This is how you become successful according to Steve Jobs
More than TED Talks, I love commencement speeches. A remarkable person addressing a group of tingling, freshly graduated students and sharing his life lessons. I searched for the best of the best and ended up with Steve Jobs' speech for Stanford University and I present it to you.
1. Dropping out of school can be very good
Steve Jobs was adopted on the condition that his adoptive parents would let him study. That was demanded by his biological, ungraduated mother. But once at university, he realized he was burning through all the hard-earned dollars of his adoptive parents while feeling like he was learning nothing. So he dropped out, and that turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. Instead of taking important classes that led to nothing, he took less important fun classes that ultimately led somewhere. Because those calligraphy lessons helped him when he later designed the Apple Macintosh, the first computer with attention to design and multiple fonts.
Lesson learned: ‘You can’t connect the dots looking forward. Believing that the dots will connect down the road, even if it leads you off the well-known path.’
2. Getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to him
He started Apple in his twenties in the garage and by his thirties it was a billion-dollar company with four thousand employees. He hired someone he thought would be good for the company and was ultimately fired by that person. He was devastated, it was humiliating and a public failure.
But: ‘I was rejected but I still was in love.’ After a while, it actually felt quite nice.
Lesson learned: ‘The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner. Sometimes life’s gonna hit you on your head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.’ And make sure you do something you love. ‘You’ve got to find what you love. If you haven’t found it, keep looking. Don’t settle.’ And so he started again. With Pixar.
3. Suppose you have one day to live, would that day look like today?
If you answer this question too often with ‘no’, you are doing something wrong in your life. In the light of death, you are already naked and have not much to lose. That’s how you should think.
‘Death is a destination we all share, no one ever escaped. Death is the single best invention of life. It clears out the old to make way for the new.’
Lesson learned: ‘Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t let the noise of other people’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.’
And to conclude: ‘Stay hungry, Stay foolish.’
For the full speech, watch:
