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John Gorgone

Dr. Womack

English 015

4 September 2013

Commencement Summary on Steve Jobs

On June 14, 2005, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple computer and Pixar animation studio, delivered a very strong and powerful commencement speech to the graduating class at Stanford University. During Job’s fifteen or so minute speech, he told three separate stories. The first story consisted of his childhood and how he developed his education in an oddly fashioned way. Jobs quoted it as “The first story is about connecting the dots” (Jobs). Now the second story was about love and loss. Love and loss explaining how he was fired after the finest Macintosh computer was produced and sold. The third and final story jobs told was about death. Jobs were diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer than was later told he was on his death bed with basically no cure for it. But death was not getting in-between his career and his life for the Apple and Pixar companies. Steve Job’s commencement speech back in 2005 was inspirational for the young adults out in the world that do not have the money to afford college and to not stop pursuing their dreams.

The main idea in Job’s commencement speech at Stanford University was to show the newly graduated students how a man with little money pursued his dreams to become one of the wealthiest men in the world. He explained all the obstacles in life and what he went through himself. For example, in the first story Jobs spoke, he talked about how he was adopted by

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parents that the mother did not graduate college and father did not graduate high school. But they promised his biological mother that he will attend college and receive a good education when Steve is grown up. Steve did attend Reed College seventeen years later but was very expensive for his middle class parents. Steve saw no comfort with that so after six months, Steve dropped out of college. “The minute I dropped out, I could stop taking required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting” Urges Jobs. Basically what Jobs did was went around school policies and did things a lot differently. Majority of students stay in school and have to take required courses where Jobs dropped out, by-passed them rules and took what classes he wanted to take, not what he was told to take. He did this for eighteen months. If Jobs were to have never dropped out of college, the Mac computer might have never existed along with a windows personal computer (laptop). He took what was most interesting to him especially the calligraphy course he took. “Of course it was impossible to connect the dots … but it was very, very clear looking back ten years later.” Secondly, Jobs was lucky he found out what he wanted to do at a young age. Jobs and Woz took flight on Apple in Jobs parent’s garage. Ten years later, two hard working men turned apple into a multi-billion dollar corporation with having greater than four thousand employees. Jobs turned thirty and were fired from his own company. Board members favored a more talented man that took jobs spot and kicked him out. He loved what he did so much, “so I decided to start over again” quoted by Jobs. It was one of the best decisions every made because he eventually invented NeXT and Pixar that joined forces with Apple to make Steve on top again. Furthermore, Jobs was to soon face death. He knew he wouldn’t last forever. “There is no reason not to follow your heart” (Jobs). What Jobs tries to explain is that if you follow your heart, you can pretty much do anything you put your mind to.

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Job’s in 2004 was diagnosed with cancer. There was a tumor located on his pancreas which is found as a very rare form of cancer that could not be cured. But it turned out that the rare form of cancer can be prevented by a simple surgery method. He was soon cancer free. “Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” Emphasized by Jobs.

I agree with this source highly for a few reasons. The first reason is that how he came about forming the business and how large it grew within ten years. If someone drops out of college you would not expect them to continue taking courses and to soon become a millionaire. Starting everything just right of out his garage with one friend is a crazy story line. Another reason is that he came off of getting fired from his own company and devastates himself upon it but pretty much says oh well, time to start over. And that’s what he did, inventing two other multi-million dollar businesses and soon taking back his original business. A final reason is how he escaped cancer and continued to fight and stick with doing what he loved. That made this commencement speech more outstanding than any other address.

Job’s address back in 2005 was a great influence on the student body as well as young adults trying to seek further education to follow their goals, strive to achieve and become successful in whatever careers they pursue in. I find this address so significant because not many people can tell the Stanford class of 2005 that they started out slow, became multi-millionaires, fired from their own business, invented two more businesses than buys his old one back. Steve Jobs life was very unique with all the struggles and hard work he put into everything he did.

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Works Cited

Jobs, Steve. “You’ve Got to Find What You Love; Jobs Says.” Stanford Report.

Stanford University. 14 June 2005. Web. 4 September 2013.