steve jobs speech at stanford

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Page 1: Steve Jobs Speech at Stanford

7/24/2019 Steve Jobs Speech at Stanford

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/steve-jobs-speech-at-stanford 1/4

This is the "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish" address delivered by Steve Jobs in 2005 at Stanford

University

I am honored to be ith you today at your !ommen!ement from one of the finest universities in the

orld. I never graduated from !ollege. Truth be told this is the !losest I#ve ever gotten to a !ollege

graduation. Today I ant to tell you three stories from my life. That#s it. $o big deal. Just threestories. The first story is about !onne!ting the dots.

I dro%%ed out of &eed 'ollege after the first ( months but then stayed around as a dro%)in for

another *+ months or so before I really ,uit. So hy did I dro% out-

It started before I as born. y biologi!al mother as a young uned !ollege graduate student

and she de!ided to %ut me u% for ado%tion. She felt very strongly that I should be ado%ted by

!ollege graduates so everything as all set for me to be ado%ted at birth by a layer and his ife.

/!e%t that hen I %o%%ed out they de!ided at the last minute that they really anted a girl. So my

%arents ho ere on a aiting list got a !all in the middle of the night as1ing "3e have an

une%e!ted baby boy4 do you ant him-" They said "f !ourse." y biologi!al mother later foundout that my mother had never graduated from !ollege and that my father had never graduated

from high s!hool. She refused to sign the final ado%tion %a%ers. She only relented a fe months

later hen my %arents %romised that I ould someday go to !ollege.

 6nd *7 years later I did go to !ollege. 8ut I naively !hose a !ollege that as almost as e%ensive

as Stanford and all of my or1ing)!lass %arents# savings ere being s%ent on my !ollege tuition.

 6fter si months I !ouldn#t see the value in it. I had no idea hat I anted to do ith my life and

no idea ho !ollege as going to hel% me figure it out. 6nd here I as s%ending all of the money

my %arents had saved their entire life. So I de!ided to dro% out and trust that it ould all or1 out

9. It as %retty s!ary at the time but loo1ing ba!1 it as one of the best de!isions I ever made.

The minute I dro%%ed out I !ould sto% ta1ing the re,uired !lasses that didn#t interest me and begin

dro%%ing in on the ones that loo1ed interesting.

It asn#t all romanti!. I didn#t have a dorm room so I sle%t on the floor in friends# rooms I returned

!o1e bottles for the 5: de%osits to buy food ith and I ould al1 the 7 miles a!ross ton every

Sunday night to get one good meal a ee1 at the Hare 9rishna tem%le. I loved it. 6nd mu!h of

hat I stumbled into by folloing my !uriosity and intuition turned out to be %ri!eless later on. ;et

me give you one eam%le

&eed 'ollege at that time offered %erha%s the best !alligra%hy instru!tion in the !ountry.

Throughout the !am%us every %oster every label on every draer as beautifully hand!alligra%hed. 8e!ause I had dro%%ed out and didn#t have to ta1e the normal !lasses I de!ided to

ta1e a !alligra%hy !lass to learn ho to do this. I learned about serif and san serif ty%efa!es about

varying the amount of s%a!e beteen different letter !ombinations about hat ma1es great

ty%ogra%hy great. It as beautiful histori!al artisti!ally subtle in a ay that s!ien!e !an#t !a%ture

and I found it fas!inating.

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$one of this had even a ho%e of any %ra!ti!al a%%li!ation in my life. 8ut ten years later hen e

ere designing the first a!intosh !om%uter it all !ame ba!1 to me. 6nd e designed it all into the

a!. It as the first !om%uter ith beautiful ty%ogra%hy. If I had never dro%%ed in on that single

!ourse in !ollege the a! ould have never had multi%le ty%efa!es or %ro%ortionally s%a!ed

fonts. 6nd sin!e 3indos <ust !o%ied the a! it#s li1ely that no %ersonal !om%uter ould have

them. If I had never dro%%ed out I ould have never dro%%ed in on this !alligra%hy !lass and%ersonal !om%uters might not have the onderful ty%ogra%hy that they do. f !ourse it as

im%ossible to !onne!t the dots loo1ing forard hen I as in !ollege. 8ut it as very very !lear

loo1ing ba!1ards ten years later.

