Steve Jobs presented a memorable speech that has been used for academic purposes for several years. At the commencement speech at Stanford, Jobs (2005, 0:04:58- 0:05:16) narrates his story and says, “Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later….So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” Jobs had developed his first Macintosh Computer even though he had stopped attending his usual college classes. He felt college was never beneficial; however he chose to enroll in classes that were essential to him during that time. The classes were calligraphy, serif, and sans serif. However, he couldn’t know how vital the classes would be in his future endeavors during that time.
Jobs chose to drop out as he felt that the classes were not linked to his personal goals; however, he had not decided on what to major on to live an admirable life. He was a teenager when he joined an expensive college. His parents had saved money for him to attend college, but Jobs was not convinced of pursing the career path his parents recommended. That was when he decided to drop out and slept in friends’ rooms and relied on deposits from returned bottles for food.
Furthermore, he relied on the Hare Krishna temple on Sundays for better meals. During that time, living in the college was challenging without no source of income and he never expected that one day he would own a company worth billions. According to his illustrations, the available dot during that duration seemed to connect to nowhere, but it gave him the confidence to pursue his passion (Jobs, 2005). The dots later led Jobs to start Apple in his parents’ garage with his friend Woz.
Jobs and Woz worked hard, and the company exponentially grew to become a multibillion company in a span of 10 years. However, Jobs was fired from his own company, which he had created and led to greatness. For him, that was devastating and difficult to apprehend. Jobs (2005, 0:06:39-0:06:46) says, “I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me.” However, he did not give up since he was still passionate about his actions. He finally decided to start two companies called NeXT and Pixar. The companies became successful, and the company that fired him showed interest and bought NeXT. Hence, Jobs was reinstated back to the company he started.
At the commencement speech, Jobs continues narrating his story and tells the audience of the moment he nearly faced death after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. His doctor advised that he had slim survival chance to live and this was estimated to three to six months. However, later on, he had surgery that removed the tumor, and he resumed his normal life renumeration. Jobs understood the concept of death and each day was a blessing as he asked himself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today” (Jobs, 2005, 0:09:28-0:09:32). The notion pushed him to make sound decisions in life. After such experiences, Jobs tells the audience that time is limited; as such, people should spend it exploring their desires rather than living to please other people or their opinions, limiting them from pursuing their desires.
Reference
Jobs, S. (2005). How to live before you die [Video]. TED. Web.