
Steve Jobs,
What more is there to say about the innovator of our time; the present day Thomas Edison.
His 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University is tremendously powerful.
Here are 4 major points from his 2005 University of Stanford Commencement Speech:
1. Connecting the dots can only be done looking back.
Trust the dots of your life in the present moment. Your journey might feel uncertain, but by trusting the dots will connect eventually, will give you the courage to do the things you love right now.
2. Be conscious of the blessings in disguise.
Jobs was fired from apple at the age of 30, after he created Apple. At the time, he felt this was an awful thing to swallow, but he then realized it was medicine that he needed to taste, and it was his biggest blessing.
Getting fired, allowed him to have free time and space, to be more creative. This lead to the creation of his other companies Pixar, and Next, which was then bought by Apple and established the relationship with Apple once again.
Within every crisis, lies an opportunity, and a blessing.
3. Death used as inspiration for life.
Jobs was diagnosed with cancer prior to this speech, and would continue battling cancer the next 6 years. During his speech he recited many profound statements about death. Here are just a few.
“Death is very likely the single best invention of life.”
“Remembering I’ll be dead soon, is the most important tool to make decisions.”
“All pride, fear of embarrassment or failure, and external expectations pale in comparisons to death.”
“Death is the best way to avoid the trap that you have something to loose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
4. His last line of the speech – “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
-Joseph Metcalfe