 6gain you !an#t !onne!t the dots loo1ing forard4 you !an only !onne!t them loo1ing ba!1ards.

So you have to trust that the dots ill someho !onne!t in your future. =ou have to trust in

something ) your gut destiny life 1arma hatever. This a%%roa!h has never let me don and it

has made all the differen!e in my life.

y se!ond story is about love and loss.

I as lu!1y ) I found hat I loved to do early in life. 3o> and I started 6%%le in my %arents garagehen I as 20. 3e or1ed hard and in *0 years 6%%le had gron from <ust the to of us in a

garage into a ?2 billion !om%any ith over @000 em%loyees. 3e had <ust released our finest

!reation ) the a!intosh ) a year earlier and I had <ust turned A0. 6nd then I got fired. Ho !an

you get fired from a !om%any you started- 3ell as 6%%le gre e hired someone ho I thought

as very talented to run the !om%any ith me and for the first year or so things ent ell. 8ut

then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually e had a falling out. 3hen e did

our 8oard of Bire!tors sided ith him. So at A0 I as out. 6nd very %ubli!ly out. 3hat had been

the fo!us of my entire adult life as gone and it as devastating.

I really didn#t 1no hat to do for a fe months. I felt that I had let the %revious generation of

entre%reneurs don ) that I had dro%%ed the baton as it as being %assed to me. I met ith Bavid

Ca!1ard and 8ob $oy!e and tried to a%ologi>e for s!reing u% so badly. I as a very %ubli!

failure and I even thought about running aay from the valley. 8ut something sloly began to

dan on me ) I still loved hat I did. The turn of events at 6%%le had not !hanged that one bit. I

had been re<e!ted but I as still in love. 6nd so I de!ided to start over.

I didn#t see it then but it turned out that getting fired from 6%%le as the best thing that !ould have

ever ha%%ened to me. The heaviness of being su!!essful as re%la!ed by the lightness of being a

beginner again less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most !reative %eriods of 

my life.

Buring the net five years I started a !om%any named $eDT another !om%any named Ciar and

fell in love ith an ama>ing oman ho ould be!ome my ife. Ciar ent on to !reate the orlds

first !om%uter animated feature film Toy Story and is no the most su!!essful animation studio in

the orld. In a remar1able turn of events 6%%le bought $eDT I returned to 6%%le and the

te!hnology e develo%ed at $eDT is at the heart of 6%%le#s !urrent renaissan!e. 6nd ;aurene and

I have a onderful family together.

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I#m %retty sure none of this ould have ha%%ened if I hadn#t been fired from 6%%le. It as aful

tasting medi!ine but I guess the %atient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head ith a

bri!1. Bon#t lose faith. I#m !onvin!ed that the only thing that 1e%t me going as that I loved hat I

did. =ou#ve got to find hat you love. 6nd that is as true for your or1 as it is for your lovers. =our

or1 is going to fill a large %art of your life and the only ay to be truly satisfied is to do hat you

believe is great or1. 6nd the only ay to do great or1 is to love hat you do. If you haven#tfound it yet 1ee% loo1ing. Bon#t settle. 6s ith all matters of the heart you#ll 1no hen you find it.

 6nd li1e any great relationshi% it <ust gets better and better as the years roll on. So 1ee% loo1ing

until you find it. Bon#t settle.

y third story is about death.

3hen I as *7 I read a ,uote that ent something li1e "If you live ea!h day as if it as your last

someday you#ll most !ertainly be right." It made an im%ression on me and sin!e then for the %ast

AA years I have loo1ed in the mirror every morning and as1ed myself "If today ere the last day

of my life ould I ant to do hat I am about to do today-" 6nd henever the anser has been

"$o" for too many days in a ro I 1no I need to !hange something.

