45that is as it should be because death is
11:49very likely the single best invention of
11:51life its life's change agent it clears
11:55out the old to make way for the new
11:57right now the new is you but some day
12:01not too long from now you will gradually
12:03become the old and be cleared away sorry
12:06to be so dramatic but it's quite true
12:09your time is limited so don't waste it
12:13living someone else's life
12:15don't be trapped by Dogma which is
12:18living with the results of other
12:19people's thinking don't let the noise of
12:22others opinions drown out your own inner
12:23voice and most important have the
12:26courage to follow your heart and
12:28intuition they somehow already know what
12:31you truly want to become everything else
12:34is secondary
12:46when I was young there was an amazing
12:50publication called the Whole Earth
12:52Catalog which was one of the Bible's of
12:54my generation it was created by a fellow
12:57named Stuart brand not far from here in
12:59Menlo Park and he brought it to life
13:02with his poetic touch this was in the
13:04late 60s before personal computers and
13:07desktop publishing so it was all made
13:09with typewriters scissors and Polaroid
13:11cameras it was sort of like Google and
13:14paperback form 35 years before Google
13:16came along it was idealistic overflowing
13:20with neat tools and great notions Stuart
13:23and his team put out several issues of
13:25the Whole Earth Catalog and then when it
13:28had run its course they put out a final
13:30issue
13:30it was the mid-1970s and I was your age
13:34on the back cover of their final issue
13:38was a photograph of an early-morning
13:40country road the kind you might find
13:43yourself hitchhiking on if you were so
13:45adventurous beneath it were the words
13:48stay hungry stay foolish it was their
13:52farewell message as they signed off stay
13:55hungry stay foolish and I have always
13:58wished that for myself and now as you
14:03graduate to begin anew I wish that for
14:06you stay hungry stay foolish thank you
14:10all very much
14:11[Applause]