As I perused the Internet looking for an example of a TED talk for our upcoming assignment, I stumbled upon a speech that I had seen many years ago.  This speech is by far one of the greatest I have ever heard.  It was the commencement speech for Stanford University in 2005, and Steve Jobs gave it.

Jobs structures his speech in the form of three stories, each containing an important lesson.  First, he discusses his early life and how he initially attended Reed College.  However, due to the financial burden on his working class parents, he dropped out after 6 months, and spent the next 18 attending random classes.  As a result, he sat in on a calligraphy class and learned all about typography.  He found it interesting but thought it had no practical application.  Then years later when he built the first MAC computer he used that knowledge to add in various typefaces.  This led to his first lesson: “You cannot connect the dots going forwards, only looking back.”

Jobs’ next lesson involves his time spent away from Apple when he got fired from his own company.  He speaks of how dejected he initially felt, but that his love for what he did inspired him to keep going.  So he founded a company called Next and Pixar.  He described it as one of the most creative periods of his life because he did not have the pressure of success looming over him.  Jobs claims getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have happened to him, which leads to his second lesson: “Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.” And “Keep looking [for what you love] and don’t settle.”

His final lesson revolves around death.  He had been diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer in 2004 and been given six months to live.  However it was later discovered that he had an extremely rare form of Pancreatic cancer that can be cured through surgery.  When Jobs gave this speech he had had that surgery and was fine.  The lesson he derived from his near death experience was this: “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.  You are already naked.  There is no reason not to follow your heart [. . . ] Death is life’s change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. Not too long from now you will gradually become the old and be cleared away [. . .] You’re time is limited, so don’t waist it by living someone else’s life [. . .] Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become.  Everything else is secondary.”

Jobs’ farewell message to the Stanford class of 2005 was “stay hungry, stay foolish.”

Two things made this speech incredible; first Jobs spoke in a relatable tone, and second his experiences made his lessons credible.  When Steve Jobs spoke, he did so in a manner that allowed each member of the audience to feel a personal connection to his words.  He delivered his message with a sense of great wisdom but also informality.  As a result, he did not feel like the CEO of a major corporation, but rather a man with many important stories to tell, which made each member of the audience feel as if he was speaking to him/her directly.  That type of connection makes the content of a speech all the more powerful.  The second great aspect of the speech is the fact that each lesson is derived from Jobs’ own experience, because this gives him credibility.  The concept of following your heart and not attempting to live someone else’s life is not a new one, but since Jobs faced death himself, he has the authority to speak to the audience about the importance of not wasting the precious little time we have.  As a result his words have weight, for now they do not feel cheesy or overdone but instead genuine and true.  He lived his lessons, and it forces the audience to take them to heart.

Both the words and the delivery of this speech make it extremely powerful, and one that is not easy to forget.