&emembering that I#ll be dead soon is the most im%ortant tool I#ve ever en!ountered to hel% me

ma1e the big !hoi!es in life. 8e!ause almost everything ) all eternal e%e!tations all %ride all

fear of embarrassment or failure ) these things <ust fall aay in the fa!e of death leaving only hat

is truly im%ortant. &emembering that you are going to die is the best ay I 1no to avoid the tra%

of thin1ing you have something to lose. =ou are already na1ed. There is no reason not to follo

your heart.

 6bout a year ago I as diagnosed ith !an!er. I had a s!an at 7A0 in the morning and it !learly

shoed a tumor on my %an!reas. I didn#t even 1no hat a %an!reas as. The do!tors told me

this as almost !ertainly a ty%e of !an!er that is in!urable and that I should e%e!t to live no

longer than three to si months. y do!tor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order

hi!h is do!tor#s !ode for %re%are to die. It means to try to tell your 1ids everything you thought

you#d have the net *0 years to tell them in <ust a fe months. It means to ma1e sure everything is

buttoned u% so that it ill be as easy as %ossible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived ith that diagnosis all day. ;ater that evening I had a bio%sy here they stu!1 an

endos!o%e don my throat through my stoma!h and into my intestines %ut a needle into my

%an!reas and got a fe !ells from the tumor. I as sedated but my ife ho as there told me

that hen they vieed the !ells under a mi!ros!o%e the do!tors started !rying be!ause it turned

out to be a very rare form of %an!reati! !an!er that is !urable ith surgery. I had the surgery and

I#m fine no.

This as the !losest I#ve been to fa!ing death and I ho%e it#s the !losest I get for a fe more

de!ades. Having lived through it I !an no say this to you ith a bit more !ertainty than hen

death as a useful but %urely intelle!tual !on!e%t

$o one ants to die. /ven %eo%le ho ant to go to heaven don#t ant to die to get there. 6nd yet

death is the destination e all share. $o one has ever es!a%ed it. 6nd that is as it should be

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be!ause Beath is very li1ely the single best invention of ;ife. It is ;ife#s !hange agent. It !lears out

the old to ma1e ay for the ne. &ight no the ne is you but someday not too long from no

you ill gradually be!ome the old and be !leared aay. Sorry to be so dramati! but it is ,uite true.

=our time is limited so don#t aste it living someone else#s life. Bon#t be tra%%ed by dogma ) hi!h

is living ith the results of other %eo%le#s thin1ing. Bon#t let the noise of others# o%inions dron outyour on inner voi!e. 6nd most im%ortant have the !ourage to follo your heart and intuition.

They someho already 1no hat you truly ant to be!ome. /verything else is se!ondary.

3hen I as young there as an ama>ing %ubli!ation !alled The 3hole /arth 'atalog hi!h as

one of the bibles of my generation. It as !reated by a fello named Steart 8rand not far from

here in enlo Car1 and he brought it to life ith his %oeti! tou!h. This as in the late *E(0#s

before %ersonal !om%uters and des1to% %ublishing so it as all made ith ty%eriters s!issors

and %olaroid !ameras. It as sort of li1e oogle in %a%erba!1 form A5 years before oogle !ame

along it as idealisti! and overfloing ith neat tools and great notions.

Steart and his team %ut out several issues of The 3hole /arth 'atalog and then hen it had runits !ourse they %ut out a final issue. It as the mid)*E70s and I as your age. n the ba!1 !over

of their final issue as a %hotogra%h of an early morning !ountry road the 1ind you might find

yourself hit!hhi1ing on if you ere so adventurous. 8eneath it ere the ords "Stay Hungry. Stay

Foolish." It as their fareell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. 6nd I have

alays ished that for myself. 6nd no as you graduate to begin ane I ish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Than1 you all very mu!h.