May 21, 2007
Just Three Stories
Key bits from Steve Jobs’s great commencement address at Stanford in 2005:
[Dropping out of college] was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
… much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.
… you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
… getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
May 21st, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Gates and Einstein didn’t need college either, however most of us are/were sorely in need of it. I agree with everything else Jobs said.
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:16 am
Steve Jobs, posterchild for survivorship bias.
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:08 am
… and if you ever get an opportunity to back date stock options, make sure you sieze the opportunity. The money you make will be unbelievable !
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:41 am
Steve & Todd: I had no idea that Jobs was so loathed.
May 23rd, 2007 at 3:10 am
People never like those arrogant ones, especially they’re rich. Chairman, I hate you everytime you told us you spent some wonderful time with your girlfriends.
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:03 am
scioTrader: Then I should share more of the awful times spent with my girlfriends. ;-)